UKRAINE: REFORM OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

By Volodymir Bogatyr and - - Reprint | | Print |

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KIEV, Nov 8 2010 (IPS) - When it joined the Council of Europe in 1995, Ukraine agreed to shift management of the prison system to the Ministry of Justice until the end of 1998. In that year the administration of criminal sentencing was taken away from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and transferred to the State Department for the Enforcement of Sentences, a new body independent of the executive branch. Since 2000 the Department’s activity has been directed by the minister of justice, whose ministry formulates and oversees the administration of criminal sentencing by the Department.

As of September 1, 2010, there were 32 pre-trial institutions for 39,600 detainees and 151 prisons holding 112,600 inmates in Ukraine’s Criminal-Executive System, which has 52,000 employees. There are 332,800 persons serving court-imposed sentences.

At present the Criminal-Executive System of Ukraine has the following basic problems:

-Financing is a mere 47 percent of what is needed.

-The living space per inmate is below international and national standards, three as opposed to four square metres.

-There is a shortage of efficient medical care for inmates, in particular TB patients.

-There is a severe shortage of jobs for inmates: only 49 percent of those who are capable work.

-Correctional personnel are under-qualified: only 11 percent of prison officers have legal training and just 6 percent have pedagogical education.

In order to further improve prison conditions and bring sentencing and incarceration into compliance with international standards, the ministry of justice is engaged in drafting legislation and regulations for consideration by the government of Ukraine. The 2010 law titled “On making amendments to the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine in relation to providing the rights for the sentenced persons at the penal establishments” envisages the following changes to the previous legislation:

1. On January 1, 2012, the living area per inmate should be brought into compliance with the international and national standards, from the current 3 square metres to four.

2. Limits on the number of parcels and telephone calls an inmate may receive are abolished.

3. Relatives’ visits to inmates serving life sentences have been increased from two to four per year.

4. Inmates in minimum-security prisons will be allowed a 14-day leave per year.

5. Certain categories of government employees from the ministry of justice and the secretariat of the president will be allowed to visit prison facilities without receiving special permission.

6. To increase the efficiency of public monitoring of inmates’ human rights, members of non-governmental organisations, in particular supervisory commissions, will have the right to visit the penal facilities without special permission from the prison administration.

At present, justice ministry experts are preparing five draft laws intended to improve conditions for women inmates.

Cooperation with international and public human rights organisations during the imposition of criminal sentences has an important place in the development of the Ukrainian prison system.

Ukraine has had a long and fruitful cooperation with the NGO ‘Penal Reform International’ (PRI). Moreover, since June, 2009 the coordinator of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) projects in Ukraine supports the implementation of the two-year project for the prevention of torture and other forms of cruelty.

The monitoring of human rights at the prisons has begun and an appropriate and effective monitoring methodology been developed.

In order to humanise criminal law and implement the recommendations of the Council of Europe, the death penalty was abolished in Ukraine on February 22, 2000.

The Supreme Court of Ukraine reviewed the cases of more than 400 prisoners sentenced to death and of those who had not been executed due to the moratorium on death penalty proclaimed in 1998.

At the same time the sentence of life imprisonment has been introduced into the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

At present there are 1,664 lifers (including 17 female murders) in prison in Ukraine. Between 100-150 are added per year.

Persons serving sentences of life imprisonment have been granted extensive rights, including: an hour of exercise in the open air; eight hours of uninterrupted sleep at night; one short visit every three months; unlimited correspondence by mail; the right to receive and use books, magazines and newspapers; to receive unlimited money transfers and parcels; to file proposals, allegations and complaints with government bodies, NGOs, and officials; to meet with lawyers for legal assistance.

Lifers may apply for clemency after serving the first twenty years of imprisonment. In such case the Criminal Code of Ukraine stipulates that in cases of clemency, 25 years of the life sentence must be served.

The current legislation guarantees lifers the right to fulfilment of their religious needs.

Thus the implementation of the sentence of life imprisonment is now fully operational in Ukraine. Conditions should be in compliance with both the Constitution of Ukraine and the European Convention.

The priorities of the Ministry of Justice with regard to criminal justice are the development of the legislative foundation for the operation of the Criminal-Executive System; decreasing the number of detainees and inmates at pretrial institutions and penal establishments; improvement of the living conditions there; and efficient cooperation with the civil society.( END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

(*) Volodymir Bogatyr is Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine.