“Ullersmo Prison Limits Inmate Visitation on Weekends, Ignoring Children’s Rights, Says Inmates’ Contact Committee”

ULLERSMO PRISON (Dagbladet): Children, girlfriends, mothers, fathers and friends are not allowed to visit inmates in Ullersmo prison at Kløfta at weekends. The visiting department has been closed on Sundays for several years. Now it is also closed on Saturdays.

– For children at school, families with long journeys and who are in work, this means in practice that visitors are refused, says Frank, who is head of the inmates’ contact committee.

Behind the walls sit isolated prisoners who feel they are losing contact with the most important thing in the outside world, namely their family.

According to Frank, the inmates cannot receive visitors from Friday 1pm to Monday.

– The most important period for receiving visitors is at weekends and public holidays, says Frank.

Children’s right

He says that the contact committee, which represents all inmates at Ullersmo, has had several meetings with the prison management where they have put forward a wish to extend visiting hours on weekends and public holidays.

– The decision to close the doors to the visiting department on Saturdays came as a great surprise to many relatives and inmates, says Frank to Dagbladet.

He claims the prison management is ignoring the Penal Code, which states that emphasis must be placed on children’s right to be with their parents and that the conditions must be facilitated for this.

– It doesn’t help that the prison has a visitor’s room if it is closed, says Frank.

In November last year, the contact committee sent a letter to the prison in which they expressed concern about the personnel situation and the services that have been greatly reduced since the pandemic.

On 11 April this year, the contact committee delivered another letter to the prison in which they reiterated their concerns.

“If the current situation persists, the consequences for rehabilitation will worsen,” the contact committee writes in the letter.

It is a lack of personnel that is the main reason for the visitors’ department being closed on Saturdays.

Resource issues

Dagbladet has discussed the serious financial situation for Norwegian prisons and the subsequent consequences on several occasions.

The Minister of Justice in a prison crisis meeting

– This is a difficult and unfortunate situation. Visits from friends and relatives are important for inmates and we want to facilitate this as far as possible, says Thomas Engebretsen, who heads the visiting department at Ullersmo prison.

He expresses that the whole situation is sad.

– Due to staffing challenges, we are unable to maintain the visitor offer at weekends for a period, says Engebretsen.

Engebretsen says that the prison plans to return to normal operations at the beginning of June.