The Greenlandic Prison Service places female inmates in separate unit in Nuuk Prison

Publiceret 26-10-2026

During a monitoring visit to Nuuk Prison, the Ombudsman’s visiting team noticed that male and female inmates were placed in the same unit in the closed part of the prison. For security reasons, the inmates in the unit only had association with other inmates of the same sex, which meant that association outside their cells was only possible for them in shifts for two-hour periods.

The Ombudsman asked the Greenlandic Prison Service to inform him of its deliberations regarding the arrangement. 

Based on the Ombudsman’s enquiry, the Greenlandic Prison Service has changed the conditions and has placed the female inmates in their own prison unit with the effect that all inmates generally have access to the respective communal areas in their units for the entire period between 8:00 and 21:00.

‘It has impacted greatly on the wellbeing and everyday life of the inmates that they are able to be together with others and to use the communal areas. I am therefore pleased that the female inmates in Nuuk Prison are now placed in their own unit, and I am pleased with the resulting improvements in the possibility of association’, says Parliamentary Ombudsman Christian Britten Lundblad.

The Greenlandic Prison Service has furthermore announced that, on the basis of a recommendation from the Ombudsman, the Service intends to introduce a routine practice of screening for risk of suicide among inmates. The practice will be implemented by next summer at the latest.

Read the Ombudsman’s letter to the Danish Prison Administration (in Danish only).

Read the Ombudsman’s news item on, among others, this case, which was raised in continuation of the Ombudsman’s monitoring visits in Greenland in 2025.

The Ombudsman has also concluded another case that was raised in continuation of the visits, about the police’s use of applying hard pressure to the throat in situations where it is not possible to get through to a detainee. Read the Ombudsman’s letter to the Danish National Police (in Danish only).

 

Further details:

Director of International Relations Klavs Kinnerup Hede

kkh@ombudsmanden.dk

Facts

In 2025, the Ombudsman conducted monitoring visits to five Greenland prisons (previously correctional institutions) and six police stations and municipal bailiffs across all of Greenland. In connection with the monitoring visits, the visiting team spoke with the managements, staff and a total of 29 detainees.

Based on the monitoring visits, the Ombudsman started three investigations (mentioned in news item of 11 May 2026), among others a case about placement of men and women in the same unit in the closed part of Nuuk Prison and a case about the police’s use of applying hard pressure to the throat of detainees. The third case regarding detainees’ stay in police detention facilities in Greenland is still pending.

Generally on the Ombudsman’s monitoring visits

The Parliamentary Ombudsman conducts regular monitoring visits to, among others, places where people are or can be deprived of their liberty.

The Ombudsman’s work to prevent degrading treatment etc. is carried out in cooperation with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and with DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture.

In Greenland, the Parliamentary Ombudsman monitors state authorities, including the police and the Greenlandic Prison Service. The Ombudsman for Inatsisartut monitors the Greenlandic self-governing authorities.