Melinda Gyökös Community crime prevention and social reintegration of offenders in Hungary

17-18 September 2007 Chisinau www.bunmegelozes.hu Melinda GyökösCommunity crime prevention and social reintegration of offenders in Hungary

Community Crime Prevention • Criminal politics and community crime prevention • National Strategy for Community Crime Prevention • Organisation • The prevention of re-offending • Reintegration and restorative justice

Community crime prevention • Crime is a product of society and its reproduction is always a characteristic of the society itself. • A coherent crime prevention as a particular type of social policy increases the self-defence capabilities of society. • Community crime prevention entails both professional and civil activities but is governed by state authorities.

Designing the Crime Prevention Strategy 2002 UN Guidelines • integrated crime prevention • cooperative partnerships • funding, accountability • knowledge base Constitutional principles • human rights • proportional intervention • social justice

Designing the Crime Prevention Strategy Key principle of simultaneus competency The three „pillars” of • reducing the effects of the social causes of crime • reducing victimization • reducing the opportunity for crime are to be applied simultaneously.

National Strategy for Community Crime Prevention • Parliamentary Decision No. 115/2003 on the National Strategy for Community Crime Prevention • governmental decrees on the action programmes (for 2003/2004, 2005/2006, 2007/2008)

National Strategy for Community Crime Prevention • community crime prevention is directed at reducing crimes that directly harm or put at risk citizens and their communities, it is mostly effective against “ordinary” criminal phenomena that directly influence the public’s sense of security • joined-up governing model and practice • integrated part of local public affairs

Establish public safety that improves quality of life and reduces crime Improve public safety Integrate crime prevention with state social policy Establish cooperative partnerships among crime prevention actors Strengthen sense of security of citizens Reduce effects of causes of crime Coordinate among sectors, departments and disciplines Non-violent conflict resolution Reduce victimisation and repeated victimisation Enhance small-community integration and control Cut down damage done by crime Prevent formation of criminal career Provide assistance for victims Strengthen observance of the law Limit opportunity for crime

National Strategy for Community Crime Prevention Priorities identified by the Strategy 1. reduction of juvenile delinquency 2. improvement of urban security 3. prevention of violence within the family 4. prevention of victimization, supporting and compensating victims 5. prevention of re-offending (recidivism)

Organisation National Crime Prevention Board (NCPB) • inter-governmental body responsible for handling the coordination of community crime prevention • standing and invited members • chaired by an expert appointed by the Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement

Organisation Crime Prevention Unit (CP Unit) • integrated into the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement, directly under the Chief of Cabinet • professionally supervised by the chair of NCPB • cooperation: Unit for Cooperation of Crime Prevention Activities of the Law Enforcement Agencies Strategic Planning Unit Department of Criminal Law and Law EnforcementCodification National State Treasury

Organisation Tasks of the CP Unit 1. preparing the codification referring to community crime prevention 2. preparing the action programmes for the implementation of the national strategy for community crime prevention and preparing the reports on fulfilling the tasks prescribed by the action programmes 3. coordinating the implementation of the Strategy, providing secretarial service for the NCPB

Organisation Tasks of the CP Unit 4. furthermore it ● cooperates in the reform process of the system of criminal statistics ● initiates researches in order to reveal latent crime and co-operates in making professional use of them ● promotes to spread the national and foreign best practices of community crime prevention

Organisation Tasks of the CP Unit 5. fulfilling the tasks connecting to the call for proposals in the field of community crime prevention 6. contributing to making use of the professional knowledge of the National Crime Prevention Board in the policing education and training

Organisation Tasks of the CP Unit 7. taking part in the work of ● the commissions on drug-affairs, and national health ● the UNODC, ICPC and EFUS ● the EUCPN as its national contact point

Organisation Relevant partners of the CP Unit All the actors which could be involved or are able to cooperate in the activities of community crime prevention. public: ministries, police, services and institutes private: municipalities, businesses, NGO-s, churches

Organisation Available annual budget of the CP Unit • since 2005 community crime prevention is one of the five facultative public interests for which 1% of the personal income tax could be offered • in 2006 178 million HUF (700 787 €) were available • in 2007 191 million HUF (751 968 €) • the amount is mostly used for funding projects through call for proposals (152 million HUF in 2008, 118 million HUF in 2007)

Prevention of re-offending • the prison population in Hungary has increased steadily (with 24 %) between 1998 and 2002, since 2002 it has been slowly (8 %) decreasing • increase in the average term of custody, change into a custodial sentence for non-payment of fines • in 2006 around 16 000 persons were being held in accommodation • prison population rate: 163 (6. place in EU in 2006) • saturation rate: 145 % (3. place in EU in 2006)

Prevention of re-offending • daily cost of custody in 2004 was 6000 HUF (23,62 €) per prisoner – expensive, while community (non-custodial) sanctions supervised by the Probation Service is more economic (costs only 15-20 % of the expenses of imprisonment) • 54,2 % of the prison population spends short time imprisonment (for 3 years or less) – in these cases the implementation of community sanction is reasonable

Prevention of re-offending Further reasons and conditions for implementing non-custodial sentences • „Tokyo Rules” (Gen. Assembly Rec. 45/110, 1990) • reform of the Probation Service 2003

Prevention of re-offending Tasks of the criminal justice system • police and other investigating bodies • courts and public prosecution services • penal institutions • probation service

Prevention of re-offending Tasks to be implemented via sectoral cooperation • health policy • social policy and family policy • youth and sport policy • education policy • children protection • employment policy

Prevention of re-offending Tasks of community crime prevention arenas • local governments • NGOs and churches • neighbourhood and residential community • private individuals • media and publicity

Prevention of re-offending Expected results • rise of the standard of probation work • rise of the frequency of application and efficacy of alternative sanctions • reduction of penal service costs and the harmful consequences of loss of liberty, resulting in a decreased risk of recidivism

Reintegration and restorative justice Need for reintegration • 57 % of the prisoners are re-offenders (24 per cent recidivists and 33 per cent multiple recidivists) • crowding of penal institutions raises tensions within prisoners and harmful interactions

Reintegration and restorative justice Need for reintegration • social parameters, level of education and professional qualifications of prisoners are poor (proportion of people with less than 8 years of school education: 13.8 per cent among adult prisoners; 50.6 per cent among juveniles) • Roma people with disadvantaged social backgrounds are over-represented in the prison population (to an extent considerably above their proportion of the general population)

Reintegration and restorative justice Objectives to be reached • prevention of re-offending by the combination of constructive measures in the execution of criminal sanctions • joint application of training, education and treatment of alcohol and drug problems

Reintegration and restorative justice Need for restorative programmes • prejudices inhibiting offenders to reintegrate in the community and exclusion of offenders could be reduced by effective compensation of victims • confidence in the criminal justice service will be raised and public security boosted by successful implementation of current criminal policy reforms directed at compensating victims and appeasing the community

www.bunmegelozes.hu E-mail: bunmegelozes@irm.gov.hu

Melinda Gyökös Community crime prevention and social reintegration of offenders in Hungary