Parliamentary Committee Supports Bill on Introducing Chaplaincy in Prisons

The Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement recommends that the Parliament in the to pass the bill number 3233 first reading, the Institute for Religious Freedom reports.

The bill aims to provide legislative regulation of priests (chaplains) in the bodies and institutions of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine.

“The preliminary analysis of the bill suggests the need for legislative regulation of the issue of securing for convicted persons serving sentences in penal institutions and persons taken into custody in detention their constitutional right to freedom of religion to satisfy their religious needs and of clergy (chaplains) providing pastoral care,” stated the committee.

The committee passed the decision, despite some remarks on the bill by the Central Scientific Expert Department of the Verkhovna Rada, which overall also supported the idea of ​​the bill.

However, parliamentary lawyers advised to return the bill to the author for revision to take into account a number of technical and legal observations. Among them: the need to expand the powers of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine in the creation of an advisory body to coordinate the pastoral care of prisoners and to approve the order of the special training of clergy (chaplains), and to clarify the definition of “pastoral care.”

But these remarks to some extent can be taken into account during the preparation for the second reading of the bill, as proposed the Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement.