Swedish Council on Legislation Criticizes Government's Emergency Prison Plan as 'Democratic Deviation'

The Swedish Council on Legislation has reportedly criticized the government's emergency proposal to rapidly create thousands of new prison places, calling it a 'democratic deviation' from standard processes. According to Aftonbladet, the Council, which reviews legislative proposals before they go to parliament, stated that the government's plan bypasses established democratic procedures. The proposal reportedly aims to give the government itself the power to make exceptions to planning and building laws in order to quickly create the thousands of prison places needed following the government's broad sentencing reforms.

The Council of Legislation reportedly stated that the consequences of the proposal have not been investigated and cannot be assessed. The Council further argued that if the government believes more prison and detention places are needed, concrete proposals should be presented that parliament can take a position on, rather than a broadly formulated plan that deviates from democratic processes.