Serving a Juvenile Prison Sentence in the Republic of Srpska

All three laws on juveniles in Bosnia and Herzegovina (i.e., the laws on the protection and treatment of children and minors in criminal proceedings of the Republic of Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina) prescribe a completely identical system of alternative measures and criminal sanctions applied to juvenile perpetrators of criminal offences in criminal proceedings. Consequently, this system consists of: a) alternative measures, i.e.: 1) police reprimands and 2) educational recommendations and b) criminal sanctions for juvenile perpetrators of criminal offences, i.e.: 1) educational measures, 2) security measures and c) juvenile prison. Juvenile prison is the only punishment within that system and certainly the most severe criminal sanction prescribed by law exclusively for older juvenile perpetrators of the most serious criminal offences. With the provisions of the Law on Protection and Treatment of Children and Minors in Criminal Proceedings of the Republic of Srpska, additional rules on the execution of juvenile prison sentences are also prescribed by the Rulebook on the organisation of work and life of minors and young adults serving sentences in juvenile prisons. This paper will discuss the execution of juvenile prison sentences in the Republic of Srpska