In most European countries there are more offenders on alternative sanctions than prisoners, and it is hoped that Serbia will achieve a similar balance by the end of 2016. Persons who have been punish up to three years in prison or those who have outstanding fines that cannot or do not want to pay, may be sent on this type of execution. As a member of the Council of Europe and as part of the EU accession process Serbia is committed to developing a range of non-institutional measures and sanctions.
Within the support of the project “Strengthening the Alternative Sanctions System in Serbia” funded by the European Union, in the last three years major steps have been undertaken to improve and strength the alternative sanctions which are implemented in Serbia from 2009.
As part of the project activities, the round tables “Promotion of alternative sanctions and Department for Treatment and Alternative Sanctions supported by the European Union” were held from 17-19 June, 2014 in Pancevo, Sremska Mitrovica and Pozarevac jointly organized by the Project, the Supreme Court, Republic Prosecutors office and the Judicial Academy. The round tables were organized with goal to improve cooperation on system of alternative sanction between main stakeholders at the local level. Judges, prosecutors, representatives of offices for alternative sanctions and representatives of other institutions attended the events.
In opening speech Dusanka Garic, Head of the Department for Treatment and Alternative Sanctions of the Directorate for Enforcement of Penal Sanctions, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia pointed out that it is very important that alternative sanctions are accepted by all communities in the country.
“The wider application of alternative sanctions has many benefits for the offenders because they are able to serve their sentence or pay something back to society without separation from their social environment. On this way, every treatment of these people is more efficient and better. During execution of the alternative sanctions families of offenders much less suffer. Offenders may continue to work and to fulfill their duties, to continue their education”, stressed Garic.
“As many as 253 sentences of community work were implemented during 2013 in Serbia which is 74,888 hours of community work and 9,361 days of work. If an employer with whom community work has been done must commit the manpower, he would pay 12,730,960 dinars. According to the duration, this would be a prison sentence of 25 years. If daily cost of prison is 5 EUR, it would take 46,800 EUR costs for prisoners, “explained Garic. Over the last year, 747 penalties of home imprisonment were made.
“Alternative sanctions are very important for the justice system of each country and it is important to applied alternative sanctions as much as possible. No one should think that using of alternative sanctions will lead to forgiving punish to offender but they give an opportunity to offender to be sentenced on adequate way, ” Garic said.
Roger Mc Garva, Team Leader of the project “Strengthening the Alternative Sanctions System in Serbia” presented at the round tables achievements of the project and pointed out that the project contributed to improvement of system of alternative sanctions that already exist in Serbia.
“We have achieved major results in cooperation with Directorate for Enforcement of Penal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice. The aim of introducing alternative sanctions is to reduce prison overcrowding and save money because it is nine time more expensive to send someone to prison than to do community work. Alternative sanctions will lead to changes in people’s behavior. In May this year the new law is adopted, new offices for alternative sanctions are opened, people are employed and alternative sanctions can be applied all over Serbia. The goal is to get as many imposing alternative sanctions, “said Mc Garva.
David Perry, an expert in alternative sanctions, presented the results of the pilot projects that have been implemented in Nis, Sombor, Apatin and Valjevo and examples that illustrate how people do community work.
New set of round tables will be held in other cities in Serbia.
The overall objective of the project “Strengthening the Alternative Sanctions System in Serbia” is to promote community safety, justice and the rule of law. Specifically, the project aims at increasing the use of Community Sanctions and Measures for medium risk offenders (public community work, conditional release with protected supervision), including electronic monitoring and the principle of opportunity.
The project is implemented by a consortium led by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The duration of the project is from September 2011 till October 2014.
