Laws on the penitentiary system
To avoid a new sanction by the European Court of Human Rights because of the poor situation in Romanian penitentiaries, the Romanian Senate has adopted a bill amending the sentence serving law.
Mihai Pelin, 14.03.2017, 13:17
The Romanian authorities are looking for solutions to improve the situation in prisons in order to avoid new sanctions by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because of poor, improper detention conditions. Last year, fines exceeded 1.6 million Euros. In late January, the government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats adopted a controversial emergency decree on prison pardon invoking overcrowding in prisons. The document provided for full pardon of inmates serving prison sentences of up to five years, except for repeat offenders.
The emergency decree generated the largest-scale street protests in Romania since the fall of communism in 1989 and stirred criticism both at home and abroad. The Government repealed the emergency decrees in the wake of the rallies, but the problems in the Romanian penitentiaries are back into the focus of attention.
On Monday the Senate adopted a draft law amending the sentence serving law. It stipulates that inmates who are detained in improper conditions will see 3 days off their sentence every month. Any room with a surface below 4 square meters per person is considered improper detention space. The draft law, which is part of a package initiated by the Romanian Government to avoid a new ECHR sanction, has been endorsed by all parties. Liberal Senator, Alina Gorghiu, (in opposition) says that thus Romania takes half a step forward in an effort to solve a problem that has long been outstanding. Alina Gorghiu
“If we do not talk about building penitentiaries that the government takes into consideration, if we do not consider seriously adopting the measure of introducing electronic bracelets for prisoners, if we do not finally and clearly say that compensation appeals do not solve the lack of hygiene in the cells they are confined in, nor the social reintegration issue, which is the major problem of the Romanian penitentiary system, we will never solve the actual problem”.
According to Social-Democrat senator Serban Nicolae the situation of penitentiaries continues to be a real problem, despite dropping crime rates. Serban Nicolae:
“15 years ago, there were some 56,000 inmates in penitentiaries across Romania. At present, there are 28,000, which means that in the absence of a pardon law, without compensation appeals, without electronic bracelets and alternative measures to serving the sentence, the number of inmates in Romania’s penitentiaries decreased by half.”
The draft law adopted by senators has been submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, which is the decision-making body in this case. (Translated by D. Vijeu)
