The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic visited the Women’s Correctional Facility in Pozarevac, the only women’s correctional facility in Serbia with a misdemeanor ward and juvenile ward without detention. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about the inmates’ living conditions, the educational programmes and health care, as well as the Institution’s concern to boost of the inmates’ potential to rejoin society after their prison term.

Following the tour of the facility: production facility, housing for pregnant women and new mothers, mess hall, housing in the closed and semi-closed ward, the NARS Speaker stated that this was an organised institution, adequate to its purpose. Djukic-Dejanovic said that she got the impression that the lack of staff was one of the reasons why the results were not even better because “it is necessary to work more on motivating the inmates who are not motivated to join the social trends and become of service to the community”.

The Speaker was glad to see that the heath care at the facility is not undervalued, but since it houses women ages 18 to 80, other health care professionals should be included so as to fully provide adequate medical treatment which is an elementary human right.

Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic talked to several of the inmates who, as they said, are satisfied, primarily by the educational programmes. To the NARS Speaker’s question about the facility’s positive and negative sides, the inmates said that the hygiene is good while mentioning occasional thievery as bad.

The Speaker said that the visit is just a model of how the deputies should do their duty.

In today’s visit to the facility, the NARS Speaker was joined by Snezana Lakicevic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, William Infante, UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia, and hosted by Milan Obradovic, Head of the Directorate for Enforcement of Penal Sanctions and Anka Gogic Mitic, the administrator of the Women’s Correctional Facility.

The Women’s Correctional Facility currently has 226 inmates. The youngest is 18 and the oldest over 75. The length of their sentences varies between one month and 15 years. Most of the inmates are serving prison terms of less than a year. According to the hosts, the Correctional Facility expects to cooperate with the Ministry of Education and National Employment Service starting from next autumn.