Government Wants House Arrest System for Prisoners

In an attempt to ease up the overpopulated prisons in the country and speed of execution of pending sentences, the Ministry of Justice has announced that it is preparing a system of home arrest for certain prisoners.

photo (c) Shayan Sanyal

Head of Penal law at the Ministry, Lucia Kurilovská, told daily Hospodarke Noviny that concrete steps were being taken in this respect, while newly appointed justice minister Tomáš Borec pointed to how the system would probably involve some kind of ankle monitor or similar device. The Ministry is therefore expected to announce a tender for the devices soon.

Another advantage of the system, apart from releasing mostly harmless convicts, comes in the savings made as it costs the state around EUR 13,000 a year to keep one prisoner behind bars. Potentially good idea, provided the system is not abused to get cronies out of jail.

5 Comments

  1. Perhaps if we made in the EU , execution by burning at the stake, the penalty for ANY crime over set a prison sentence of 12 months and also not for white collar financial crimes ( so we do get the thugs, robbers, nasty murderers, peodo`s etc) then we may get the society we all deserve .

    Mind you Slovakia would stink of burning wood, and be a very empty place .

  2. David – You ask questions that Nations have wrestled with over the ages, yet none have arrived at the perfect solution. Britains policy of “lock em up” is driven by the general population – politicians who promise a hard line on crime get voted into power. Does it work? – No! Does “three strikes and your out” work in the US – No! The past liberal approach to crime adopted by many countries has also failed.
    Is crime increasing – who knows, the figures published by the govt. are doctored. As to why, “Westernised crime” seems to becoming more prevalant possibly because the population of the SK are an easy target – I presume that under the communist regime the incidence of such crimes was relatively low.
    The move to “freedom” has been intrepreted by some to mean that they can do what they like. The ever widening gulf between the “haves” and the “have nots” in SK society must be a contributing factor especially when many of the “haves” appear to have gained their wealth by nefarious means. The Political elite, judges etc. regularly fail to set an example to the rest of the population, laughing at the law from behind their self imposed wall of immunity. One thing is for certain, governments will adopt the easiest solution. Combating unemployment, social decline, social inequality, housing and discrimination are far too expensive and complex issues for the average politician in any country.

  3. Why is nobody asking why the prison population is increasing? Has everyone suddenly turned bad? It always amazes me how people think that more sentencing, more punishment, etc. is the answer. It never can be – criminality breeds further criminality. Tagging will just increase the size of the prison system. And Britain is just as bad. How can a substantial part of the population (mainly men) be in the penal system? (I was going to add something to complete the last question, but it stands quite well as it is)

  4. Whilst I fully support the use of non-custodial sentences for some offenders I fail to believe that the Sk has the ability to manage a tagging system. Felons flee the country with impunity almost on a daily basis, the police can’t keep track of known criminals or even people with no driving licence. As for the reported cost of “keeping” a prisoner – 13k a year, its quite obvious that there are major savings to made within the SK prison system.
    As for the abusal of any such system – a good bet would be on a political lapdog being one of the first to “try” the system whilst ordinary Slovaks still get to do porridge.

    1. Jesus, yep! the cronies will be back round the pool in no time. So Slovakia will have even less of deterrent, than the feather tickling system they have now??????

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