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Strasbourg, 12 June 2002
pc-cp\space\documents\pc-cp (2002) - 3rev e PC-CP (2002) 3 rev.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON CRIME PROBLEMS
(CDPC)

Council for Penological Co-operation
(PC-CP)

SPACE II (Annual Penal Statistics of the Council Of Europe) - community sanctions and measures (CSM) ORDERED IN 1999

prepared by

Mr Pierre V. TOURNIER (France)

FINAL VERSION
 

SPACE II - COMMUNITY SANCTIONS AND MEASURES (CSM)
ORDERED IN 1999

By Pierre Victor Tournier

The present version of SPACE II concerns CSMs ordered in 1999. SPACE II covers only those measures and sanctions applied in the community, as defined by the Council of Europe. According to Recommendation No. R (92) 16, CSMs are to be understood as "sanctions and measures which maintain the offender in the community and involve some restriction of his/her liberty through the imposition of conditions and/or obligations, and which are implemented by bodies designated in law for that purpose." The term, furthermore, "designates any sanction imposed by a court or a judge, and any measure taken before or instead of a decision or a sanction as well as ways of enforcing a sentence of imprisonment outside a prison establishment".

Arrangements for their implementation must entail some form of assistance and supervision in the community (fines or suspended sentences without supervision are therefore not CSMs). SPACE II is not designed to cover all CSMs. It does not cover the sanctions and measures provided for in juvenile criminal law. It only concerns measures taken subsequent to the passing of a sentence. In some countries the prosecuting authorities can choose to impose certain measures which are "taken before or instead of a decision on a sanction". Such measures are not covered by SPACE II.

Specific comments

- The CSMs must have been ordered as principal and not supplementary penalties.

- SPACE II concerns statistics for the CSMs ordered in year n, irrespective of the date of enforcement (year n, subsequent year or not enforced at all).

- SPACE II does not cover measures taken in favour of a prisoner prior to release from a penal institution (semi-liberty for example, unless such measures were ordered ab initio).

- SPACE II does not cover post-prison supervisory or probation measures applied to offenders in the community once they have served their sentence.

Sanctions and measures registered

1. Conditional deferral of a sentence : postponement of the passing of a sentence for a given period in order to assess the convicted person’s conduct over that period.

2. Treatment ordered ab initio for :
a. drug-dependent offenders
b. alcoholics
c. offenders with mental disorders
d. persons convicted of a sexual offence.

3. Compensation ordered ab initio by a criminal court (money payable by the offender to the victim in damages).

4. Community service :
a. a sanction in its own right after an offender has been found guilty
b. a sanction in cases where a fully suspended prison sentence has been passed
c. a sanction imposed in the case of non-payment of a fine
d. unsuspended custodial sentence, followed by community service after release
e. community service performed as part of probation (sanction in its own right) or other forms of community service.

5. Probation :
a. a sanction in its own right after an offender has been found guilty (without the passing of a sentence of imprisonment),
b. a fully suspended prison sentence is passed
c. a partially suspended prison sentence is passed.

It is recalled that these sentences must entail assistance and supervision in the community.

6. Enforcement, in the community, of a sentence involving deprivation of liberty under an electronic monitoring scheme (measure ordered ab initio).

7. Semi-liberty ordered ab initio.

8. Conditional release of an offender before completion of the sentence.

9. Combined sanctions and measures, other than those mentioned in item 5.c : unsuspended custodial sentences, followed by treatment ordered ab initio for :
a. drug-dependent offenders
b. alcoholics
c. offenders with mental disorders
d. persons convicted of a sexual offence.

10. Other sanctions and measures which the respondent considers important in statistical terms and which are not covered by the preceding categories.

For purposes of comparison, data were also collected on prison sentences without either partial or full suspensions, specifying length of sentence.

Presentation of the statistical data

Conventions

Case 1 - When the completed questionnaire explicitly indicates that the CSM does not exist in the legislation of a state, the entry in the tables is "***" meaning "question not applicable".

Case 2 - When the completed questionnaire explicitly indicates that the CSM exists in the legislation of a state but that it was not ordered during the reference year, the entry in the tables is "0".

Case 3 - When the completed questionnaire explicitly indicates that the CSM exists in the legislation of a state but that relevant statistical data are not available, the entry in the tables is
"---".

