The Kazakh officials have learned the Dutch probation experience
Ben Zengerink, the Deputy Project Leader of the EU project "Enhancing Criminal Justice in Kazakhstan" made a speech at the recent session in the Senate of Kazakhstan to support the ongoing reform on probation.
How the EU project has contributed to drafting this important law? The project provided the best international expertise, delivered series of trainings for the probation officers and developed recomendations on development of probation service in Kazakhstan. You can find more information here.
Today we would like to tell you about the first study visit of the Kazakh law enforcement officials to the Netherlands through the eyes of one of its participants.
On June 12-18, 2016 the Kazakh delegation visited the Netherlands. The aim of the visit was to study the Dutch probation experience. The aim of the visit was to study the Dutch probation experience. The delegation included staff members of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs
"The goal of our trip is to study the practical experience of the Dutch pre-trial and penitentiary probation service for designing Law "On Probation" and further effective implementation of the 33rd step of five institutional reforms announced by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In addition, understanding of the existing institutions of probation and execution of non-custodial criminal penalties, as well as the interaction mechanisms between the probation practitioners is useful for practical use and replication", said Alexander Terennya, Deputy head of the Committee of the criminal executive system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Why the Netherlands?
The population of the Netherlands is 17 million people, which is equal to that of Kazakhstan, however the prison population does not exceed 12 thousand (which is three times less than in Kazakhstan – 37 thousand prisoners).
The Netherlands is ranked 175th according to the prison index, with 69 convicted per 100 thousand people.
Due to the reduction in prison population several prisons have been closed (other prisons were rented out to Belgium and Norway),and this year the possibility to close several more prisons is considered.
In the Netherlands there are 3 types of criminal sanctions: imprisonment, community service and fines.
Imprisonment up to 6 months (at the request of the convicted person) may be replaced by a court with community service at the rate of 1 day of imprisonment for 2 hours of community service.
All four models of probation function successfully in the Netherlands.
Probation is a civil service, organized as a NGO. Annual funding is equal to € 200 million, the number of staff members if equal to 1800 (90% of which are certificated social workers). The average number of the convicted assigned to a probation staff member is 25.
Over 2015 the probation officers have prepared 28 thousand pre-trial reports.
From the first days of the trouble with the law the pre-trial probation service is engaged in the re-socialization proces of an individual. They study the personality of the offender, his social circle, family, addictions if any, lifestyle, reasons and conditions which influenced the commission of crime, level of threatening behavior, perception of his criminal behavior and other important issues.
The primary task at this stage is to study thoroughly the personality of the offender and find out the causes which compelled the offender to commit a crime.
Secondly, the task is to prepare a criminal profile of the offender based on the analysis of the gathered data and to assess the risk of reoffending.
Thirdly, it is necessary to prepare a pre-trial report on psychosocial assessment of the offender, where the results of the aforementioned analysis and the conclusion about the personality of the offender need to be incorporated.
The end product is to identify the degree of risk that the offender will slip back into criminal behavior (low, medium or high) The probation is supposed to give recommendations to the court regarding the possibilities and perspectives of the offender’s resocialization in society and/or the conclusion of the necessity of imprisonment. Having analyzed the results of the study, the pre-trial probation service forwards the report to the court and articulates their conclusions and recommendations.
The court, having studied the pre-trial probation report, makes a decision, taking into account the position of the prosecutor and the legal representative.
As statistics show that the opinion of the pre-trial probation service, as an objective and of the defense and prosecution independent institution, plays an important role in the determination of the punitive measures by the court.
In 70 out of 100 instances the courts agree with the conclusion of the probation service.