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Demokratiskolan
The Justice system card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 55 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaSafety & defense
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Safety & defense

Justice system

Legal processes, courts & punishments

The justice system takes over where the court ends: remand prisons, prisons and probation are entirely national. But what happens when the sentence is served is largely decided in your municipality (kommun), where social services meet the person who is released and has to start over.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · support after release · approx 15 %
  • Region · care & forensic psychiatry · approx 10 %
  • State · remand, prisons & probation · approx 75 %

Sentences are carried out by the central government, but the return happens in the municipality. The general election steers the sentences, the municipal election the reception.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe way back
The regionThe care
Central governmentThe enforcement · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The social welfare committee and social services in the municipality the released person returns to.
The region's psychiatry, addiction care and forensic psychiatric clinics.
The Riksdag, the Government and the Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården). The courts pass sentence, the Prison and Probation Service enforces it.
What do they decide?
Housing, income support and addiction care after release, plus a large responsibility for young people who commit crimes.
Forensic psychiatric care for those sentenced to care instead of prison, and healthcare that the Prison and Probation Service does not provide itself.
Remand prisons, prisons, probation, electronic tagging and transport. The Riksdag decides the sentencing ranges and the penalties.
Where are decisions made?
In the social welfare committee and in cooperation with the probation service ahead of each release.
In the region's care organization and in the regional council's budget.
In the Riksdag's legislation and in the Prison and Probation Service's decisions on placement and leave.
Who pays?
Municipal tax: the social services' efforts.
Regional tax funds the care, including forensic psychiatry.
The central government budget. Expanding the number of prison places is one of the big items.
Fastest way in?
The municipal election The municipal election steers the social services' resources. Associations that support released prisoners welcome volunteers.
The regional election The regional election steers the resources for psychiatry and addiction care.
The general election The general election steers sentences and appropriations. You can get involved as a lay supervisor in the probation service.
EUEU rules allow convicted persons to be transferred between member states to serve their sentence, but the justice system is national. The European Parliament election plays a small role here.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case From sentence to release
  1. State

    The Riksdag sets the sentencing ranges

    Which penalties exist and how long sentences can be is set in the Criminal Code. Changes are investigated, sent for referral and decided by the Riksdag.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers sentencing policy, and inquiries into new sentencing rules are open for referral responses.

  2. State

    The court sentences, the Prison and Probation Service places

    After a prison sentence the Prison and Probation Service assesses the security need and places the convicted person in a prison of the right security class, sometimes far from their home area. The inmate can request a review and then appeal the placement and other decisions by the Prison and Probation Service to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt), and further to the administrative court of appeal.

  3. State

    Prison time with content

    Treatment programs, studies and work are meant to reduce the risk of reoffending. What is actually offered depends on the place, the staff and the money, that is, on political decisions.

  4. State

    The probation service takes over

    Most are released on parole after two thirds of the sentence, but the longest sentences after three quarters since 2026, often with supervision. The probation service follows up, makes demands and supports at the same time.

    Point of influence

    The probation service uses lay supervisors, ordinary citizens who support released prisoners. You can register your interest.

  5. Municipality

    Social services meet the released person

    Housing, income and continued addiction care are the municipality's responsibility. The planning should start already before release, in cooperation between the prison, the probation service and social services.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election decides the social services' resources, and civil society's associations for released prisoners always need more volunteers.

  6. Your everyday life

    The neighbour who starts over

    The risk of reoffending falls when housing, work and sobriety are in place. How well it goes is the sum of the central government's sentence and the municipality's reception, decided in different elections.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. What should a sentence achieve: protection, deterrence or change?

  2. Who bears the responsibility for the person who has served their sentence not reoffending: the central government, the municipality or the person themselves?

  3. Would you employ someone who has been in prison, and what would make you do it?

  4. What does your municipality owe the person who is released here, and what do you think would be reasonable?

  5. A prison place costs considerably more than most measures outside the walls. How do you think about that priority?

Glossary

Påföljd
The court's collective term for punishment: fines, conditional sentence, probation or prison.
Frivård
Corrections out in society: supervision, electronic tagging and probation instead of or after prison.
Villkorlig frigivning
The main rule that the convicted person is released after two thirds of the sentence, for the longest sentences after three quarters since 2026, with conditions for the rest.
Lekmannaövervakare
A private person who, on the probation service's assignment, supports a convicted person during the supervision period.
Rättspsykiatrisk vård
A penalty for someone who has committed a crime under a serious mental disorder, the care is run by the regions.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.