Post-penal Measures (From Troisieme seminaire regional du CICC en Europe centrale, 1976, V 1 - Les mesures post-penales, P 201-207, Alice Parizeau, ed. - See NCJ-70486)

• NCJ Number: 70499
• Author(s): O Suchy
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: French
• Country: Canada

Annotation

Forms and problems of postrelease assistance to ex-prisoners in Czechoslavakia are discussed.

Abstract

According to the 1965 law on the execution of prison sentences, national committees and social organizations are charged with the task of assuring releasees a job, surroundings conducive to work, and temporary housing. These functions play an important role in social rehabilitation of offenders and in prevention of recidivism. Economic organizations may not discriminate against ex-convicts: all organizations must hire releasees if positions are available and are encouraged to devote special attention to finding them appropriate work. National committees and social organization stress the need for vocational education of juveniles. Social workers work with inmates while they are still serving their sentences. A study conducted in 1968 and 1969 found a 26 percent recidivism rate for ex-offenders with postrelease treatment, suggesting that a combination of social work and psychotherapy has a good chance of contributing to the successful rehabilitation of offenders. The necessity of having professional officers to supervise postrelease measures combined with community cooperation as well as of obligatory postpenal assistance for multirecidivists is emphasized. In Czechoslavakia, the court generally orders protective supervision for very dangerous recidivists. Protective supervision, which lasts for 3 years, has the goal of protecting society while advancing the social reintegration of the exconvict. Releasees must regularly visit the local police and conform to other conditions such as assignment to a fixed residence set by the court. Protective supervision is administered by the police according to guidelines established by the court and with the cooperation of national committees, as well as economic and social organizations. Protective supervision is considered the first step toward obligatory postpenal assistance for recidivists for whom social readaptation efforts in prison have proved unsuccessful. The legal and practical problems of postpenal assistance are extensive, and postrelease measures must be geared to particular social contexts.