The National Probation Inspectorate and the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, supported by the Ministry of Justice, should work out joint psychosocial, educational and professional intervention programs for preparing the detainees for release and social reintegration. This is one of the recommendations formulated by participants in a roundtable meeting staged by the Ministry on June 9-10, IPN reports.

According to a press release of the Ministry, the current situation and the deficiencies in the social rehabilitation of persons released from jail were discussed by probation and penitentiary specialists, prosecutors and judges, representatives of civil society and the academic community, experts from Georgia, Latvia, and Romania. These reached the conclusion that the National Probation Inspectorate and the Department of Penitentiary Institutions should develop functional mechanisms for cooperation so as to ensure an objective, transparent, modern and equitable process of social reintegration of detainees.

Thus, a working group coordinated by the Ministry of Justice will review the regulations governing re-socialization activities. There will be formulated proposals for amending the legislation so as to better meet the current needs of the penal policy of the state. Increasing the salaries of employees of the probation and penitentiary systems is another key element, given their role in the criminal justice system.

The roundtable meeting was organized by the Ministry of Justice in partnership with the National Probation Inspectorate and the Department of Penitentiary Institutions and with the assistance of the EU-funded project “Support to the enforcement, probation and rehabilitation systems in Moldova”. The project provides expertise and technical assistance to the penitentiary and probation systems for coordinating the efforts of the involved players for successfully re-socializing persons set free from penitentiaries.