Children and young people to be sentenced to prison instead of institutional youth care
Published:
For a person who commits an offence before the age of 18, in cases where a penalty involving the deprivation of liberty cannot be avoided, the penalty will be prison instead of institutional youth care. The Riksdag voted in favour of the Government’s proposal.
According to the current regulatory framework, the basic principle is that a person under the age of 18 who commits an offence so serious that it leads to a penalty involving the deprivation of liberty is sentenced to institutional youth care rather than prison. Institutional youth care is enforced by the National Board of Institutional Care, and the offender is placed in a special youth home.
The decision means that children and young people in these cases will be sentenced to prison instead. The Prison and Probation Service will therefore be directly responsible for enforcing the penalties, and institutional youth care will be removed from the penalties system. This means, for example, that:
- the basic principle will be that children who are sentenced will be placed in special child and youth sections which will be specially adapted to children’s needs and rights.
- As the penalty will be prison, the system of conditional release will apply to children and young people, and upon transition from institution to release the premise will be that they are placed under supervision with the purpose of providing them with the support and control that they need (which differs from the penalty institutional youth care).
- The sentence itself will be longer, as four years’ institutional youth care corresponds to six years of imprisonment. However the period of deprivation of liberty will not be longer as it will be possible to serve part of the sentence outside an institution upon conditional release.
The amendments will mainly come into force on 1 July 2026.