THE NEED for more supervisors to help implement the community service programme was yesterday highlighted at the House Human Rights Committee where deputies heard there were only eight islandwide.
The Committee had convened to discuss the overpopulation in the island’s prisons and the measures that were being taken by the state to alleviate the situation. This included the community service programme.
Speaking after the meeting, Committee Chairman Sophocles Fyttis of DIKO said the community service programme – which has already been handed out to 428 people – was an incredibly useful and beneficial one that has been implemented in many countries.
“We previously asked for an evaluation, which has taken place,” Fyttis added. “This evaluation will give us some ideas on how to improve and develop this institution.”
During the meeting, the Pancyprian Coordinating Body of Volunteers, which monitors community service supervisors, was asked to list the problems faced in the institution’s implementation.
“We asked for a survey to seek more job opportunities for people to be employed instead of imprisoned,” said Fyttis. “Last year there was a waiting list for 350 people to carry out community service, because there were difficulties finding employment for these people.”
But this number had reduced dramatically this year, he said. “Only around 90 people are waiting for their community service to be allocated.”
DISY Deputy Stella Kyriakidou described the problems faced in the prison system as “extremely serious” and pointed out that the aim was not just to punish offenders but to also help them reintegrate into society.
“The measure of community service is an important measure and it seems to have progressed, but we are concerned that despite the increase in people carrying out community service, their supervisors remain at just eight throughout Cyprus,” said Kyriakidou. “If the implementation of this measure has proved a success and no problems have been created, we feel it is important that the number of supervisors increase.”
During the Committee meeting, Ombudswoman Iliana Nicolaou said her office had at times carried out self-appointed investigations into the prison system and especially the matter of overpopulation.
“The first self-appointed intervention took place in 2001 and measures were suggested to generally deal with the problem,” said Nicolaou. “We then suggested the creation of a nursing centre for inmates with mental issues; something that hasn’t been done yet.”
She said the problem is now taking on worrying dimensions with the increase in drug abuse in prison where addicts are not receiving the necessary support and treatment.
“The measure that is being used is closing them in mental hospitals, which of course is neither the most appropriate, nor the most serious way of dealing with the situation,” the Ombudswoman pointed out.
Nicolaou’s office has also suggested decriminalising illegal entry into Cyprus, so that illegal immigrants are handled with administrative measures instead of criminal ones. As the situation stands at the moment, more than 50 per cent of prisoners are illegal immigrants.
“This is yet another measure that could contribute to decongesting prisons,” she explained.
The way criminals are treated by the courts and prison system, Nicolaou added, doesn’t help the situation. “In the rest of Europe, they generally tend to seek alternative methods to imprisonment, such as house arrest and community service.”
This, she said, was an extremely serious point, which reverses any attempt to assist inmates’ social reintegration.
Nicolaou’s office is currently investigating two complaints, one by a drug addicted inmate and another by a student who was convicted to a periodical prison sentence for being implicated in football hooliganism.
“I think this is the first case where the law was implemented in practice and of course the consequences on the student himself are not at all encouraging,” she said. “My office is soon expected to submit the relevant report and I feel that it will be a breakthrough on human rights issues.”
Kyriakidou said she also wanted to highlight concerns over the delays in creating a medical centre for the prisons, resulting in a number of drug addicted inmates being treated at the Athalassa Mental Hospital. “This is unacceptable,” she said.
Kyriakidou referred to the Ombudswoman’s investigation into the 16-year-old’s periodical prison sentence, which means the pupil goes to school for five days a week and then spends his weekends in prison.
“Periodical imprisonment is a way to isolate a person from society, but I truly wonder how this can be implemented and considered a correct measure for a teenager,” she said.
EDEK Deputy Roulla Mavronicola pointed out that community service is not an alternative to alleviate prison congestion but a measure used to punish offences that are not serious enough to warrant a prison sentence.
“But it is a positive measure that needs to be reinforced further,” she added. “The judicial body needs to be further informed on how o use these alternative punishments and the state needs better preparation on how to deal with people ordered to do community service.”
She too called for an increase in supervisors.
