Has probation started in Kazakhstan?
UST-KAMENOGORSK – A coordination meeting of state officials and Ust-Kamenogorsk civil society representatives will be held on 4 September 2012 in the conference-hall of «SHINY RIVER» hotel. The meeting will be held within the framework of the project “A model programme against the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB in women’s prisons”, implemented by Penal Reform International in Central Asia with the financial support from the European Union.
A probation service was introduced in Kazakhstan in February 2012. According to the Regional Director of Penal Reform International in 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; actually it was established as a unit of the penal committee. Components of post-sentence probation were established in Kazakhstan with the plan to expand 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 Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Kazakhstan, at the moment the staff of probation inspections is complete and constitutes 1183 employees. Probation officers look at the profile of convicted offenders, explain the system of socio-legal assistance and the obligations provided by the court, and design an individual program 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 list of the probation service. Besides, state agencies are able to support their work with the assistance of NGOs through a system of state social order.
Nadezhda Kozachenko, Director of the public organization Credo, says ‘Probation is a new institute in Kazakhstan, therefore we plan to hold staff training on probation in two pilot regions where we work, in Karagandy and East Kazakhstan oblasts. For today we asked agencies and civil organizations of Ust-Kamenogorsk to meet for discussion about the new institution and main problems which probation services face’.
The round table is organized by PRI in Central Asia and Credo, in cooperation with the Department of Penal Committee of East Kazakhstan oblast. The European Union allocated 228 052 euro to finance this two-year project.
MEDIA ARE INVITED to participate in the coordination meeting to be held on 4 September, at: Ust-Kamenogorsk, the conference hall of the hotel “SHINY RIVER”, Solnechnaya st., 8/1, from 14:30 till 16:30.
For additional information please contact Azamat Shambilov, PRI project coordinator, tel./fax: +7 7172 78 76 74, e-mail: ashambilov@penalreform.org, or Ms Karla Jamankulova, Press and Information Officer of the European Union to Kazakhstan, tel. + (7172) 97-11-48, Karlygash.Jamankulova@eeas.europa.eu.