Pátek 29. března 2024, svátek má Taťána
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Prisoners must work, top Czech prosecutor says

  8:14

Czech Supreme State Prosecutor would make work mandatory for inmates, reclassify prisons to relieve overcrowding

Bilance nejvyššího státního zástupce po prvních sto dnech vyhlíží sympaticky. foto: © ČTKČeská pozice

Czech prisons are overcrowded and lack the funds to offer services aimed at rehabilitating inmates, Supreme State Prosecutor Pavel Zeman said Tuesday, summarizing some of the main findings of a study prepared for his office that he says shows a cash-strapped penitentiary system “in crisis.”

Among his proposed solutions are requiring prisoners to earn their keep while incarcerated, reclassifying the types of prisons, and renewing efforts to allow for convicts to serve time under house arrest.

“The prison system is in crisis; there is no money and no space. And the number of civilian staff in the prison service has stagnated,” Zeman told a news conference, as cited by the news service Novinky.cz.

As of the end of 2011, there were more than 23,200 inmates in Czech prisons — several thousand more than the official number of beds available — leading authorities to create temporary cells out of office space, storage rooms and lounges.

To relieve the overcrowding, he suggests a reclassification of the current four types of correctional facilities to just two: regular and maximum security prisons. “This would lead to a more even distribution of the type of prisoners; now one may be overflowing while another has free capacity, but they cannot mix with one another,” Zeman said.

As for the budget gap, he said the prohibition against obliging inmates to work should also be scrapped. “Enough prisons now have production facilities, which is an encouraging finding in the report,” the Supreme State Prosecutor said, adding that Austria could serve as a model in this regard.

In the Czech Republic there are nearly 200 inmates for every 100,000 people — twice as many as in neighboring countries like Germany and Austria; in the entire European Union, only the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) have a greater proportion of their populations behind bars.

Proposals to reduce the prison population through alternative sentencing – chiefly via house arrest – have not had much on an impact, in large part because there is no electronic bracelet system in place to track convicts’ movements. Zeman said only 208 prisoners are now under house arrest, calling for renewed efforts in this area.

According to the Czech Helsinki Committee, many people who receive alternative sentences — in particular repeat offenders — fail to honor the conditions (such as requirements to perform community service) and are then sent back to prison.

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