Has probation started in Karagandy (Kazakhstan)?
KARAGANDY – On 8 June 2012 a coordination meeting of state officials and representatives of civil society of Karagandy oblast (municipality) will be held in the conference hall of «Dostar-Alem» hotel. Penal Reform International (PRI) in Central Asia with the financial support of the European Union is implementing the project named “A model programme against the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB in women's prisons” for women's prisons in Kazakhstan.
The probation service was introduced in Kazakhstan in February 2012. According to the Regional Director of PRI Central Asia, Saule Mektepbayeva, ‘Unfortunately, a separate law on probation was not adopted; instead of that amendments and additions in ten different laws were made. It happened because probation was not established as a system, although it was established as a unit of the penal committee. Components of post-sentence probation were established in Kazakhstan with the plan for expanding its scope and methodology in the future. Today the probation service works only for suspended sentenced offenders’.
According to data from the Penal Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Interior, at the moment the staff of probation inspections is complete and constitutes 1,183 employees. Probation officers examine the personality of convicted prisoners, explain the system of socio-legal assistance, explain the obligations provided by the court, and design an individual programme of socio-legal assistance. This is why probation officers cooperate with local municipalities, and they have a right to establish job quotas for those who are on the probation service list. Additionally, state agencies are able to support their work with the assistance of NGOs through a system of state social order.
According to the director of the public organisation Credo, Nadezhda Kozachenko, ‘Probation is a new institution in Kazakhstan, therefore we plan to hold staff training on probation in two pilot regions where we work, in Karagandy and East Kazakhstan. For today we asked agencies and civil organisations of Karagandy to meet for discussion about this new institution and the main problems faced by the probation service’.
The organisers of the round table are PRI in Central Asia and Credo in cooperation with the Department of Penal Committee of Karagandy oblast.
The European Union has allocated 228,052 Euro to finance this two-year project.
MEDIA ARE INVITED to participate in the coordination meeting that will be held on 8 June, in the conference hall of hotel Dostar-Alem: Karagandy, South-East district, Stroitelei ave. 28, from 2.30 pm until 4.30 pm.
For additional information please contact Azamat Shambilov, PRI project coordinator,
tel./fax: +7 7172 78 76 74, e-mail: ashambilov@penalreform.org, or Karla Jamankulova, Press and Information Officer of the European Union to Kazakhstan, tel.+ (7172) 97-11-48, Karlygash.Jamankulova@eeas.europa.eu.
Read the full announcement, press releases and agenda (in Russian and Kazakh) below.
