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Prison reforms deserve high-level support
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July 11th, 2007 issue

No one may be willing to come right out and say it, but the Czech prison system is corrupt.

The numbers alone are daunting: With about 185 prison inmates for every 100,000 people, Czech prisons house more than double the European average number, according to statistics from the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College in London.
This reflects more than just a crime problem. Like other arms of government, the justice system here still suffers from the legacies of communism that encouraged rampant graft and bribery. The practice of incarcerating people for extended periods of time was also fostered here by the jailing of political dissidents, whose cases deliberately dragged on for years.
Things are beginning to change, with about half of the country’s judges signing on to a code of conduct in 2005 and all rulings subject to appeal. But the greatest impetus for change often comes from outside the country, in this instance with human rights groups such as the Czech Helsinki Committee and Transparency International pressing for more extensive reforms.
Specifically, the Czech Helsinki Committee is calling for uniform parole procedures to become part of the country’s Criminal Code, which would formalize the process and create an environment in which more people could be released (See the story on page A1). Such a measure makes sense financially too, since the Czech justice system estimates it spends about $42 per prisoner per day for incarceration.
Formalizing parole procedures may also cut down on bribes. The Helsinki Committee suspects that some judges continue to demand money to release prisoners, but has no way to prove it, according to František Valeš, a lawyer who works on prison issues for the group. Their suspicions are supported by an anti-corruption hotline that drew 100 allegations of corruption against judges, state attorneys and public officials in 2004, the first year it was put in place. Of those, however, only 59 were forwarded to police, and none were brought to court.
The United States has been working with Czech officials to shore up the justice system, sending lawyers here to provide guidance and bringing Czech judges to the U.S. for training programs. As in the political sphere, however, the United States is in no position to lecture anyone else these days: The incarceration-happy United States has 737 prisoners per 100,000 people, reportedly the highest number in the world, beating out countries like Russia, with 624 per 100,000, and Belarus, with 426.
Moving people more equitably and quickly through the justice system is not a cure-all. But it’s a good place to start, since by all accounts, prison systems don’t usually lead to reformed prisoners.
Members of the Czech Prison Service, the Justice Ministry and the Probation and Mediation Services are involved in a new parole reform group. The immediate goal is to establish a three-person panel — with one member from probation and mediation, one from the prison service and one from outside the government — to decide whether a prisoner should be released on parole.
That’s much different from the highly subjective decisions currently made by regional courts, and a huge step in the right direction.
But it will only succeed with support from the top. Politicians and the Supreme Court should publicly support the new plan, as well as any subsequent reforms that will make the justice system more fair and uniform.


Other articles in Opinion (11/07/2007):

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