Užsienio valstybių probacijos tarnybų veikla

Abstract

The article “Activity of foreign probation services” analyses the peculiarities of work activity of foreign probation services (probation services – public institutions, not subordinated to police and prisons, and the name of which comes from alternative kinds of punishment, i.e. probation), emphasizes qualities that might be applied in the work of Lithuanian system of punishment enforcement while applying alternatives to custodial penalty. It analyses the place and role of probation services in the punishment enforcement system, the functions and content of activity of the probation service staff, their selection and training aspects and practical experience in different foreign countries, such as USA, England, Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Hungary, Szechia, Japan and India. Dissociating itself from common theoretical reasoning about significance of the service it reveals individual experience of every country in the sphere on the ground of penal and of punishment enforcement laws, of legal practice and opinions and works of foreign scientists and other authors. The article reveals the content of the activity of probation services at pre-trial and post-conviction periods in connection with resocialization of inmates which is not implemented by the correctional inspections – the analogue of foreign probation services subordinated to Prison Department at Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania. It also analyses social research of the personality of an offender done by foreign probation services, i.e. four main stages of the research. The article reviews the content and the significance of social report on an offender, the selection and presentation of the material. The article also reviews modern methods used directly in practical work by foreign specialists (eg. “Manupalative techniques”, “Executive technique”, “Guidance technique”, “Counselling techniques”). Besides individual educational activity it reviews the methods of inmates’ work in groups that are actively used by the workers of probation services. It analyses the tasks and demands for the workers of foreign probation services: educational attainments, personal and professional suitability and etc., also deals with in–service training. It also analyses factors and means that decide the effectiveness of the activity of foreign probation services. Descriptive, comparative and logical-analytic methods, permitting to formulate concrete suggestions of what should be done in order the activity of correctional inspections subordinated to the Prison Department at Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania gained character of resocialization work, that is for rather a long time being realized in foreign countries and gives positive results, have been used in the article. Thus the article analyses factors and means that decide the effectiveness of the activity of foreign probation services. In the way of analysis the suggestions are presented how to use more expediently the experience of foreign probation services in work with offenders, grounding the pre–trial social person’s research and the necessity of legalization of drawing up and presenting the pre–trial report for trial, for more effective results.