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Prison overcrowding in Romania. Solutions and shortcomings
Fri, September 5, 9:30 to 10:45am, Communications Building (CN), CN 2115Abstract
This paper deals with the issue of prison overcrowding in Romania.
Human rights protection is of paramount importance nowadays. As such, special attention needs to be given to the protection of persons deprived of their liberty, placed under the responsibility of the state within different prison facilities.
In Romania, the legislative framework in the field of criminal law has undergone an extensive reform process which took shape through the adoption and entry into force of 7 new pieces of legislation on 1st of February 2014: the new Criminal Code; the new Criminal Procedure Code; Law for the implementation of the Criminal Code; Law for the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Code; Law on the probation system; Law on non-custodial penalties; Law on custodial penalties.
International (especially regional) instruments set up the framework regarding minimal conditions that need to be put in place by the CoE member states.
Of particular relevance are the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights and the ECtHR. For Romania there are three ECtHR judgements of particular interest: Iacov Stanciu (2012, semi-pilot judgment); Rezvimeș and others (2017, pilot judgment); Polgar (2021).
Complementary to the extension of the non-custodial measures through the new legislative framework in the criminal field, following the pilot judgment, Romanian authorities put forward successive actions plans to address the issue. The current Action plan for the execution of the pilot-judgment Rezmives and others v. Romania, as well as the decisions in the Bragadireanu group of cases v. Romania is ongoing (for the period 2020-2025) .
National authorities are urged to improve material conditions in prisons and to promote legislative amendments to expand non-custodial penalties (e.g. expanding electronic monitoring, setting up half-way houses). There is an urgent need to strengthen the probation system currently not functioning at its best.