ALTERNATIVES TO
IMPRISONMENT
COMMUNITY SENTENCE
IN NORWAY
(PROBATION)
Author:
Tamara Rojšek
May, 2009.
Probation:
In modern criminal administration,
allowing a person convicted of some
offense to remain free under a
suspension of a jail sentence during
good behavior and generally under the
supervision or guardianship of
probation officer together with other
restrictions as the court may impose.
The police force in Norway is subject to the decisions of the
Public Prosecution Authority in criminal investigations and
the determination of whether criminal proceedings are to
be initiated.
The police are supervised by the Ministry of Justice in
police functions bearing upon public order.
Officials in the higher echelons of the police belong to the
Public Prosecution Authority, which is responsible for
determining if the evidence in given cases is sufficient to
warrant criminal prosecution.
Criminal cases may be considered by either a district court
or the High Court (for serious offenses).
Appeals are heard by the Supreme Court.
General penalties are imprisonment, detention, and fines.
As of January 1980, probation and aftercare were
transferred to a national system, and such services
previously provided by private organizations were
terminated.
The Department of Prison and Probation in the
Ministry of Justice deals with issues of prison
administration, probation, and aftercare.
The staff of the Probation and Aftercare Service
consists of a division head, executive officers, a
psychologist, social workers, managers, therapists,
and a part-time teacher.
Background reports are prepared on defendants
and offenders, and services are provided to help
clients adjust satisfactorily in the community.
Probation services do not duplicate and
attempt to use services provided by existing
community institutions.
The Probation and Aftercare Service provides
those services that do not already exist in
the community.
The primary purpose of the officer-client
relationship is to provide assistance to the
client in assessing his/her situation and
develop strategies for resolving problems.
The Service may assist in education,
vocational training, and the provision of
housing
A long, well-prepared community
sentence is a better option to prevent
new crime than a short prison
sentence.
Short prison sentences will in general
not be followed up by any types of
rehabilitation during the stay in
prison and they therefore do not
tackle the underlying factors of the
offending behaviour.
Community sentence
The offender within his local community
should pay back for the crime and harm he
had committed
- The offender is required to give up some
of his free time to undertake unpaid work
for the benefit of the local community and
at the same time the offender could
continue his work, education, contact with
family and friends
-
Unpaid work is designed to teach
the offender pro-socoal attitudes
and behaviour.
The skills and experience gained
by the offender when he carried
out unpaid work, should hopefully
lead them to find paid
employment.
The 1990`s were a decade of great changes for
the Norwegian Correctional Service
An evaluation of community service concluded that
some important changes were required:
- Rules of procedure were lacking
- Breaches should be dealt more firmly and
consistently
- Community service was only based on one
activity – unpaid work. (This provided no flexibilities.
Research had showed that if we paid attention to other activities, such
as employment, treatment, housing, life skills - the chances of
rehabilitation and preventing crime would increase)
-Community service needed more public
confidence
At the same time a closer link between the Probation and
Prison service became in focus and subjects like “what
works”, assessment of need and risk, cognitive programs,
the role of the probation officer enter the stage.
Changes continued into the new millennium and in 2001
they established the Norwegian Correctional Service that
combines both prison and probation.
Community service was reorganized and renamed to
Community sentencepunishment
Throughout 2001, 3304 new probation orders were
implemented.
These were: probation under deferred sentence,
community service, preventive supervision, release on
parole, and conditional discharge. Throughout the year, a
total of 5485 persons were under supervision or completing
community sanctions.
Community sentence is a major sentence,
an alternative to imprisonment.
The sentence represents something new
compared to alternative sanctions used in
the rest of Europe: The Probation service is
given the authority to make the necessary
decisions during the execution of the
sentence at the local level.
In each particular case the probation service
determines the precise content of the sentence.
There are three types of punishments that may be
given separately or in combination:
1. Community service – that is
unpaid work
2. Participation in cognitive skills
programs
3. Other measures that is suitable for
preventing crime
The range of options is very wide and allows lot more
flexibility in how different elements of a sentence can be
combined.
This implies that they may design an individual sentence
and choose specific tools that we think will work best for
each offender.
A long community sentence gives they enough time to
work on the offender’s motivation, problems, way of
thinking and practical issues.
Community sentence is based on three pillars:
Punishment – Reparation – Rehabilitation.
This is the only sentence that incorporate all three notions
and the balance between the three principles is
considerable important.
Punishment
(the aspects of punishment)
Community sentence is not a way of
avoiding punishment, but the offenders
are being punished in another way.
Community sentence includes a broad
range of strict requirements and a
proper planned and resourced
community sentence, is a hardship for
the offender, it is not a soft option.
Reparation
(the aspects of reparation)
Crimes are committed in the community, it is
the community that suffer from the crime
and deserve reparation. There must be a
public confidence that the punishment fits
the crime and that the offender will pay
back for the harm and damage his offending
has caused. The society will be pleased
when the offender is being punished and
that the retributive element is being
satisfied.
Rehabilitation
The most effective way of helping offenders to
change their criminal behaviour, is to address the
factors that contribute to their offending.
Usually that is: lack of employment, education, life
skills, housing, mentally illness, alcohol an drug
problems. Researced has shown that rehabilitative
programs are more effective when they are
delivered as a part of a community sentence.
Because, in the community the offenders can test
themselves in the midst of the reality of daily life.
Some statistics for Nordic countrys :
Resources :
http://www.norlam.md/docs/Willy_Alterna
tives%20to%20imprisonment_en.doc
 www.yorkcounty.gov/districtcourt/glossary.
htm
 http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/ab
stract.aspx?ID=86337
 http://www.kriminalforsorgen.dk/Publika/s
tatistisk_materiale/nordic_statistics/html/k
ap04.htm
