“INTRODUCING A PROBATION SYSTEM THROUGH A STEP-BYSTEP APPROACH” – REPUBLIC OF CROATIAJana Špero *The Republic of Croatia is a European country, located at the seam of central andSoutheast Europe. It is a Mediterranean country with more than 1,200 islands on theAdriatic Sea. On the north it borders with Slovenia and Hungary, on the east with Serbia,
on the south with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, while a long maritime borderseparates Croatia from Italy. The Republic of Croatia became independent after thedissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. After the war forindependence, Croatia started to grow as a new country and today it is recognized as a
successful and developing economy and State. Croatia became a member state of theEuropean Union on 1 July 2013 and still is the youngest member state in the EuropeanUnion. The capital city of the Republic of Croatia is Zagreb, and the population is 4.3
million.
One of the youngest parts of the Croatian criminal justice system is the Probation
Service. In a short period of time the Probation Service became an important professionalpart of the enforcement of sanctions for persons who committed a crime with a strong
orientation to resocialisation and rehabilitation of offenders in the community. The
Probation Service in Croatia is part of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration. It
is part of the Directorate for Prison System and Probation, formed as a Sector for Probation.
The Sector for Probation consists of a central office and 14 local probation offices.
Probation tasks have the purpose of protecting the community from the offender by
resocialization of the offender and helping him/her to be reintegrated in the community and,as such, these tasks are of special interest for the Republic of Croatia.
The prison system has a long history, and prison sentences are also based on
rehabilitation. However, the purpose of probation is to make enforcement of sanctions morehumane and effective and by resocialization and reintegration of the offender making thecommunity safer. So, when deciding on introduction of the Probation Service to thecriminal justice system in Croatia, it is important to point out that when it comes to successof rehabilitation, short prison sanctions should be the last option. It was also important tobear in mind the financial benefit of probation supervision. Probation supervision is lessexpensive than a prison sentence. Offenders on probation do not have 24/7 care of the Stateand must provide all life necessities on their own.
When talking about the development of the probation system in the Republic of Croatia,
we must go back in history before the service was developed to see the roots of it. The
concept of probation already existed in the Croatian legal system, though not in its present
form. For many years measures had been available for juvenile offenders in Croatia, andthese measures were very similar to probation. For adult offenders a suspended sentencewith protective supervision as a sanction, though different in form from probation, wasregulated in 1976 by the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federal Republic*Assistant Minister, Prison System and Probation, the Republic of Croatia.

- 127 - 127 -of Yugoslavia. After declaring its independence, the Republic of Croatia took over this Act
and the sanction was kept and developed. Croatia’s Criminal Code of 1997 introduced thepossibility of replacing prison sentences with community work orders.
First community sanctions and measures started being implemented at the end of 2001,
after a new Croatian Criminal Code came into force. The new Criminal Code led to thedevelopment of the special Supervision of Suspended Sentence and Community ServiceAct. But at that time, the enforcement of these sanctions was within the jurisdiction of theDirectorate for Prison System, and community sanctions were executed by professionals
who had university degrees mainly in social pedagogy, social work and psychology, andwho were employees of the Ministry of Justice or Ministry of Social Welfare. Thesepersons were called “commissioners”, and they had their full-time jobs in prisons,penitentiaries, correctional institutions for juvenile offenders, social welfare centres etc., sothey would only work with offenders part time. The best value of this early system was thatcommissioners were promoting the idea of probation in the wider community. This systemdemonstrated that Croatia was open to the concept of alternative sanctions and was readyto work with offenders in the community.
After that initial period, the need to establish and develop a more integrated probation
system was recognized by the government. This new development was supported by theCouncil of Europe recommendations and other positive European practices. It is also
important to underline that this was a time during Croatia’s accession negotiations for EU
membership and related judicial reforms, so we can say that there was “a good wind” forthe development of the Probation Service.
After the judicial reforms started in 2005, a strong initiative was presented to further
develop the probation system. The main goals of the reform were to: reduce the number ofprisoners in overcrowded prisons, make enforcement of criminal sanctions more humaneand help to reintegrate offenders into the community taking into consideration its safety.
During that time, the Government had concerns about the large prison population and lackof effective means to secure many early release cases.
