Jail is the only way...

2024-11-02 21:30:00, Opinione Lutfi Dervishi

Lutfi Dervishi

Several Albanian teenagers are arrested in Belgium for robbing houses. The rest of the group escapes from the police and returns to Albania. The court in Brussels gives a suspended sentence. They return to Tirana to be with their friends. Based on the Belgian authorities' file, the serious crimes prosecution here examined the case for the rest of the group that had escaped Belgian justice. In the courtroom they see that their comrades (soldiers) receive heavy sentences, minimum: 7 years in prison! The law! Imagine the trajectory these young people's futures took.

It is the case where the first and last answer to any type of crime or violation is: prison, prison, prison.

From the most minor crimes, such as non-payment of electricity bills, to the most serious crimes of international drug trafficking, it seems as if Albanian law often functions as a juggernaut - it becomes a butcher's knife for ordinary citizens and turns into a rubber knife for big criminals.

A week ago in Fier, the court sentenced a retired couple (73 years old) to 14 years in prison for "exploitation of prostitution"! And to think that for big issues this figure seems as distant as Mount Kilimanjaro!

In Albania, there are some black records regarding the punishment policy. We are the country with the highest number of requests for international arrest in Interpol. And for what crimes do we declare an international search?

An example that illustrates the absurdity: an Albanian citizen was extradited from Athens for non-payment of an electricity bill of 28,000 thousand ALL. The costs that the Albanian state paid for his behavior to carry out the sentence are five times higher than the outstanding obligation of the citizen. Is this kind of expense worth it for such occasions?

This brutal criminal justice policy has led to a frightening figure. Since 1991, we have 380,000 citizens sentenced to prison. 380 000 convicts! 380 000! This figure does not include those who have been sentenced to probation or community service. Today, one in four people is sentenced to a final prison sentence!

This is a black record established both with the help of the legislator and with the help of justice. It is absurd, but we still have articles of the criminal code that punish from a fine to 10 years in prison!

But when it comes to drugs, the absurd reaches new heights. A foreign teenager caught at the border with four grams of hashish risked a sentence of five to fifteen years in prison for "international trafficking," because "that's the law." But the case in Sukth when 700 kilograms of cocaine were seized was treated as "illegal possession," with a maximum sentence of four years. The law!

This situation is scandalous, senseless, deeply unfair and unacceptable!

Another black record held by the country is the number of detainees with prison terms. If in the EU, the measure of imprisonment is an exception, here it has become the norm. (In Albanian prisons, 62% are in custody and 38% are serving the sentence after the Court's decision. This is a world record!

Considering the numbers and the situations: the new Penal Code is not just desirable, but necessary.

Instead of focusing on harsh punishment for every case, justice must move from an automatic approach: "prison for everything" to a "differentiated" and "proportional" approach.

Legislative interventions are needed to protect ordinary citizens from excessive punishment and to focus the energies of the justice system on punishing those who commit serious crimes/"intellectual crimes".

A new criminal policy must focus on proportionality and alternatives to imprisonment, creating a system that not only punishes, but primarily prevents and rehabilitates.

Penalization for administrative offenses such as non-payment of bills or minor drug possession crimes can serve as clear examples where prison sentences can be replaced by other appropriate punishments, such as community service or fines, saving system energy and public funds.

The "prison, prison, prison" approach criminalizes society. A new Penal Code, based on proportionality and treating cases according to their real dangerousness, would contribute to becoming a country where justice responds to crime effectively, without sacrificing ordinary citizens and public funds.