Criminal-Executive Policy of Kazakhstan: New Vectors of Development

This article examines the problems of developing the criminal policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the current stage. The author proposes concrete measures for the further humanisation and liberalisation of Kazakhstan’s criminal policy, including through the rapid demilitarisation of the criminal-executive system and a wider application of punishments without isolation from society.

The Criminal-Executive System of Kazakhstan: Indicators of Unresolved Problems

Currently, the criminal-executive system of Kazakhstan comprises 20 pre-trial detention centres and 75 institutions. As of 1 June 2009, they held 53,359 convicts and 8,736 investigative arrestees. Kazakhstan’s prison index is 382 people per 100,000 of the population—the 17th highest in the world. Conditions of confinement in many penitentiary institutions violate human dignity.

Intentions and Reality: Monitoring Government Decisions

The Kirovohrad City Programme for the social adaptation of persons released from places of imprisonment and social support for citizens serving sentences in places of imprisonment has been evaluated by the public.

Draft of the new Regulation on Supervisory Commissions

The human rights organisation “Donetsk Memorial” has been insisting for several years on the need to update the Regulation on Supervisory Commissions. Together with the Ministry of Justice, it has developed a draft of the updated Regulation, the text of which is provided below.

Russian prisoners will be able to rehabilitate at home

An instruction on the organisation of the execution of sentences and criminal-legal measures without isolation from society, approved by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, comes into effect on Tuesday.

Mimicry or a desire for change?

The Cabinet of Ministers has dismissed Vasyl Koshchynets from his post as head of the Department for the Execution of Sentences... The right to appoint a new head has passed from the President to the Cabinet of Ministers... Does Tymoshenko want to secure the 144,000 votes of prisoners?...

Without the Right of Appeal

We usually recall the penal system only when we hear about prisoner protests or that some of them have passed away. Until then, there is no particular interest in events on the other side of the bars. And, with the silent consent of people who, deep down, are certain they will never end up ‘on the other side’, places of imprisonment continue to remain territories of total lawlessness. Although their inhabitants should be punished solely by the very fact of the deprivation of liberty,

Problems of Ukrainian penitentiary institutions

A look from behind bars: ‘I must draw public attention to the facts of large-scale violations of legality occurring in institutions for the execution of sentences. I will talk about the conditions and regime of detention of convicts in minimum-security colonies with general detention conditions and medium-security colonies in high-control sections.’

Prison monitoring training in Feodosia

Problems of organising a permanently operating system of public monitoring in the institutions of the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine were examined at a training session in Feodosia

Mobile Groups in the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Challenges in Ensuring Operational Effectiveness (The Experience of the Donetsk Region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea)

Despite considerable experience with monitoring visits in many regions of Ukraine, the activities of mobile groups as a form of public oversight do not fully realise the intent of such monitoring, as experience has shown that the regulatory framework governing their work is quite imperfect.

Adaptation: From Prison to Real Life

A roundtable entitled "Socialisation of Persons Returning from Places of Deprivation of Liberty" took place in Luhansk. Employees of penal colonies and prisons learned in more detail about the assistance that state and non-state organisations can provide to those currently incarcerated or already released.

Death in a Kirovohrad remand prison: was it murder or not?

The versions provided by law enforcement and human rights activists differ fundamentally.