Radio România Internațional

Tag: penitentiary system

  • August 26, 2024 UPDATE

    August 26, 2024 UPDATE

    TAXES – The government does not plan to increase taxes, but will focus on accelerating the digitalization of National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF), increasing budget collection and reforming public expenditure. The announcement was made by Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, after Monday’s meeting with the Concordia Employers’ Confederation. He promised that, starting next year, there would be consultations with the business environment regarding the tax reform and that no decision would be made in this respect without discussions with the entrepreneurs. The representatives of the executive and those of the business environment also discussed the implementation of the e-Invoice, e-VAT, e-Transport systems, the RetuRO guarantee-return system, the preparation for the implementation of the European minimum wage, as well as the problems in the Romanian tourism.

     

    SURVEY – The candidates of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciucă, respectively, would enter the second round of the presidential election in Romania, if elections were held next Sunday, according to the results of a CURS survey published on Sunday. Regarding the parliamentary elections, the PSD leads in the preferences of the electorate, followed by its ruling partner, the PNL. The survey, about which we talk in detail after the news, was conducted between August 6-22, on a sample of 1,067 respondents, with an error margin of plus/minus 3%.

     

    POLITICS – The PSD – PNL ruling coalition in Romania can work in the future as well, according to the Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the leader of the Social Democrats. He believes the future government could be sworn in before Christmas, on December 23rd. In his opinion, despite the acid statements coming from both sides amid the launch of candidacies for the presidential election this fall, the current government in Bucharest will function until the general elections, scheduled for December 1st, Romania’s National Day. In this context, the prime minister said that he would like Romania’s budget for 2025 to be approved soon after that date, by the current Government and Parliament makeup. Ciolacu also said that, given the context, PSD sees no other ruling coalition in the future than the one with the National Liberal Party.

     

    DROUGHT – The Romanian government will discuss, this week, the first set of measures for the farmers affected by the drought. The agriculture minister Florin Barbu and the farmers’ representatives have recently discussed granting compensations for the damage caused by the drought and for a new package of measures to combat the effects of the drought, a package that the minister is going to present to the government members. The authorities are also considering the creation of a mechanism agreed with the Financial Supervisory Authority for state insurance of an area of ​​about 7 million hectares, with an insurance premium of 3,000 lei (600 Euros) for each hectare. Installing local irrigation systems and forest curtains is also considered.

     

    WEATHER – Almost all of Romania is in the grip of a heat wave and severe thermal discomfort, with weather alerts in place as temperatures rose to 38 degrees Celsius. In the northwest, center-west, partially in the east and south, there is a code yellow alert for heatwave and high thermal discomfort. The temperature-humidity index will exceed the critical threshold of 80 units. In the coming days, the heat wave will subside and the atmospheric instability will increase.

     

    VISAS – The US administration is to announce, on October 15, a decision regarding the visa waiver for Romanians, which would apply starting from 2025, Romanian government sources stated. During this period, the Romanian executive is carrying out the “We qualify Romania” campaign, which aims at including the country in the American Visa Waiver program and at exempting it from obtaining travel visas to the US. As part of the campaign, launched on July 18, Bucharest undertook to meet the technical criteria for joining the Visa Waiver by September 30, 2024, the date on which the American fiscal year ends. Among them is a refusal rate below 3% of US B1 and B2 visas for business and tourism granted to Romanian citizens during the fiscal year 2024. In this sense, the government, through the Foreign Ministry, urges as many Romanian citizens as possible to renew their US visa by September 30.

     

    GRADUATES – More than 260 young Romanians graduated, on Monday, from the National Training School for Penitentiary Officers in Târgu Ocna (east). Attending the event, the Minister of Justice Alina Gorghiu has said that the graduates will work in various prisons in the country. She had previously announced that the penitentiary system in Romania has a deficit of about 3,000 jobs and that, in this sense, she will submit a memorandum to the Government. Also, the minister encouraged young people to enroll in the school in Târgu Ocna, which soon starts a new series of prison ward courses. She also said that salaries in the penitentiary system are good, having been increased this year. (EE)

  • Controversial Law on the Penitentiary System

    Controversial Law on the Penitentiary System

    In April 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) took action against Romania, signaling the overcrowding of detention centers and prisons across Romania. The Court recommended additional measures be taken by Romanian authorities in terms of logistics and criminal law, giving Romania a six-month time span to come up with a coherent plan to remedy the situation. Moreover, the ECHR decided to suspend the processing of all notifications that pointed to the inadequate detention conditions in Romania.



