Criminal Policy

Our vision 

We strive for a criminal justice policy that is fair, addresses the causes of crime and considers the needs of victims. 

What is the problem? 

  • Half of all offenders are repeat offenders. 
  • Ineffectively imposed alternative sentences often turn into disproportionately long custodial sentences. 
  • Criminal policy is not linked to social policy – we address social problems with repression instead of timely support and prevention. 

Impact on society 

  • Czechia has the third highest imprisonment rate in the EU – only Hungary and Poland are ahead of us. 
  • Prison is the most expensive form of punishment – it costs CZK 13.5 billion per year. 
  • The lifetime cost of a single repeat offender reaches CZK 51.9 million. 

What we have achieved 

Long-term systemic changes 

  • We initiated legislative changes that introduced new alternative sentences. 
  • We piloted the application of probation and mediation in the Czech Republic (1996–2000). 
  • We initiated the establishment of the Probation and Mediation Service and prepared a pilot training course for employees of this new judicial institution (2001). 

Programmes we have created 

  • PUNKT Family – probation programme for juvenile offenders
    Adopted by the Probation and Mediation Service (2021). 
  • Roma Mentoring
    Adopted by the Croatian Ministry of Justice (2021). 

Criminal policy reform (since 2022) 

  • We have established cooperation with academics, state administration, non-governmental organisations and political representatives. 
  • We participated in the creation and implementation of an amendment to the Criminal Code with the potential to reduce the incarceration rate by 10–20%. 
  • We initiated unique research on penological recidivism (link). 
  • We have influenced strategic documents of the Ministry of Justice. 
  • We actively raised public awareness of the need for changes in the judicial system. 

More information 

More detailed information can be found in the document “Proposals of the Association of Organisations Working in Penal Affairs” (Navrhy-AOOV-vezenstvi-a-trestni-politika.pdf).