Norwegian prisons pepper-sprayed isolated prisoners without medical follow-up and left a prisoner needing round-the-clock care lying in faeces for hours, the Ombud found.
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A thematic report published on 19 June 2026 by Norway's Parliamentary Ombud, acting as the national preventive mechanism, drew on 15 prison visits and investigations from 2023 to 2025. It found that in more than half of the prisons examined, healthcare units did not carry out systematic suicide-risk assessments; that at two prisons pepper spray was used on prisoners in security cells with no or long-delayed health assessment, and one sprayed prisoner was kept handcuffed in the cell; and that a prisoner needing round-the-clock care received no help outside clinic hours and was left lying in faeces for several hours. Ombud Hanne Harlem linked the failures to staffing, knowledge gaps and poor cooperation between the Norwegian Correctional Service and prison health services; the report notes the European Court of Human Rights found Norway in violation in 2024 after a prisoner's suicide.
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