Superintendence Custody System to be Abolished

In meetings on February 16, the Justice Ministry and the ruling Uri party agreed to put criminals originally subjected to the superintendence custody system under a probation system for a certain period of time after abolishing the system. The system has been criticized as a “double punishment.”

Under the superintendence custody system, violent criminals with several records of burglary and sexual assault, after serving prison terms, are separated from society while working and receiving vocational training. A probation system refers to a system where criminals receive certain kinds of education or are put under surveillance without being separated from society.

The ministry and the ruling party decided the length of probation will be three to five years maximum, and within one third of the criminal’s prison term. Therefore, if the new rules take effect, a violent criminal sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of probation will actually serve 7 years in prison and be on probation for 3 years. If the criminal fails to comply with certain rules, the probation will be cancelled and he will have to serve his prison term again.

As the superintendence custody system is to be abolished, the two parties agreed to consider rape among crimes subjected to the system of violent crime punishment law and revising aggravated punishment law statutes to deal with repeated burglary offenses in a stricter manner.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com