Abstract
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Stojanka Mirceva, PhD
Violeta Caceva, PhD
Lidija Gavriloska
Aleksandar Ivanov
Is it a time for setting a Probation service in the Republic of Macedonia?
Abstract
Conditional sentence have a long tradition in the Macedonian Criminal Justice System. In the last several decades, the conditional sentence is overwhelmingly present in the practice of the Macedonian courts. The Criminal Justice System and especially, the system of sanctions were thoroughly revised in 2004. Namely, with the amendments to the Criminal Code, a set of alternative measures were introduced, including, Conditional sentence with enhanced supervision, Conditional termination of criminal procedure, Community work, Court reprimand and House arrest. However, despite the experience and tradition of the Macedonian society for peaceful and alternative dispute resolutions (existence of the Peace Councils introduced as a community bodies for solving petty crimes established with the Law on Peace Councils as of 1977), the new alternative measures were not consistently implemented.
Out of all alternative measures set forth in the Criminal Code, only conditional sentence has a widespread implementation. Almost half of all convicted persons are sentenced to conditional sentence. The reasons for such situation are numerous and multifaceted. Possible explanations might be found in the organizational omissions, insufficient motivation and engagement, mistrust in the new alternative measures, penal populism, which is overwhelmingly present in the Macedonian reality, lately.
Aim of this paper is to analyze the current situation with penal practice of the courts, and on the other hand to identify the causes for such practice. Two sources of data were used for the analysis. Firstly, the official criminal statistics, and secondly, Annual Reports of the Directorate for Execution of Sanctions. Statistical base analysis was employed as a research technique. The findings refer to the total number of convicted persons in the country in the period of five years, and particularly a ratio of imposed conditional sentences. Furthermore, the analysis is concerned with length of the imposed prison sentences, duration of pre-trial detention, types of crimes for which alternative measures were imposed, participation of detained persons in the total number of prison population, and length of time passed between imposed prison sentence and beginning of serving the prison sentence.
In particular, the paper is focused on the absence of imposed alternative measures, apart from conditional sentence, and intends to give insight of possible reasons. Given that statutory responsible organizations for implementation of alternative sanctions are social services in the country, the paper is concerned with the practice of social services. Such practice was assessed using face-to-face interviews with civil servants from social services who are licensed for implementation of alternative measures. Special emphasis deserves the issue of implementation of sanctions by civil servants who operate predominantly in the field of social support and protection. Secondly, lack of training, working methodology, technical equipment and established coordination with other state bodies and local government for the purpose of implementation of alternative measures is assessed as a serious impediment for imposing alternative measures that include any kind of supervision.
Based on the analysis of official figures, the paper elaborates the necessity for establishment of a probation service as a separate body within the civil administration empowered with administrative powers that will enable a comprehensive system for enforcement of sanctions, and thus, better protection of the public from crime. The goal of better protection of public from crime may be viable through establishment of probation system in all areas of the criminal justice system, starting from pre-trial risk assessment of the offenders, enforcement of alternative sanctions and supervision during conditional release from prison.
Key words: Alternative measures, Supervision, Probation service
UPDATED ABSTRACT
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