Progressive Party MP wants to send foreign prisoners back to their home country, to save money for the state treasury.
DV recites MP Frosti Sigurjónsson’s blog: “I have doubts about whether it’s right to start building a high standard prison in Hólmsheiði at the same time as our health care system is falling apart.”
Addressing the problem of long waiting lists for prison redemption in Iceland, Frosti points out that the new Hólmsheiði prison won’t even cover the demand. He suggests more focus be put on community service and electronic surveillance as alternatives to imprisonment, to save money.
“Foreign prisoners make around 20-30 and people wonder why they haven’t been expelled from Iceland. Many of them are hard core criminals who await prison sentences in their home countries but rather want to stay in prison here. Do we want them to have a say about that? Each prisoner costs 11 million ISK per year. We could save 200-300 million ISK each year by expelling all foreign prisoners, hand them over to authorities in their home countries and prohibit them from returning to Iceland. That way, we would also make space for 20-30 Icelandic prisoners,” Frosti writes.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
