{"id":339791,"date":"2015-06-24T12:47:10","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T10:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/?page_id=9582"},"modified":"2015-06-24T12:47:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T10:47:10","slug":"justice-recovery-centres","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/en\/projects\/projects-implemented\/justice-recovery-centres\/","title":{"rendered":"Corrective Justice Centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

The project consisted of the creation of corrective justice centers (hereinafter: CSN) in Toru\u0144 and Bialystok, which will provide support to people exposed to social exclusion due to conflict with the law. The rationale for the establishment of an innovative social institution was, above all, an inadequate system of punishment for minor offenses, which resulted in a record population of prisoners.<\/p>\n

The long-term objective of the project is to increase the participation in the case-law of penalties for restriction of liberty (social work) at the expense of suspended imprisonment, by improving the coordination of the implementation of these penalties and increasing the percentage of penalties actually carried out.\u00a0In both cities, the condemned – the beneficiaries of the project – worked an average of 80% of the hours awarded, which is a high percentage against the background of Poland.<\/p>\n

In total, more than 1000 beneficiaries benefited from the various forms of support offered by CSN in Bialystok and Toru\u0144; of which:
\n– more than 150 convicts were sentenced coordinated by CSN
\n– the CSN Information Point established at the SR in Bialystok during the project period has provided various assistance to court interests in more than 1000 cases;
\n– 9 were acquired in Bialystok and 11 new establishments in Toru\u0144 where work can be carried out, which allowed for better use of the skills of convicted persons and increases the social benefits of their work;
\n– 49 convicted in Bialystok and 65 in Toru\u0144 were given various assistance (eg. in taking up therapy, finding a job, obtaining benefits, etc.);
\n– 12 people held Aggression Replacement Training;
\n– a total of approx. 100 000 150 judicial staff (judges, prosecutors, police officers, probation officers, mediators) took part in training in restorative justice, were trained in cooperation with CSN, and\/or became familiar with the concept of CSN's operation at scientific conferences.<\/p>\n

The partner in the project was the Norwegian Mediation Service – Konfliktr\u00e5det, whose representatives trained mediators, curators and CSN employees. Information was particularly valuable about the practice of conducting the meditative and, on the other hand, the institutional position of the mediation service among the judicial authorities in Norway, which allows the mechanisms of restorative justice to be integrated into their activities as a whole.<\/p>\n

CSN in Bialystok was launched in cooperation with the Association "Friends of the Estate" and the Association "Patronage" – Branch in Bialystok.<\/p>\n

In both cities, the activities were carried out in close cooperation with local courts, in particular the probation service.\u00a0Activities related to the coordination of the execution of the penalty of restriction of freedom and work of the society responded to the diagnosis in literature (cf. A. Janus-D\u0119bska "Conditions for the effective implementation of the penalty of restriction of liberty", Probation 3\/2014) the basic barriers hindering the effective use of the penalty of restriction of liberty – m.in. excessive burden on the curators or the inflexibility of the available forms of punishment. Similar conclusions were presented in the NIK's on-the-other subject. 'Creation of conditions for the execution of a penalty of restriction of liberty in the form of unpaid controlled work for social purposes and socially useful work' (No ewid. 9\/2012\/P\/11\/122\/LBI).<\/p>\n

The condition for the establishment of an intermediary body between the court and its social environment, which is the Centre for Restorative Justice (hereinafter: CSN), is, first of all, inadequate for social needs, a system of punishment for minor offences, resulting in a record prison population (85,000; behind the Penitentiary Forum 9\/2013) and those awaiting imprisonment (40,000; for the Penitentiary Forum 1\/2014), as well as the ineffectiveness of the detention system. Meanwhile, "prisoners and former prisoners are a group particularly vulnerable to social exclusion, resulting from difficulties in returning to society, including the labour market" (Szczyczy\u0142. "Prevention or re-incarceration?").<\/p>\n

More than half of Polish prisoners are in prison once again, which may indicate that prisons have not fulfilled their rehabilitation function. "It is clear from the practice that people who repeatedly return to prison before the age of 40 are practically unable to establish their own lives in the wild" (Dybalska. "Difficulties in adapting to life after being released from prison"). In an exceptionally strong way, the risk of exclusion affects young people: "Condemned young people with immature personality, they strongly identify with the criminal subculture, the rules of which move beyond prison. (…) The duration of their stay in prison constitutes for them a deepening of the degree of demoralisation and fixation of criminal factors, and consequently a greater likelihood of recidivism than returning to society" (ibid.).<\/p>\n

In many cases, however, staying in a closed establishment is not the intended result of the action of justice, but the consequence of the offender's failure to comply with the obligations imposed by the court, e.g. by the court. non-payment of a fine (vide high-profile case of a man who was taken into custody because he did not pay a \u00a3100 fine for stealing a candy bar worth 99 gr.) or failure to comply with probation conditions. According to Judge K. Mycki, head of dep. Enforcement of Judgments and Probation in Min. justice, too often, custodial sentences with conditional suspension (approx. 55% of judgments), without checking whether there is a positive prognosis for successful probation (no recidivism) because "the legislature has not equipped prosecutors and judges with the right tools and mechanisms for the fair formulation of such a forecast" (Republic 22-03-2013).<\/p>\n

Suspended sentences often end in an enforcement order because the offender is unable to solve the problems that were the source of the crime himself, do not always understand the meaning of probation and disregard the consequences of breaking its rules. More often, people who are already excluded or at risk of exclusion come into conflict with the law, and contact with the justice system often worsens their situation.<\/p>\n

Thanks to CSN's actions, contact with the court can be an opportunity for many people to get help and change in life (according to the assumptions of the "problem-solving justice" and "therapeutic jurisprudence" trends developed in the USA). The first conflict with the law is an opportunity to provide assistance and prevent further exclusion caused by imprisonment (through a proposal for a non-insulating penalty).<\/p>\n

For more information, please visit: csn.org.pl<\/a><\/p>\n

The project was implemented under the Citizens for Democracy programme, funded by the EEA Funds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The project consisted of the creation of corrective justice centers (hereinafter: CSN) in Toru\u0144 and Bialystok, which will provide support to people exposed to social exclusion due to conflict with the law. The rationale for the establishment of an innovative social institution was, above all, an inadequate system of punishment for minor offenses, which resulted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":339785,"menu_order":78,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/339791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/339791\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/339785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courtwatch.pl\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}