Latvians acquaint themselves with Estonian electronic surveillance project

Today, on 28. February, the officials of Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs visit Estonia to gain experience about the application of electronic surveillance. The Latvians are interested in preparing and carrying out the electronic surveillance project in Estonia.

According to the Director of the Rehabilitation Division of the Ministry of Justice, Rait Kuuse, both the officials of the ministry involved in the project and the probation officers concerned will share their experience with the project with their Latvian colleagues. “The Latvians are interested in both the launch of the electronic surveillance system and the choice of equipment for the surveillance. We will certainly discuss the amendments to the legislation necessary for the launch of the project, as well,” explained Kuuse.

The Latvians have been interested in the experience gathered in Estonia before as well. In November 2007 Rait Kuuse took part in a seminar in which he spoke about the Estonian experience to the Latvian probation officers and the representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“As at yesterday, electronic surveillance was applied to 200 people who had been released before the prescribed time – this shows that the project has started very successfully. In the spring of 2007 we estimated that if by the end of the year the electronic surveillance has been applied to 50 persons, then we could consider the project to be successful. With less than a year we have exceeded our estimations many times and the majority of persons have completed the surveillance period successfully," described Kuuse. “Our success has been noticed by our neighbours in the north as well – in addition to the Latvians the Finnish have also shown interest in our project,” Kuuse added.

The first tag was attached on 22 May 2007. During this period electronic surveillance has been completed by 124 persons of whom 9 violated the terms of electronic surveillance and in case of these persons the court decided to enforce the remaining part of the imprisonment sentence.

The electronic surveillance obligation has been completed with a positive result for 114 probationers who will continue their probation without electronic surveillance till the end of their probationary period. At present the number of people under active electronic surveillance is 76.

The highest number of people under electronic surveillance lives in Tallinn and Harju County where the total number is 81 persons), Tartu and Tartu County follow with 51 persons. Most often the court assigns the period of electronic surveillance to be 3-4 months, the total number of people under surveillance with this time limit is 97. But the court has also assigned a period of 1 month (3 times) and it has also considered it necessary to impose a 12-month period for 4 people.