Valiantsin Stefanovich: Stable communication with relatives helps rehabilitate offenders

According to the amendments to the law “About the order and conditions of detention”, adopted in the first reading by the House of Representatives, the length of short-term meetings of prisoners with their relatives will be reduced from three to two hours. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihar Shunevich, it is made "solely for educational purposes, to influence the behavior of those who are in custody".

Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" Valiantsin Stefanovich notes that the prisons of civilized countries have a completely different practice: in the West, one of the basic principles and approaches to rehabilitation is the prisoner's relationship with his family. And even if a person violates the conditions of detention in prison, he could be put in a punishment cell, deprived of many privileges, amnesty, parole, but not from phone calls and visits with family, because it is stable ties with relatives that help rehabilitate offenders, giving a chance to a prisoner to rethink his actions and amending his ways instead of following the path of crime.