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2011-10-30

Fr. Constantin Penteley: Prison system in our country is not just a punishment for a crime!

Aren't we in less secure society? Year by year we observe more and more prisoners. But not so much justice at all. The prison overcrowding crisis reveals the urgent need for changes in society, in criminal and penal laws. Prison system has become a hostage to the public and political processes in Ukraine, and then - a hostage of system of law enforcement agencies and judiciary. Responsibility, rehabilitation, and restoration ought to become the foundation for necessary reform.
"Even though the prison system in Ukraine is called penitentiary it remains rather repressive owing to the whole practice of justice and rules in administering the law," - says Fr. Constantin Panteley, head of the Office for Penitentiary Pastoral Care, to correspondent of  the UGCC Department of Information, - "and, it seems to me, this is a desire of any society now - to punish offenders."

The Church teaches: the lawful public authority has a duty to exercise punishments according to the seriousness of crimes committed. But inprisonment is not just a punishment for a crime in Ukraine. It is used as a repressive apparatus for revenge so that a person completely loses his dignity, instead of being cleansed, changed for the better. The Ukrainian society loses now its sense of true security because it has such a criminal justice system where, quite often, offenders are not rehabilitated and victims are ignored.

“Our criminal justice system is as follows: in the Old Testament it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; now it’s a jaw for a tooth, a head for an eye. This is the kind of system of punishment that exists. It seems that we have a basic principle of justice – revenge. Nobody thinks about how to call those people to repentance, to a better life, to give them a chance to mend, - said Fr. Constantin, - As a society we must strive to reach out to victims and reject vengeance; restore a sense of community and resist the violence that has surrounded so much of our culture."

According to Fr. Constantin, there are more than 40,000 people right now in remand prisons. For comparison, in 2007 there were 32,000 people. According to him, the most important principle is being violated in Ukraine that a detention could not be used just to obtain witnesses from a person against himself.

He names only one reason why someone is unjustly detained – “so that a man signs all the papers against himself. This is a method of exquisite torture, because during the judicial investigation, which extends for a long time, usually years, people are so exhausted from waiting for the justice that they sign any papers to recognize accusation, to become free at last, let’s say, for the next half a year.”

“Because prisons are overcrowded, there is such a situation – physically, the prison system is not able to respond to the needs of all detainees. Because after being locked up, all people, even if they were healthy, start to have health problems. This is due primarily to the tight conditions and because time for walking is shortened. The prison system has limited funding, so, for example, the mentally ill, who should get tranquilizers or other drugs to calm their nervous systems, do not get them. The same applies to infectious patients. Health aides often have to work with only a handful of pills and saline. And that’s all! But it’s not because the prison service is so bad; even if we had a European judicial system, with so many prisoners we would still need to spend half the state budget. Therefore, to solve the problem we must first look at the reasons why our prisons are overcrowded,” - said Fr. Constantin.

The main reason, in his opinion, is the imperfection of the judicial system in general and overcrowded prisons in particular.

UGCC Information Department

“The Soviet stereotype is still alive and the justice system is used as a means to establish one or another dominant force or ideology to excuse the guilty and condemn the innocent,.” - Patriarch Sviatoslav expresses opinions on the justice system in Ukraine

“The current state of justice is one of the worst plagues threatening our country,” Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, told a UNIAN correspondent in response to questions about the latest high-profile trials of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko. 

"Unfortunately, in Ukraine for many years people are under investigation, and often innocent people are in prison – people who need our prayers and support,” stated the head of the UGCC.
But he remembered the prisoners suffering from tuberculosis or AIDS. “Because of the imperfection of our prison system, they are not receiving quality or even any medical care, and consequently they are slowly dying in inhumane conditions.” 

“They deserve our compassion, our prayers, which are our prison chaplains bring them. I think that all faithful of our church should express their positions as Ukrainian citizens and support, without breaking the Commandments of God and the Constitution, for the imprisoned or even protect them,” said the Patriarch Sviatoslav.
Separately, the head of the UGCC mentioned Yulia Tymoshenko’s trial. “We understand that the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko is only the tip of the iceberg. This is an opportunity to draw attention to numerous lawsuits in Ukraine, where the judicial system, which is dependent on the government and focused on indictment, destroys thousands of ordinary people,” said the primate of the Greek Catholics. 

According to Patriarch Sviatoslav, the judicial system clearly indicates whether the society adheres to basic human values, on which the European community is built – the community Ukraine wants to join. 

“One of the main values is that the law should protect human dignity, human freedom and human rights, and that judges should guard the execution of the law,” said the head of the UGCC. But he noted that Ukraine “the Soviet stereotype is still alive and the justice system is used as a means to establish one or another dominant force or ideology to excuse the guilty and condemn the innocent.” 

“Our faithful and I are very sad that in the twentieth year of Ukrainian independence people continue to be condemned unfairly,” concluded the patriarch.