DOI: 10.46340/eujem.2024.10.4.2
Dmytro Yagunov1 , Associate Professor, Attorney at Law, D.Sc. in Political Science, Ph.D. in Public Administration, MSSc in Criminal Justice, Merited Lawyer of Ukraine, Member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), Member of the Confederation of European Probation (CEP), Member of the Howard League for Penal Reform
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany), Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University (Vinnytsia, Ukraine)
How to cite: Yagunov, D. (2024). The Ukrainian Prison and Probation Policy (1991 – 2024): Modulations and Key Indicators. European Journal of Economics and Management, 10, 4, 17-86. https://doi.org/10.46340/eujem.2024.10.4.2
Abstract
The aims of this research are to summarise the results of the development and implementation of the prison and probation policy in Ukraine throughout the period of independence, since 1991.
This study does not aim to examine the legal status and formal powers of the public institutions responsible for the shaping and implementing the prison and probation policy in Ukraine. However, the transformation of public structures will be partially considered but only for the purpose of identifying the most important periods of prison and probation policy.
The aim of this study is also to analyse the political framework within which national prison and probation policy was developed and implemented at different stages, to identify the actual motives for prison reforms and to draw conclusions about the performance of prison and probation policy within a certain modulation and in general over the period of Ukraine’s independence.
The paper concludes that the Ukrainian prison and probation policy is not really a policy. For the most part, it boils down to the elimination of previous management structures and the creation of new ones, the expediency of which is not properly explained to the public and experts.
The Ukrainian prison and probation policy is completely inconsistent. The transition from the old to each new modulation is explained mostly with the help of historical phantasms and ideological slogans, but not with the help of statistics and academic research.
As a result, Ukrainian prison policy is devoid of continuity, as the Ministry of Justice, proclaiming a new policy course, completely forgets about the past and does not evaluate the indicators of the previous modulations. If such an assessment takes place, it is only in the categories of populism and historical ignorance.
The Ukrainian prison and probation policy is devoid of financial transparency, which exacerbates the problem of the effectiveness of the policy considering the ever-decreasing number of prisoners and the ever-increasing funding of the prison system.
Unfortunately, the Ukrainian prison and probation policy is a failure in terms of providing the society, experts and academics with information and statistics on the prison system. The official sources of the prison service (regardless of its name) and the Ministry of Justice have never contained even basic prison statistics on key indicators in the dynamics. The relevant fragmentary data can only be found, as it was 20 years ago, on the websites of the UN and the Council of Europe, which often contradict each other. This gap is partially covered by statistics from the international expert centre World Prison Brief and the CPT.
In turn, this shows that for 20 years, the Ukrainian prison system and relevant government structures have not emerged from the state of conservation and secrecy, demonstrating the Soviet traditions of forced immersion of the prison system into the state of secrecy.
However, in the prevention of ill-treatment in prisons, Ukraine has passed this test in terms of creating proper institutional support in the field of torture prevention and prosecution of the perpetrators of these undoubtedly heinous crimes, where the key role, of course, belongs to the Ministry of Justice.
The main key to this is to make the prison system as open as possible to society. A key role in this should be played by prison inspections, which should receive further impetus for their development. It is no wonder that proper inspection is one of the CPT’s standards. The transparency of the prison system of a modern European democracy cannot be ensured without a system of prison inspections.
Keywords: public policy analysis, prison and probation policy, prison system of Ukraine, prison, prison crime, prison budgets, efficiency of prison and probation policy, effectiveness of prison and probation policy, analysis of indicators of prison and probation policy, modulations of prison and probation policy.
JEL: L38, K39.
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