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NUMBER OF PRISONERS IN MOLDOVA DECREASING
(Interview of Infotag reporter Igor Volnitchi with Minister of Justice Vitalie PIRLOG)
“I”: During the last time you have taken measures, which result in the decrease in the number of prisoners. What is the situation today and which concrete measures do you imply?
V.P.: There are 7 thousand prisoners in the republic today. It makes about 220 prisoners per 100 thousand of the population. This a fairly considerable number, compared with the European Union countries, where this number wavers from 62 to 150. The excess is explained not by the crime level, but by the punishment strictness. On the average the imprisonment level is not less than eight years.
The ministry set up a special group, which have studied the Criminal Code and worked out respective amendments in accordance with the EU experts’ recommendations. Moldova’s transfer to the “European standards” in the criminal policy, which we initiated, envisages the decrease in the share of prisoners to 100-150 people per 100 thousand of the population. In this way Moldova will be able to diminish its expenditures for the maintenance of the penitentiary system and the sufferings of prisoners, condemned for insignificant transgressions.
“I”: What does it envisage to humanize a criminal punishment? What criteria will be applied for the liberalization of punishments?
V.P.: Often the existing sanctions do not correspond to the public danger extent of transgressions. For example, the law in force punishes a grand embezzlement exceeding 100 thousand lei in the same way, as a murder. In this context the major part of proposed amendments is aimed at bringing criminal punishments in line with the average European requirements. Proceeding from the practice of many European states, minimal and maximal imprisonment terms from 3 months to 20 years are proposed. At present these terms waver from 6 months to 25 years. On the whole these amendments determined the re-consideration of punishments, envisaged for the majority of articles in the special chapter of the Criminal Code, and the classification of transgressions.
“I”: Don’t you think that the decrease of the punishment terms can result in the punishment slackening?
V.P.: It is a mistake to think that the Bill offers the diminishment of responsibility for some transgressions. The modification in the limits of criminal punishments does not mean that the punishments for transgressions will be milder, but it means that the punishments will be adequate to the seriousness of transgressions.
The new provisions should not be understood as a simple decrease of the punishment terms, which would determine the slackening of criminal punishments. These provisions are the expression of the contemporary approach to the punishment role in the social re-integration of people, who committed transgressions.
The practice of the last ten years shows that not only the toughening of punishments is important in combating crime. For example in 1950-2001 in the USA and Canada the share of murders was developing parallel irrespective of the periods, when both countries applied or not applied death penalty.
The introduction of these amendments must not determine the slackening or the toughening of criminal punishment. On the contrary, it must bring us back to the norm, when each transgressor will be answerable for a committed crime.
“I”: How will be other provisions of the Criminal Code introduced?
V.P.: The project fixes a new method for the re-consideration of suits in the cases, when it will be necessary to re-qualify transgressions and a method to prepare materials for sending them to a judicial instance for the re-consideration. As this Bill will cause an enormous volume of work for all the institutions, involved in the introduction process, and in virtue of the reconsideration of suits, it is proposed that the Bill would come in force on May 1, 2009. The exclusion is made only for the provisions, which fix the responsibility of the institutions, which provide the punishment execution, for sending suits to a judicial instance.
“I”: What will be the influence of amendments to the Criminal Code?
V.P.: This Bill is a large-scale reform. For the first time the common judgment about the Criminal Law is realized. The Bill calls for amending more than 200 articles. Article 5 of the Code must be supplemented. The Bill lays down the fundamentals of the new punishment policy. I am sure that the Bill will have a favorable influence on the economy, as a number of sanctions, which were applied to economic entities and were impediment for their activities, were reconsidered. They exert pressure on the attractiveness of the National economy, as the legal norms are one of the main attractiveness criteria. When these norms are too numerous or too restrictive, or not clear enough, enterprises haste to make their investments in something else. Meanwhile, we do not desire this at all.
