Estonia will lease space at Tartu Prison to Sweden and accept up to 600 inmates under a new agreement being negotiated between the two countries. The draft legislation has been sent to the parliament.
Discussions about bringing criminals from foreign jails to Estonia have been held by ministers for several months. While prisons in several western European countries are at capacity, Estonia has hundreds of vacant spaces.
One example is Tartu Prison in southern Estonia, which can house 933 prisoners, but currently has 600 vacant spaces.
A press release from the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday said the deal with Sweden would be “beneficial” for Estonia and create hundreds of jobs.
It described the inmates as “low-risk” and said the two countries will jointly agree on who is sent to Tartu Prison. “High-risk or security-threat individuals will be excluded,” the statement said.
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