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

– For school children, families on long journeys and working, this means in practice that visitors are refused, explains Frank, who heads the inmate contact committee.

Behind the walls are isolated prisoners who feel they are losing touch with what is most important in the outside world, namely their family.

According to Frank, inmates cannot receive visitors from Friday 1 p.m. to Monday.

– The most important time to receive visitors is weekends and public holidays, Frank explains.

Children’s rights

He says the Contact Committee, which represents all Ullersmo inmates, has had several meetings with prison management where they expressed a desire to extend visiting hours on weekends and public holidays.

– The decision to close the doors of the visiting service on Saturdays came as a big surprise to many relatives and inmates, Frank told Dagbladet.

He claims that the prison management ignores the Penal Code, which stipulates that emphasis should be placed on the right of children to be with their parents and that conditions should be facilitated for this.

“It doesn’t help that the prison has a visiting room if it’s closed,” Frank said.

In November last year, the Contact Committee sent a letter to the prison in which it expressed concern about the staff situation and services which have been severely reduced since the pandemic.

On April 11 this year, the Contact Committee sent another letter to the prison in which it reiterated its concerns.

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

It is the lack of staff that is the main reason for the closure of the visitor service on Saturdays.

Resource issues

Dagbladet repeatedly referred to the serious financial situation of Norwegian prisons and the resulting consequences.

The Minister of Justice in prison crisis meeting

– This is a difficult and unfortunate situation. Visits from friends and relatives are important for prisoners and we want to make this as easy as possible, explains Thomas Engebretsen, who runs the visits service at Ullersmo prison.

He expresses that the whole situation is sad.

– Due to staffing issues, we are unable to maintain the offer of weekend visitors for some time, says Engebretsen.

Engebretsen says the prison plans to resume normal operations in early June.