Public and prisoners – views and opinions on sanction policy Miroslav Scheinost Institute of Criminology and Social Prevention Prague International conference Results of the research on sanction policy in the Czech Republic Prague 13 November 2015

Opinions of the public Three surveys on the public opinion: 2012: 963 respondents 2013: 1001 respondents 2014: 1007 respondents The sample was chosen by quota sampling, age over 15

What kinds of penalties that are possible to impose in the CR except of unconditional sentence you may specify? 2012: most known kinds of penalties: fine (44,7%), conditioned sentence (44,2%), community service (43,3) – about 1/3 respondents knew the sanction of house arrest, 10% ban of specific activities 2013: more respondents were familiar with the conditioned sentence (46,7%), the knowledge of other sanctions declined in comparison with 2012, especially the knowledge on community service 2014: the knowledge on alternative sanctions slightly increased ; most known sanctions have been still conditioned sentence, fine and community service

Number of correctly named alternative measures (six alternatives: fine, conditioned sentence, community service, house arrest, ban of specific activities, forfeiture of property)

Do you mean that penalties that may be imposed by the law to the offenders of serious crimes as murder, robbery, rape are today...? % 2012% 2013% 2014 More strict then ten years ago 6,7 6,6 Roughly equal To those ten years ago 41,350,453,8 Less strict then ten years ago 52,042,939,6 TOTAL100,0100

You probably know that Czech prisons are overcrowded. What measure (see following list) you would prefer to solve this problem? % 2012 % 2013% 2014 Make the régime and living conditions in prisons more tough in order to motivate sentenced people not to return 32,1 34,932,3 Make the penalties more strict in order to prevent possible offenders from committing crimes 30,0 34,831,9 Instead of imprisonment more often use alternative measures 16,9 12,616,7 To try to prevent crime by education, in families, in schools 11,4 9,210,3 Create more space in prisons (to build or to hire new prisons) 7,0 6,86,4 Others 2,0 1,62,3 More often use amnesty 0,6 0,20,1 TOTAL 100,0 100

Opinions of prisoners 201 respondents (10% women), XI-XII/2013, 4 prisons if they may choose between alternative measure and unconditioned imprisonment for 6 months 80% prefer alternative measure (mostly community sanction – 91%)prefer alternative measure 49% see as an appropriate alternative to one year in prison the fine between 25 – 100 thousands of crowns (1 EUR = 27 crowns) 75% - sanctions in the Czech Penal Code are too severe If they are in position of fictitious judge, they are nearly so severe as the public

Do you mean that penalties that may be imposed by the law to the offenders of serious crimes as murder, robbery, rape are today...? number% More strict then ten years ago 8039,8 Roughly equal To those ten years ago 4823,9 Less strict then ten years ago 3416,9 I do not know3919,4 TOTAL201100

What prisoners mostly miss … What they are short: social contacts; especially with the family but also with friends; the need of liberty is only for the second place Fundamental problems to be solved after release from prison: job, accommodation, family ties Opinions of prisoner confirm the urgent need to improve substantially the training before leaving the prison and subsequent postpenitentiary care

Conclusions The opinion of the Czech public with regard to sanction policy has been still rather punitive The information on alternative measures has been not too high; the results from 2013 show even the decrease of knowledge The principles of the new penal code – or more general of sanction policy – are not sufficiently known in the public, not to say accepted Prisoners differ from the common population in preferring the alternative sanctions but being in the position of judge, they are nearly as punitive as „common people“ But they see clearly the problems that they will face after release

Conclusion The result is that – however the intention of legislator was positive – the media did not help too much to present this intention to the public and the attitudes of public persist to be strictly punitive. This punitive attitude is moreover reflected even in opinions of prisoners; nevertheless the prisoners are aware of problems they are confronted to after release.

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