February 9, 2007
On 9 February 2007 the Institute for Penal Reform financed by Penal Reform International (Bucharest) has organized a round table “The Activity of the Complaints Committee” – Achievements and Perspectives”, within the project “Strengthening the civil society: Health and respect of Human Rights in the prisons from Moldova”.
The round table aimed to make an evaluation of the problems encountered by the Complaints Committee after a year of its activity and to identify the solutions in the process of improving the methods and the work techniques. There have been invited at the activity representatives of the civil society, specialists of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, heads of Regime and Supervision Department from Chisinau no. 13, Pruncul no. 16, Pruncul no. 9, Cricova no. 15, prisons, as well as specialists who monitored the detention facilities, such as the head of Control for Respecting the Law on Sanctions Enforcements Department, General Prosecutor’s Office, and the Parliamentary Lawyer.
The issues to be discussed were as follows: the Complaints Committee competence; the necessity to elaborate an Internal Rule of the Complaints Committee; mediation of the activity carried out by the Complaints Committee; elaborating a guide for prisoners about the activity of the Complaints Committee.
After a year of its activity, it has been found out that there arrive a large number of complaints from prisoners, few of them being within the competence of the body. Most of them are related to the detention conditions, the offender doesn’t agree with the sentence and very few of them are related to the disagreement on applying a disciplinary sanction by the prison administration to the prisoner. This has caused an enormous work for the Committee members, considering that they work on a public basis after their work hours. After the discussions on the Committee tasks it has decided that it is neither obliged to reply to the complaints, if they are not within the competence of it, nor responsible to redirect those complaints. The Complaints Committee confirms the grounds of the contest or the lawfulness and the grounds of the disciplinary sanction applied to convict. In order to acquaint the prisoners with the Committee’s activity, there will be elaborated posters both in Romanian and Russian, which will be disseminated in each institution, representing the complaints examined by the Committee and those which are not within its competence, as well as leaflets, containing information on the Committees competence.
From the beginning of its activity the Committee members did not have an office, and consequently technical equipment, stationery and other goods necessary in the daily activity. These obstacles have significantly ceased the Committee activity. Resulting from the importance of its activity for the realities of the Republic of Moldova the Institute for Penal Reform financed by Penal Reform International has granted minimum necessary technical equipment and stationery in order to facilitate the normal activity of the Committee.
