[Lauchenoiria]

Kerlian News Service

International Edition

Prison reform transfers ‘on track’ – 1,000 prisoners moved already
29th October 2019

The mass transfer of prisoners out of the Restricted Region is on schedule, and is expected to be concluded by the start of August 2020, the government has confirmed. The transfer of all 6,000 prisoners out of the RR was announced on the 19th August after the passage of the landmark prison reform bill supported by President Arnott. In addition to the closing of the RR, the entire Kerlian prison system is undergoing a radical overhaul.

The closing of the Restricted Region was a major pledge of the Reform Party, led by President Arnott. In August this year, shortly before the passage of the prison reform act, the RR held around 6,000 prisoners. Since then, 1,000 have been transferred out of the region. While there remains a number of prisoners in the RR, it is expected to be empty by August 2020, and the carrying out of certain punishments associated with the RR has been banned since July.

Prisoners are being transferred to standard prisons in their home regions of Kerlile – however, some are worried about the possibility of overcrowding once transfers are completed. At present, there is insufficient capacity in standard prisons for all 6,000 former RR prisoners. The government is addressing the problem, by converting closed-down re-education facilities to standard prisons, however.

Since the ending of forced labour in prisons, another change made by the Prison Reform Act, the categorising of various facilities has been the source of confusion, as Kerlile’s previous 9-category system is changed to a 3-category system. Prisoners in pre-reform Level 4-7 facilities were expected to perform involuntary labour, however with the ending of this system there has been a dispute over where prisoners should be transferred.

“The basic facilities in almost all prisons outside of the Restricted Region are the same,” says Wendy Assink, one of the civil servants responsible for the implementation of the Prison Reform Act. “A common misconception is that different levels of prison were build differently, when in fact the main difference was the number of guards and the schedule prisoners had to follow. It is therefore entirely possible to change the category of a building without too much restructuring.”

Sources close to the Council have suggested that, in an effort to tackle overcrowding, President Arnott may order a review of sentencing procedures, and introduce legislation aiming to make sentences for certain crimes shorter, including: various anti-matriarchal activity offences, certain drug offences, and crimes relating to unauthorised access of foreign material online.