Looking for solutions, there was strong support for the development of probation, andit was decided to get European experience as help for developing the best model. At thetime, there were many European projects available to help and support Croatia during thenegotiating time to become a member state of the EU. Within the framework of the CARDS
2004 project, the Ministry of Justice, Directorate for Prison System with National Offender
Management System from the UK, conducted in 2007 the EU Twinning light project“Support to the Development of a Probation System in Croatia”. Within this project, anarray of European practices and experiences was reviewed, enabling Croatia to consider awide range of options in the strategic planning process. Also, the gaps and needs analysis
regarding the establishment of a probation system in Croatia was conducted. At the end of2007, as a main result of the project, Croatia had a five-year strategy for the establishmentof a Probation Service in Croatia.
The process of building the new service formally started after the Strategy for theDevelopment of the Croatian Probation Service 2008-2012 was adopted. The strategy
defined two main goals: (1) the development of professional practice and (2) thedevelopment of a professional organization. This short process might be called “from ideato professional service”. It included aspects such as solving diverse legal matters, capacity- 128 - 128 -management, human potentials, infrastructure, partnerships, evaluation, stakeholders andcommunication issues.
The key year was 2009 when the first ever Probation Act was passed in CroatianParliament. Unfortunately, not all other aspect were ready for a start of a probation service
so “the theory and practice” were timely separated for a short period of time. During 2010,
by-laws were prepared, infrastructure was organized (finding venues for probation offices,preparing offices) and we were conducting tenders for “future” probation officers.
So, the first Probation Act in Croatia was enacted in 2009 and the first probation offices
opened in 2011. At the same time offices were opened, in 2011, a series of trainings forprobation officers was organized on a regular basis. Since the beginning of 2013, theprofessional probation service has been available to all citizens because all anticipatedprobation offices were opened by then. During the first few years of practice, it was noticed
that Croatia needed a broader net of probation offices, so two new offices were opened in
2018. During the first years of its existence the Probation Service was separated from thePrison System. However, after 6 successful years of probation it was decided in 2017 tomerge prison and probation under the same directorate in the Ministry – the Directorate for
the Prison System and Probation and this is the current organization structure.
Regarding the law, after the first Probation Act in 2009, in 2013 a big change happened.
There were new changes to the Criminal Code that gave jurisdiction to the Probation
Service in more tasks. Following the changes in the Criminal Code, the new Probation Act
was also prepared and enforced from the beginning of 2013. With this new jurisdiction
Probation Service doubled the number of cases. Five years later, in 2018, again a newProbation Act entered into force. There was no “big news” with this third law. However, it
was prepared to have legal background of all the situations that probation officers have hadin the probation practice since the beginning of the work of the professional Probation
Service in Croatia.
If we show the growth of the Probation Service in the Republic of Croatia like thebuilding of a house, we can say that ground floor was first Probation Act in 2009, the mainpart of the house was infrastructural preparations in 2010, followed by preparation of all
relevant by laws in 2011 and a new law in 2013. The upper part of this house is the merger
with the prison system in 2017 and a new law and two new offices in 2018. The roof
consists of all the challenges during 2020: Covid-19 and earthquakes in Croatia. Also, thereis the plan for future development – steps forward into introducing electronic monitoring.
Considering all above, we are proud that today the Probation Service in Croatia isrecognized as a valued and important part of the Croatian criminal justice system.
Introducing new services had many challenges. In order to become a professional andvalued part of criminal justice we had to gain trust and respect from other stakeholders andprepare the ground for good and smooth cooperation. We had to show that we bring added
value and in order to do so, we had to have motivated probation officers. We had to beprofessional, and we had to enforce different tasks of supervision and help for offenders inorganized infrastructure of the probation service from the beginning. Also, it is always
important to show the effect of the Probation Service. In Croatia, the Probation Service
received more than 35,000 cases, out of which 30,000 cases are completed, 89.5 per centcompleted successfully. Verification of the effect of the Probation Service can also bemeasured by the statistics. Taking into account that in Croatia one of the goals was to lower- 129 - 129 -the number of prisoners, it is also important to see the ratio between prison and probation.
