A government package designed, among other things, to help stop trouble at the COP15 summit by detaining troublemakers, may not have the desired effect as the country’s prisons are full up.

“There simply is no space for a major influx during the summit. We have neither the cells nor personnel to handle, for example, 500 extra remand cases,” Danish Prison Officer Association Kim Østerbye tells Berlingske Tidende.

The so-called Lout Package has been designed to reduce public disturbances in connection with major events, and to keep COP15 calm.

It allows for a 40-day remand of activists who prevent police carrying out their duties. This could, for example, be when activists chain themselves to each other to prevent their removal. It also provides for a six-hour increase in administrative preventive detentions to 12 hours.

The Prison Service Director William Rentzmann has admitted that the service is only prepared for some 150-200 COP15-related remands.