RESTRICTED FREEDOM

To be an outcast condemned not only by the law, but also by society, is the fate of many former prisoners. It is not only in Azerbaijan that people who have served time in prison encounter this problem. Even in the most developed countries, many pay for their mistakes and crimes not just in prison, but also upon release, living with the brand of "convict".

Undeniable facts and evidence - reports by government agencies and non-governmental organizations say that after coming out of prison, former prisoners find it very difficult to rejoin society. It is especially difficult for women. As a result, many of them are abandoned by their husbands and also by their children, relatives and friends. Both men and women find it difficult to solve the problem of employment and accommodation. Society itself pushes these people towards the criminal world - an environment that becomes part of their life and makes them feel more comfortable. Meanwhile, in Western countries, conditions in prisons are so good that former prisoners are not afraid to return when they encounter the difficulties of freedom. In Azerbaijani the situation is somewhat different. There are still no "comfortable" conditions in prisons in our country, which is why former inmates have no special desire to return to prison. But the life of these "outcasts" outside prison is so difficult that they see a return to crime as the only way out. This is the easy way out and it blurs the memories of harsh, prison life.

Way to freedom

The only way out of the current situation at the moment is to implement the law "On the social rehabilitation of people released from penitentiary facilities" which came into force on 31 May 2007. The country continues to discuss how this law should be implemented and what should be done to make it effective. Relevant agencies and heads of NGOs have organized several events on this subject. Experts, for example the head of the EL centre for development programmes, Elmira Alakbarova, say that the special importance of this law is that as the country has launched measures to ease the life of former prisoners, the issue of improving conditions in prisons will also be raised very soon. We should point out that the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice is carrying out certain work in this direction. But the most important task for state and public organizations at the moment is the painless integration of former prisoners into public life. It is important for these people to realize that they do not have to pay for their mistakes all their lives. Society itself should also change its stereotypes. But to start with, we have to make sure that former prisoners can satisfy their most basic needs.

According to Hadi Racabli, chairman of the permanent parliamentary commission on social policy affairs, measures are planned which will ensure the social adaptation of former prisoners. "Social adaptation centres will be set up. Moreover, immediately after their release, former prisoners will get a one-off financial benefit worth two minimum salaries. Initially, it is planned to provide accommodation to people who have nowhere to live and to give them medical, psychological and legal assistance with employment and education."

However, Alakbarova thinks that former prisoners need more than just one-off financial benefits. "It is important for them to get support until they find a job. This is an important aspect that requires special attention," this expert believes.

To prevent a relapse

According to the chairman of the Association for the Monitoring of Prisons of Azerbaijan, Kamil Salimov, helping people released from prison to find jobs and establish their lives is one of the main ways of preventing a relapse into crime.

"The behaviour of an individual person after serving his punishment depends not only, and not so much, on the results of punitive-educational measures as on the influence of post-penitentiary rehabilitation. Some of these policies help improve the results of correctional-educational measures, while others lead to new crimes. Punishments involving a convict's isolation from society, which are imposed and served beyond the environment the convict is used to, lead to the weakening, and sometimes even loss, of socially useful relations, a significant restriction of social roles and changes in the personality of the former convict. After release and return to the previous social environment, problems of adaptation are faced even by people who committed their crime in mitigating circumstances."

Experience shows that people released from prison are not well-adapted to freedom. Problems of rehabilitation arise not only from the preparation for release, but also from the perception by convicts of the new ethical norms and rules of behaviour in a society with emerging market relations.

The chairman of the association thinks that it is necessary to set up special centres of social rehabilitation that help former prisoners in the major cities of Azerbaijan. It would also be helpful to publish a special information bulletin in which people released from prison could find out about job opportunities beforehand. This list should represent all the regions of Azerbaijan where there are jobs. 

"Before the adoption of the law 'On the social rehabilitation of people released from penitentiary facilities", the law and other legal acts of Azerbaijan did not really provide for any specific measures and guarantees on the social rehabilitation of people released from prison," Kamil Salimov says. "For this reason, social adaptation centres should, above all, provide former prisoners with assistance in solving the social problems of legal protection. Apart from this, it is necessary to offer social, spiritual and medical aid and moral and material support. Assistance in creating jobs, getting accommodation, finding jobs and humanitarian aid (medicines, food and clothes) is of great importance as well."

But the most important element of the rehabilitation of former prisoners is the formation of a positive attitude towards them in society, so that people who have served time in prison do not see themselves as outcasts, the expert thinks. The life of the state depends not only on what people are like after they are released from prison, but also on the place they will occupy in their new situation.

Russian experience

Since 1995, the Russian Federation has been taking specific measures to render social aid and support to people who have served time in prison. In a number of regions, the local authorities and individual organizations have set up social adaptation centres to put up people who have no accommodation. Former prisoners can apply to that centre. In St Petersburg, there is a centre of social, psychological and legal research, a men's home for 15 people who have been released from prison, and a crisis service of psychological aid and anti-suicide psychotherapy to prevent suicide among former prisoners. There is a programme called Tod for prisoners (a prisoner spends half a year preparing for his release and half a year adapting to freedom).

There are also state institutions dealing with this issue. One of them is the centre for the social rehabilitation of people released from prison. It was set up on the initiative of the St Petersburg city hall in 1993. The centre provides temporary accommodation in a men's home for 40 people where they can live for six months, it helps them to find a job and register in their place of residence.

There are similar night houses in other Russian cities: Yekaterinburg and Perm. In St Petersburg, there is also a charity foundation to help prisoners "Pomoshch", which was registered in 1994. Its purpose is to create conditions for the rehabilitation of prisoners and those who have been released from prison, adapt them to the new conditions of life in society and reduce the rate of relapse into crime.