Journal article

The Eye of a Needle: Temporary Prison Leave in Ukraine

Anton Symkovych

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research | Springer Verlag | Published : 2020

Open access

Abstract

Although temporary prison leave humanises custodial punishment, offsets its negative effects, and prepares prisoners for (re)integration into wider society, its use proves to be controversial and uneven across jurisdictions. Since the collapse of the USSR, the former Soviet countries have been pursuing different criminal justice policies, liberalising some penal practices whilst retaining many punitive Soviet legacies. Through analysis of the legal provisions regulating temporary prison leave and official statistics in Ukraine, I demonstrate the apparent strain between the official policies and practice. Whilst legally available, temporary leave for prisoners in closed prisons is almost neve..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by European Commission Seventh Framework Programme Marie Curie Actions Co-funding of Regional, National and International Programmes


Funding Acknowledgements

I dedicate this article to the memory of Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt and to the Learning Together team and their commitment to prison education, reform, and people's capacity for change. This article is based on the research partially financed by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme Marie Curie Actions Co-funding of Regional, National and International Programmes (contract number 246561), CEU BPF, and IAS CEU. The theses explained herein represent the author's own ideas, and do not reflect the opinion of the EC or CEU BPF/IAS CEU. The author is very grateful to Dr. Margaret Wilson, David Graham, and three anonymous reviewers for insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article.