During the beginning of the work of Probation Service back in 2011, the Probation service
received 1,067 cases while there were 5,084 prisoners within the Prison System at the sametime. In 2012 the Probation Service received 1,573 cases for enforcement, and there were
4,741 persons serving prison sentences. In 2013 the Probation Service received 3,304 cases.
Over the next few years the number of cases was increasing in probation while the numberof prisoners was decreasing: in 2014 the Probation Service received 3,618 cases and there
were 3,763 prisoners; in 2015 the Probation Service received 3,911 cases and there were3,306 prisoners, in 2016 the Probation Service received 4,147 cases and there were 3,079
prisoners. From 2017 the Probation Service stabilized the number of cases (3,544 in 2017;
4,211 in 2018; 3,825 in 2019) while the number of prisoners started slowly increasing(3,190 in 2017; 3,217 in 2018; 3,533 in 2019). The numbers show that the Sector forProbation has become an important partner in the criminal justice system, acknowledged
and valued by judges, state attorneys, police and the prison system. Second, an important
fact for the verification of the effect of the Probation Service is the financial benefit. One
day for one offender on probation costs 1.5 Euro, while one day for one prisoner costs 55
Euro. On top of this, we must consider that 500,000 to 600,000 hours of community work
are performed by offenders on probation every year. This unpaid work for the benefit of
the community must be pointed out when evaluating the financial benefits of probation.
Probation Officers are civil servants, employees of the Ministry of Justice and Public
Administration. Every local probation office (14 in total in Croatia) has a Chief of theOffice, Probation Officers and administrative staff. Probation Officers hold a degree in law,
psychology, social pedagogy, social work or pedagogy, and are authorized to perform
probation tasks in accordance with the Probation Act. There is also a special training for a
new employee when becoming a probation officer and there are many specific programmes
to be trained after. The Central Office manages coordination and service development.
At this moment, we can say that Croatia has a Probation Service capable of delivering
a wide range of high-quality services. All probation cases are managed through theInformation System, an electronic database accessible by all employees via a web interface.
The Information System is used as a registry of all persons supervised and as a management
programme supporting administrative processes. At first, this was a Probation Servicesystem only, but after the merger, we have a new information system for prison andprobation. The new system will be in the future connected with other relevant national
information systems (police, health system, prosecution, courts ...).
The Sector for Probation in Croatia supervises adult offenders only, and probation tasks
are performed through the entire criminal process: from pre-trial to the post-releasesupervision. The Probation Service is a treatment service. Treatment work starts after final
judgment of the competent court. The Probation Service controls the offender and provides
help to the offender. Tasks include education, support, work on learned behaviour with thespecial alert regarding the family situation and personal circumstances. The key idea is forthe offender to adopt non-violent forms of behaviour in order to have a safe community.
This process is only possible if the Probation Service has excellent cooperation with courts,
police, prison service, prosecutors, social services, health institutions, NGOs, universities
and other relevant institutions.

- 130 - 130 -Bearing in mind that the Probation Service is still a young service, it must promoteitself. There must be different types of promotion for cooperating organizations and for thelay public.
Although the Probation Service in Croatia is now a well-established professionalorganization, it still uses all possibilities to grow and to get to know good practice fromother countries. The financial and expert assistance of the EU has been important in thedevelopment of the Sector for Probation in the Republic of Croatia from the beginning andstill is. Starting from 2019 the Croatian Probation Service started new projects from theEuropean funds. We also started a partnership with Norway under the Norwegian financial
mechanism, preparing the permanent introduction of the use of electronic monitoring in thecriminal justice process as a new task of the Probation Service in the future. Project areimportant for the growth of the service and help broaden ideas regarding the probation
possibilities. Every new service should have contact with services from abroad in order to
get good ideas and also to avoid mistakes.
Further development of the Croatian Probation Service should head in two directions:the strengthening of its internal capacities, stronger affiliation with other stakeholders andthe expansion of the scope of the tasks it performs, as well as the advancement in executing
existing tasks. Improvement of professional competencies is a continuous process, and wewant to maintain a high standard of staff competence. Croatia wants the best probation
service we can have and want to create a performance led culture which values quality andcontinuous improvement. The Croatian Probation Service has excellent results andknowledge in building new service, and we are willing to help all services in need.

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