    Six months later, on October 19, the law on compensatory appeal took effect, stipulating that for every 30 days of served time inmates will get six days written off their sentences. According to the Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader, following the enactment of the law, some 530 people were released, and another 3,300 have a right to make parole.



    Minister Toader explained that the latter might address parole commission in prisons or make an appeal in court, and the judge will decide whether or not they will be released on parole. Inmates whove served their full sentence and whove filed complaints at the ECHR might be compensated by the state in the amount of 5 to 8 € for every day served in improper detention conditions. Minister Toader says the measure exists in other European states, as these particular inmates can no longer be pardoned.



    Tudorel Toader: “Some prisoners have served the entirety of their sentences and are now home, but their court cases are still pending at the ECHR. They are not eligible for the six-day writeoff, because they have already been released, so we should now compensate them. Im not the one who sets the value. I can give you a few examples: under a similar decision, Hungary set the compensation at 5 €/ day for improper detention conditions, and Italy at 8 €/day. The Court decided the amount is equitable, so the value we will set will be within that range.



    On the other hand, the Justice Minister hopes not to see crime escalate after the introduction of the new law. Tudorel Toader has met with the directors of Probation Offices in order to agree on the details linked to the surveillance and social integration of inmates once they are released.

  • The Penitentiary System and Extended Confiscation

    The Penitentiary System and Extended Confiscation

    October 4th is the deadline for the EU member countries to transpose into national law the directive that provides for the extended confiscation of assets obtained fraudulently. In Romania, the emergency triggered by the deadline set in Brussels coincides with fierce domestic debates on the effects of the fight against corruption. For a long time now, the media, civil society and experts have warned that indicting, arresting and even sentencing top level corruption is worthless, unless it is followed by a recovery of the losses caused by fraud.



    The Justice Minister Raluca Pruna has announced on Radio Romania that a draft law on this matter already exists, and will be submitted to Parliament for endorsement. She has not ruled out the possibility of issuing an emergency ordinance, but has voiced hope that, provided senators and deputies work fast, such a measure won’t be necessary. “The current legislation already stipulates extended confiscation as a potential measure. Unfortunately, it has not been very much used in the cases tried so far, and what we are doing now by means of this draft is to fully transpose the directive”, the minister also said.



    The conviction rate in cases of corruption stands at 90%, which, according to the National Anticorruption Directorate, is proof of the quality of the evidence that criminal cases are built on, as well as of prosecutors’ professionalism. On the other hand, though, the head of the Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, has recently stated that, following the final rulings issued last year alone, the state must recover some 200 million Euro and insisted on the importance of these sentences to be fully served, including by recovering the damages and losses caused by corruption. “Some of those sentenced do not fully serve the sentence decided by judges. Some are released on parole, without any recovery of damage, or due to administrative loopholes. Such cases gradually lead to the situation in which the state loses authority and people lose their trust in state institutions, Mrs. Kovesi has warned.


    The Justice Minister Raluca Pruna has stated that, when it comes to economic crimes, more discouraging is to confiscate the object of the crime rather than serving a sentence that, generally speaking, in Romania and actually elsewhere in the world, is a lesser punishment than for common law offences. She has also said that the full transposition of the European Directive could be a solution for the overcrowding of the domestic penitentiary system.



    This summer, inmates protested loudly against prison conditions. Also, the employees in the system say that their workload is too big and salaries too small, and refuse to do any overtime, which could block activity in prisons, because of staff shortage. The National Administration of Penitentiaries in Romania has 15,000 jobs, covered by only 12,000 people, while the real need stands at some 20,000.



    (Translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)