Amendments to the BH Law on the Execution of Criminal Sanction, Detention and Other Measures Passed



27 April 2009- Today the House of Peoples of the BH Parliamentary Assembly has passed in the second reading the Draft Law on the Amendments to the Law on the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Detention and Other Measures of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the new 2006 CoE Prison Rules, BH had an obligation to bring its law in line with the new prison European standards. The amendments introduce inter alia some new measures improving security control in prisons. 

The amendments introduce risk assessment including primarily an assessment of each individual inmate presenting an escape risk according to a total of 13 criteria. Some of them are: public threat, earlier convictions and behavior, the nature of the crime, attitude towards the victim, access to external assistance, personal and family circumstances etc. The law also determines special supervising actions while inmates exercise privileges, so that risk assessment can be made for each individual inmate and prevent any escape.

Requirements for the privileges to be enjoyed by the most serious felons, who are convicted and sentence to more than 10 years’ imprisonment, alcohol and drag abusers and heavy recidivists are set higher. According to the proposed amendments, these convicts can exercise the privalages only after having served three fifths instead of the valid one half of the term of sentence received.

These security measures in the proposed Law introduce and advance other important standards of criminal santion execution such as: intervention of medical workers in hunger strikes, transfer of inmates, establishment of an Inmate Transfer and Prison Reform Board, inmates’ franchise, recruitment of prison officers with no working experience etc.

The amendments provide for a better coordination between the inspectors at all levels of BH with entity inspectors, given the amendments to 2007 Law provide the legislation of BH applies to the detainees and inmates who are held in custody in entity prisons under orders or sentences pronounced by the Court of BH.

A provision respecting juvenile imprisonment is also incorporated so that, on proposal of the court and approval of the entity ministry of justice, the BH Minister of Justice is authorized to order for a juvenile who has received a prison sentence to be transferred to an entity prison which fulfills requirements for the execution of juvenile imprisonment. 

For the proposed Law, please click here.