In Kyrgyzstan, prisoners will be rehabilitated by the Ministry of Justice
The Probation Department, that had rehabilitated prisoners, was transferred from the State Penitentiary Service (SPS) to the Ministry of Justice. This was reported by the Press service of the Department.
The relevant department began to function on September 1. Zarylbek uulu Almazbek was appointed its Head. He previously worked in the National Security bodies of Kyrgyzstan, the Department of the Consular Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Chui-Bishkek Department of Justice.
The main functions of the Department will be the execution of sentences without isolation from society, compulsory measures of penal influence, probationary supervision and control of persons who are conditional early discharged from correctional institutions.
The Chairman of the State Penitentiary Service, Melis Turganbaev, argued against the transfer of the probation function from the State Penitentiary Service to the Ministry of Justice. In March of this year, he proposed to postpone the implementation of this idea until 2025.
“The system has a lot of difficulties. Colleagues have civic thinking. However, it is necessary to speak their language with those who have been released,” he said.
The government’s decision obviously perplexed the SPS.
“The SPS has vast experience in this area, which would be logical to use. Previously, the functions assigned to the Probation Department were carried out by the criminal-executive inspection. A total of 60 such units operated in the Republic. For the Ministry of Justice, this is a new direction. Most likely, the government is trying to implement international practice in Kyrgyzstan. Time will tell how effective this experiment will be,” press secretary Eleonora Sabatarova said to the ACCA.
She suggested that the new department in its work will face the same difficulties as the criminal-executive inspection.
“The socialization and adaptation of convicts into a decriminalized society should be carried out with the involvement of qualified psychologists and sociologists. And those are very difficult to find. The fact is that the majority of young specialists in this field are young ladies who are not oriented towards working with prisoners and convicts. I think that the Probation Department will face the same problem,” Sabatarova shared her opinion.
She also noted that, most likely, the State Penitentiary Service will open its own Probation Department, since the Department works only with probationers.
It should be noted that the Law on Probation, signed in 2017, entered into force in Kyrgyzstan on January 1, 2019. Probation is a new type of punishment, reminiscent of a suspended sentence. However, the conditionally sentenced are simply controlled by authorities, and persons who pass probation are trying to be socialized. They help such people to restore contact with relatives, find housing and work, get rid of addictions. A conditionally convicted person should not only avoid new crimes and offenses, but under probationary supervision, a person is forced to completely change his lifestyle.
