Description
Despite a comparatively low level of crime, Poland belongs to those European countries with highest rates of prison population. One of the reasons is that most offenders receive suspended prison sentences, which give them a feeling of impunity. It also means they are offered no real assistance in solving problems that had led them to breaking the law; as a result, many reoffend and end up in already overcrowded prison.Project objective is to change that by establishing two Restorative Justice Centers (in Toruń and Białystok) - non-governmental institutions that help local justice system better deal with low-level offenders by using community-oriented sentencing and restorative justice. The main goal of the Centers is to combine effective punishment with restoration, understood as meaningful compensation by the offender to the victim and to the local community, with various forms of assistance to the offenders themselves, in order to prevent them from reoffending. Restorative Justice Centers will also promote Alternative Dispute Resolution measures, such as mediation and restorative circles. Project will benefit approx. 400 offenders.
Summary of project results
"Poland has a socially disproportionate system of penalising petty crime, resulting in a record-breaking population of inmates (85,000, Penitentiary Forum 9/2013) and persons awaiting to serve time (40,000, Penitentiary Forum 1/2014), and an inefficient resocialising system; current and former inmates are a group hugely prone to exclusion due to difficulties in returning to social life and the labour market (Szczygieł, “Prevention or Re-Imprisonment?""). The project purpose was to prevent exclusion of offenders or petty criminals by providing advisory services, co-ordinating restricted freedom and community service sentences, and popularising restorative justice. Support was offered to ca. 400 individuals in trouble with the law, including co-ordination of non-isolation sentences for 150 convicts. Around 500 law enforcement employees were told of restorative justice-related concepts and practicalities. Two Restorative Justice Centres (Toruń, Białystok) and an Information Office (District Court, Białystok) were set up. Twenty new institutions where it is possible to perform socially useful work were added; sentence co-ordination was provided for 150 persons. Counselling and other aid (therapy, job, benefits seeking) was provided to 114 convicts; 12 attended Aggression Replacement Training. Different forms of aid were provided to 1,000 court clients. Eighty law enforcement employees (judges, prosecutors, police officers, probation officers, mediators) attended training courses; 400 participated in conference lectures. A film and class script were developed to promote restorative justice. Different forms of aid were offered to around 1,200 persons (including ca. 400 convicts) from Toruń and Białystok areas, and to approximately 500 law enforcement employees from throughout Poland. The Norwegian Mediation Service Konfliktrådet trained mediators, probation officers, and employees of Restorative Justice Centres. An Association for the Integration of Children and Young People co-organised work in Białystok."
Summary of bilateral results
The Foundation planned to deal with the problem of social exclusion of offence perpetrators. The representatives of the Foundation took part in a study visit to Norway, where they visited a number of institutions dealing with mediation and restorative justice and discusses the details of the planned partnership project with Konflikttraadet. As a result the Foundation received a grant for the project which aim was to create centres for restorative justice in Toruń and Białystok and to provide support to perpetrators of offences who are at risk of social exclusion.