The Prison Service and the Probation Service go down in history – The Criminal Sanctions Agency is the new authority of the criminal sanctions field

The Criminal Sanctions Agency informs on 30 December 2009

A new authority of the criminal sanctions field is introduced in Finland at the beginning of 2010 when the former Criminal Sanctions Agency and the Prison Service and the Probation Service operating under it are united into one authority, which is called the Criminal Sanctions Agency.

The basic units of the new Criminal Sanctions Agency are the community sanction offices and the open and closed prisons. The Criminal Sanctions Agency is divided into three criminal sanctions regions where the preparation of statements, the assessment of sentenced offenders, and the planning of sentence terms based on that assessment are carried out in an assessment centre and the administrative support activities in a regional centre. The Central Administration as well as the Health Care Unit responsible for the health care of prisoners operate nationwide.

– The aim of the reform is to create a united sentence enforcement organisation in which the enforcement of prison sentences and community sanctions is carried out more efficiently than before. The Criminal Sanctions Agency enhances the safety of the society by confining sentenced offenders when they are dangerous but, above all, by promoting the abilities of community sanction clients as well as prisoners to live without crime after having served the sentence. The Criminal Sanctions Agency wants to co-operate actively with other authorities and interest groups, which can promote offenders’ return to normal life after serving a sentence, promises Esa Vesterbacka, Director General of the Criminal Sanctions Agency.

In the reform, the overlapping administration is eliminated and the operation and guidance are unified. Thus, it will be easier to ensure the uniform practices and the equal treatment of sentenced offenders across the country.

By unifying the operations, the aim is to guarantee sentenced offenders continuous support during both imprisonment and release as well as community sanctions. The reform also makes it easier to move the focus from prison sentences to more open sanction forms.

Regional centres in Helsinki, Tampere and Kuopio

The regional centre of the Criminal Sanctions Region of Southern Finland is located in Helsinki, in the Criminal Sanctions Region of Western Finland it is in Tampere, and in the Criminal Sanctions Region of Eastern and Northern Finland it is in Kuopio. Each criminal sanctions region has its own assessment centre and, in the whole country, there are in total 29 prisons and 16 community sanction offices.

The general aim is to place prisoners near their place of residence. Each region has approximately 1 100 prisoner places. The daily number of community sanctions enforced in the regions varies between 1 200 and 1 800. The Central Administration of the Criminal Sanctions Agency is located in Helsinki and the main office of the Health Care Unit is in Hämeenlinna.

The region directors of the Criminal Sanctions Agency have been chosen as follows: Director Katri Järvinen, Master of Laws with court training (Southern Finland); District Prison Director Sauli Hautakangas, Master of Laws (Western Finland); and District Prison Director Mika Antikainen, Master of Social Sciences (Eastern and Northern Finland).

Path to freedom – new logo

In connection with the organisation reform, the Criminal Sanctions Agency also received a new logo. The logo reflects the purpose of the operation of the agency, i.e., a path to freedom (enclosure broschyr).

The symbolic path starts from the offence, which is illustrated with dark grey. Blue represents the serving of the sentence. Green symbolises the release phase supporting the reintegration into society and the start of a new life. At the end of the path, the colour yellow reminds of that goal.

The logotype RISE is an abbreviation of the Finnish name of the Criminal Sanctions Agency, Rikosseuraamuslaitos. The letter I in the RISE logotype represents an upward and forward movement and development.

Further information:
Director General Esa Vesterbacka, tel. +358 10 36 88400, +358 50 528 6180
Head of Information Usko Määttä, tel. +358 10 36 88570, +358 50 331 0067

New name - new organisation (333kB)