Convicts in Kazakhstan will have their terms and places of imprisonment changed.

In Kazakhstan, the repurposing of emergency security institutions and the transfer of convicts to other colonies with the recalculation of terms is coming. The details were told at the briefing by the head of the special accounting department of the Committee of the Criminal Executive System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kairat Asyl, Tengrinews.kz correspondent reports.

On May 20, the law “On amendments and additions to certain legislative acts on human rights in the field of criminal proceedings, execution of punishment, as well as the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” came into force in Kazakhstan. Among other innovations, it contains fundamentally new criteria for the distribution of convicts to places of serving their sentences.

In particular, those serving their first sentence will be placed in medium security institutions. Convicts who have previously been imprisoned for other crimes will be sent to maximum security institutions, regardless of whether their criminal record has been expunged. At the same time, convicts of the last category who are already in medium security institutions will not be transferred to maximum security institutions.

“Emergency security institutions will be repurposed into maximum security institutions, with the exception of one institution in the city of Zhitikara (“Black Golden Eagle” - approx.), which will house only those sentenced to life imprisonment,” Asyl also said.

In relation to convicts held in emergency and maximum security institutions, materials will be sent to the court on changing the type of institution assigned by the sentence.

“Convicts whose type of institution is changed by court decisions to a medium security institution will have their sentence recalculated taking into account the requirements of Article 62 of the Criminal Code, which regulates that the time spent in custody before the sentence enters into legal force is counted towards the sentence at the rate of one day per day and a half day of serving a sentence in a medium security institution,” said the head of the special accounting department of the Correctional Institution.

After the court decisions on changing the type of institution come into force, convicts will be transferred to colonies as close as possible to the places of residence of their relatives.

“Previously, the number of convicts serving their sentences at the place of residence of relatives was about 60 percent. After the implementation of the law, a significant increase in this figure is expected. It is predicted that this work will be completed by the end of this year,” the policeman added.

Let us remind you that on July 1, the Social Code comes into force in Kazakhstan. This document provides for the possibility of paying a monthly allowance for some Kazakh prisoners.