Criminal Policy department and Criminal Sanctions Agency began operations 1.8.2001

1.8.2001
The criminal political tasks of the administrative sector of the Ministry of Justice have been reorganised since the beginning of August. Then the two old organisations, rich in tradition, the Probation Association and the Prison Department, ceased to exist. The duties connected with the enforcement of sentences were transferred to the competence of a new central administrative board, the Criminal Sanctions Agency. In the Ministry of Justice the functions are directed by a new Criminal Policy Department.

The duties of the Criminal Policy Department of the Ministry of Justice include, among other things, general criminal policy, crime prevention and the strategic direction of the enforcement of sentences. The objective of the new department is to create better conditions for the strategic leadership of the field, the planning of criminal policy and cooperation between various actors. The department is headed by Chief Director Esa Vesterbacka.

The Criminal Sanctions Agency is responsible at the central administrative level for the direction of the functions of the community sanctions and correctional treatment and their joint enforcement and administrative duties.

In the context of the reform, the public Probation Association was abolished, and its tasks of enforcement of community sanctions were transferred to the new Probation Service. Its central administration functions within the Criminal Sanctions Agency. The district offices of the Probation Association remained as district offices of the Probation Service. The basic probation tasks have not been altered by the reorganisation: the Probation Service is still in charge of the enforcement of community service and juvenile punishment and the supervision of conditionally sentenced young offenders and conditionally released prisoners. The employees of the association received the status of civil servant as old employees.

The management of Prison Service operations of the the former Prison Administration Department of the Ministry of Justice has been transferred to the new administrative board. The majority of the staff of the Prison Department will continue in the same duties also in the Criminal Sanctions Agency.

The head of the Prison Service is Director General Markku Salminen, who at same time functions as the Head of the Criminal Sanctions Agency. The Probation Service works under the leadership of Chief Director Maija Kukkonen.

The project of reorganizing the criminal political duties of the administrative sector of the Ministry of Justice was started at the beginning of the year 2000, and the Enforcement of Sentences Administration Act (135/2001) was enacted in February 2001.