Individuals with a criminal record have committed fewer crimes in the Vitebsk region

Individuals with criminal records have started committing fewer crimes in the Vitebsk region. This was reported by Vasily Pashkovsky, Head of the Regional Prosecutor's Office, at a practical training seminar on supervising the enforcement of legislation aimed at the rehabilitation of convicts and the prevention of recidivism.

According to Vasily Ivanovich, these positive trends in the region over the past few years indicate that the preventive measures applied to ex-convicts are having the proper rehabilitative effect on them. An inhibiting factor for individuals with a criminal past is the inevitability of punishment for committing crimes.

— However, the air of freedom sometimes does not have the best effect on some of them. Problems with social rehabilitation push them towards criminal solutions to issues, sometimes even involving others in unlawful pursuits. To prevent such citizens from stumbling again, interested services and departments, using an exclusively personalized approach to the fate of each previously convicted person, provide them with real assistance, including the restoration of documents and help with employment, — he noted.

Vasily Pashkovsky.

Higher education serves as a significant incentive for individuals serving sentences to return to societal norms and find decent employment. The right to obtain higher education for this category of citizens is guaranteed by the legislation of our country. After all, before ending up behind bars, some were students. According to Vladislav Mandrik, Deputy Head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who participated in the seminar, the first institution in the country to launch an experimental project for convicts to obtain higher education remotely was correctional colony No. 4 in Gomel. This format allows convicts to continue their studies after release. Vladislav Alekseevich emphasized that a similar system will eventually be implemented in all penitentiary institutions of the republic.

In general, forThe seminar discussed issues related to the medical care of convicted persons, the application of early release to them, the role of the supervisory commission in the rehabilitation and re-education of former prisoners, and others. During the event, specific proposals were made for the most effective activities to eradicate cases of recidivism. One of the stages of the educational and practical seminar was a visit by its participants, led by Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Aleksei Stuk, to correctional colony No. 3 in the village of Vitba, Vitebsk region, where they familiarized themselves with the conditions of detention of convicted persons and the functioning of the institution.

Olga BULAVKA, "Vitebskiye vesti".