PROBATION SERVICE IN REPUBLIC OF
CROATIA
Jana Špero,
Head of the Sector for Probation
Ministry of Justice of the RoC
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The Probation Service in the Republic of
Croatia is a new service
Croatian Criminal Justice System was engaged
in a series of reforms within the Republic of
Croatia Accession to the European Union
(Croatia is a member of EU since 1st July 2013 )

The judicial reform carried out has provided a
strong support to the development of the
Probation System in Republic of Croatia
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Croatian Probation Service was set up as an
administrative organization under the Ministry of
Justice of the Republic of Croatia
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF
CROATIA
Directorate for Criminal Law
and Probation
SECTOR FOR
PROBATION
All the tasks within the scope of the Sector for
Probation are conducted in the Central Office and
12 Probation Offices:
ESTABLISHMENT OF A PROFESSIONAL
ORGANIZATION
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As regards juvenile offenders, the Republic of Croatia has
a long history of conducting measures similar to
probation measures
Regarding adult offenders, in 1999, the RoC started
implementing protective supervision and community work
(a special law was adopted)- the system was established
under the Prison system directorate by engaging
“commissioners”
The increase of “alternative sanctions and measures”- as a
way of reducing the costs of the criminal justice system –
first Law on Probation adopted in 2009.
Pre-trial
Supervision of fulfilling
obligations arising from
the Decisions issued by the
State Attorney (when
deciding on criminal
proceedings in accordance
with the principle of
opportunity)
Reports to the Prosecutor
(State Attorney)
Reports required for
deciding on the measures
of supervision and
protection during pre- trial
Criminal trial
Pre-sentence reports to
the Court
Enforcement of
“alternative
sanctions”
Enforcement of
sanction
Protective supervision
ordered with:
Protective supervision
ordered with:
-Suspended sentence
-conditional release
-Community work
-upon the end of the
prison sentence
Community service:
-acquiring consent for
replacing a prison
sentence with community
work
- organization of the
community work
-supervision of the
community work
Reports for prisons or
penitentiaries
(CW:1d=2h)
Reports for courts when
deciding on the
termination of sentence
and conditional release
( September 2014.)
active cases
3059
CONDITIONAL RELEASE
742
COMMUNITY WORK
2008
SUSPENDED SENTENCE WITH
SUPERVISION
206
Probation Service was in 2014 engaged in flood
damage recovery
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flooding in the Eastern part of Croatia in
2014
Sava River reached record highs, rupturing
river
embankments,
several
thousand
residents needed to be evacuated from the
flooded areas
the Probation Service saw the chance for
offenders on probation to provide the best
possible “community service”

all Probation Offices were ordered to urgently
provide reports on the number of offenders
who were sentenced to community service
and who meet the criteria to be employed in
the recovery of the flooded areas
The Probation Service had close cooperation
with:
 the National Protection and Rescue
Directorate,
 local authorities,
 Red Cross,
 Caritas,
 Military, police forces, firefighters
 other authorities involved in the recovery.
During this difficult period, the Probation
Service seized the opportunity for its
contribution in two different ways:
 by identifying and sending as many
probationers as possible to the flooded areas
to provide immediate assistance in recovering
damages
 by instructing all available probationers to
report to those legal entities which collected
humanitarian aid
Within 24 hours a group of 30 probationers was put
together
They were situated at the Volunteer Camp in the
affected area.
They provided much needed assistance by:
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clearing roadways, yards
removing decayed carcasses
pumping the water out of residences, cellars
and other similar necessary work
Besides help on-site, they also unloaded and sorted out
humanitarian aid and maintained the camp grounds
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Due to the specificity of the tasks (extremely
challenging conditions and complex group
dynamics) the probation officers conducted
daily motivational conversations with the
probationers in the field with the aim to
provide for the best continuing performance.
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physicians who are involved in the Probation
Service were also engaged and tasked with
visiting and giving their support to the
evacuated population
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The probation officers regularly participated
in the work of the local crisis staff
Offenders
on
probation,
continuously
performed their work from 30 May until the
closing of the Volunteer Camp on 23 June,
completing over 11000 hours of community
service
Ministry of Justice of the Republic
of Croatia
Directorate for Criminal law and
Probation
Sector for Probation
Ulica grada Vukovara 49
10 000 Zagreb
CROATIA
tel: +385 1 37 14 234
fax: +385 1 37 14 299
e-mail: probacija@pravosudje.hr
e-mail: jana.spero@pravosudje.hr