Record number of foreign prisoners transferred
This year, a record number of foreign inmates in Danish prisons have been transferred to their home countries where they will serve the rest of their sentences. So far in 2023, 42 inmates have been transferred. Added up, they have a total of up to 160 years of prison sentence left to serve, the Prison and Probation Service wrote in a press release. Three times as many have been transferred to serve time in their home country this year as in 2017. And that’s nearly twice as many as in 2021. This transfer provides much-needed space in Danish prisons, according to Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard. “This is important because we in Denmark do not want to give shelter to foreign criminals. Their future does not lie in Denmark, and therefore, as far as possible, they should not serve their prison sentence here either,” Hummelgaard said. He points out that the Prison and Probation Service is “under extreme pressure” with both a lack of prison officers and physical capacity. /ritzau/