UKRAINE: REFORM OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

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.