Case 4 - When it cannot be decided whether the situation is as specified in Case 1 or Case 2 (no CSMs), or rather Case 3 (data not available), a " ?" is entered. This is done when the questionnaire box is left blank or bears a symbol of imprecise meaning (e.g. " / ", " - ").

To sum up :

***
 Question not applicable
 
0
 No CSM ordered, but it exists in law
 
---
 Statistics not available, but the CSM exists in law
 
(***)
 Unable to decide between *** and 0
 
 ?
 Unable to decide between "no CSM ordered" (*** or 0) and "statistics not available" (---).
 

The total numbers for the ten categories of sanctions or measures defined above are given in Table 1.

Tables 2, 3 and 4 contain the data concerning prison sentences without full or partial suspension. These provide a means of comparison for determining the frequency with which the various CSMs are applied.

On that basis we have calculated two indices : a global frequency index (GFI) obtained by finding the ratio of the number of CSMs in a given category ordered in 1999 to the number of prison sentences without full or partial suspension ordered the same year (figure per 100), and a specific frequency index (SFI), calculated as before but including only sentences of less than one year in the denominator.

The GFI figures for each of the main categories are given in Table 5 and the SFI figures on Table 6 (they are not calculated in respect of conditional releases).

Where no sentences of less than one year were ordered, the SFI is obviously valueless, and in this case a cross (x) has been entered in the tables.

Tables 7-11 deal with CSMs which may take different forms : treatment ordered, community service, probation, combined sanctions and measures, and others.

Measures of conditional release (CR) have undergone special processing (Table 12). GFI and SFI figures are not at all meaningful for these measures, which apply to prisoners serving a custodial sentence. It is more instructive to work out a ratio between the number of CRs for the year and the average number of prisoners eligible for them, using as the denominator the number of finally sentenced prisoners present at 1.9.1999 given in SPACE I. At all events this does not represent a "rate of award", as not all prisoners serving sentences necessarily fulfil the prescribed conditions to be granted conditional release.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : Community sanctions and measures ordered in 1999 : numbers

Table 2 : Number of prison sentences ordered in 1999 (without full or
partial suspension) per 100 000 inhabitants

Table 3.1 : Prison sentences ordered in 1999 (without full or partial
suspension) : breakdown according to length/numbers 

Table 3.2 : Prison sentences ordered in 1999 (without full or partial
suspension) : breakdown according to length/percentages

Table 3.3 : Prison sentences ordered in 1999 (without full or partial
suspension) : breakdown according to length/cumulated
frequencies in %

Table 4.1 : Prison sentences of less than one year ordered in 1999 (without full or partial suspension) : breakdown according to
length/numbers

Table 4.2 : Prison sentences of less than one year ordered in 1999 (without full or partial suspension) : breakdown according to
length/percentages

Table 4.3 : Prison sentences of less than one year ordered in 1999 (without full or partial suspension) : breakdown according to
length/cumulated frequencies in %

Table 5 : Community sanctions and measures ordered in 1999 : global frequency index (GFI) per 100 prison sentences (without full or partial suspension)

Table 6 : Community sanctions and measures ordered in 1999 : specific frequency index (SFI) per 100 prison sentences (without full or partial suspension)

Table 7.1 : Treatment ordered ab initio in 1999 : numbers

Table 7.2 : Treatment ordered ab initio in 1999 : percentages

Table 8.1 : Penalties of community service ordered in 1999/numbers

Table 8.2 : Penalties of community service ordered in 1999/percentages

Table 9.1 : Probation measures ordered in 1999/numbers

Table 9.2 : Probation measures ordered in 1999/percentages

Table 10.1 : Combined sanctions and measures ordered in 1999 (other than those indicated in Table 9, item C) : numbers

Table 10.2 : Combined sanctions and measures ordered in 1999 (other than those indicated in Table 9, item C) : percentages

Table 11 : Other sanctions and measures ordered in 1999, perceived as important in statistical terms in the country considered, and not covered by the preceding items

Table 12 : Conditional releases before completion of sentence ordered
in 1999
 
Notes

Denmark : Table 1. : Compulsory treatment ab initio for alcoholics was introduced in July 2000.
Table 9. : Distribution according to the different forms of probation is approximate.

Norway : Table 3.1 : The age bands are 5 years to 11 years and 11 years to 21 years.

Switzerland : The data concerning community service and prison sentences relate to 1998.