Lite isolering har väl ingen dött av – En komparativ studie av Häktes- och restriktionsutredningens lagförslag (SOU2016:52) i relation till den norska lagstiftningen

Sammanfattning: Sweden has during the last 20 years received severe criticism, both national and international, on the widespread use of remand imprisonment and a too liberal practice in its use of restriction. Some minor changes have been made to the legislation on the matter but the criticism remains in its major part unchanged. During 2015, the government made an effort to overcome this issue by appointing a public committee with the task to investigate the matter and suggest new solutions to the legislation regarding remand imprisonment and restriction. The committee published its result in 2016, Färre i häkte och minskad isolering, and it is within these legislative proposals this essay takes its starting point. The perspective used is a comparative one and, through the legislative work done in Norway to overcome similar issues, the paper seeks to put the proposed legislation in a wider perspective in accordance to the experience of Norway. The main changes being proposed by the committee concerns the introduction of a limitation of the remand imprisonment in terms of time, new responsibilities for a more detailed reasoning from the prosecutor in court, new alternatives to remand imprisonment and a change from a general to a specific court order regarding the imposition of restriction on remand prisoners. Relating to the legislation in Norway, the suggested legislation has some potential regarding this issues, specifically when it comes to the length of the remand imprisonment. The combination of a time limit and the more sophisticated and effective alternatives that are introduced got some great potential to be proven efficient. Regarding the issue of restriction imposed on remand prisoners, the experience of Norway show that the change from a general to a specific court order is highly ineffective as long as the culture among the prosecutors and judges remains the same. Norway has overcome this in most regards by introducing time limitations regarding the most severe forms of restriction, such a solution is not even discussed by the committee.