Romanian convicts who authored scientific works, inventions could have their terms shortened

The Romanian Senate passed on Monday, November 13, a legislative proposal that brings several changes to the conditions under which convicts can be released before they serve their full term, Mediafax reported. The proposal was drafted by MPs of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). After the Senate, the proposal will be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies, which has the final say on it. The authors of the proposal say that the current legislation needs to be changed because of the state of Romania’s prisons, which are overcrowded and have improper detention conditions. This April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that detention conditions in Romanian prisons are in breach of the European Convention of Human Rightsand “point to a structural deficiency requiring the adoption of general measures by the state.” As such, the initiators of the project propose a shorter prison time for convicts who serve terms not exceeding 10 years so as they can be released if they served at least half of their due term, instead of the currently required two thirds. Those serving terms higher than 10 years could be released if they already served two thirds of their sentence term, instead of three fourths at present. At the same time, convicts serving prison terms of between 3 and 13 years for non-violent crimes, as well as those serving prison terms of 1 to 3 years for violent crimes could initially serve their sentence in a semi-open detention regime, according to proposals in the project. Those sentenced to prison terms of up to one year could serve it as house arrest. Another proposed change concerns those who have authored published scientific works, and patented inventions and innovations. For each published work and patented invention, their term could be shortened by 20 days, according to the proposal. Last year, the Anticorruption Directorate DNA started looking into the so called “prison literature” phenomenon. Many white-collar convicts, who had been sentenced to jail for corruption following DNA’s investigations, had taken advantage of a legal loophole to shorten their stay in jail by writing scientific papers and books. This October, a law that provides a 6-day sentence reduction for each 30 days a detainee spends in improper conditions came into force in Romania. New law releases thousands of inmates in Romania editor@romania-insider.com