rhetorics on the other. some real changes. Prisoners are It is difficult in a paper as no longer required to face the brief as this to justify such a wall when staff come into a Prisons in sweeping generalisation. room, for example, and hospital Nonetheless, Table 1 provides staff no longer carry truncheons; data for some very different there have also been welcome states and shows a remarkably improvements to visiting similar pattern: from recent high entitlements (King 1996). levels in the use of custody However, the proposed new Eastern during the period 1985-7 (though Bucharest prison, scheduled for these were not as high as the October 1995 is not now estimates during Stalinist expected to open until the end of purges), there was a fall to 1997, and progress on re-writing unprecedentedly low points in the penal executive code has Europe the period 1989-91 (in some been slow. The upturn in the cases bringing them well within prison population has been most the range of western European dramatic - a two and a half fold Roy King examines the prospects states), only for prison increase between 1990 and 1994 populations to rise again to new - and it continues apace, though Tor retorm. -y n the ^^ since the fai] of highs in 1994. The pattern is it is still some way short of the I the Berlin wall the history of probably typical of most levels before Ceaucescu's 70th Jl imprisonment in Eastern jurisdictions, even if it does not birthday amnesties. Neverthe- Europe and the countries of the hold for all. less, in November 1996, it was former falls into possible to see over 200 remand two distinct parts. In the first, prisoners crammed into bunk the euphoria following independ- Progress in beds, four tiers high and two ence and the winning of new Of the countries listed in Table 1 rows deep on either side of a freedoms focused attention on Poland has most successfully converted day room, and life prisons largely because they transformed its prison system sentence prisoners confined four symbolised past oppression. It and, at its best, it is possible to or five to a tiny cell for twenty- was not enough that high profile see there the kinds of conditions three hours a day. The Director political prisoners should be and activities that are now General had secured a prisons released; there was also a need to achieved for example at a prison allocation for the coming year expunge at least the worst such as Brixton, against similar which exceeded the entire excesses of the past. In some kinds of odds. Although the education budget: it could cases the responsibility for Polish prison population has certainly be well spent, but one increased by more than 50% in wonders about the long term "The death of several prisoners from lack four years the system is not yet future of a country if such overcrowded, at least according spending priorities are main- of oxygen in the overcrowded remand to data supplied to the Council of tained. Following the November prison at Ekaterinburg in 1995 has Europe. Much of Poland's initial elections it is planned to achievement was attributable to civilianise the Romanian prison turned the metaphorical phrase that the Pawel Moczydlowski, an service. This is probably good prison system needs a breathing space academic and long-standing news. The principal argument in critic of the system brought in as favour of retaining the military into a nightmarish reality." director of prisons, but the real connection had been that it measure of success is that the maintained reasonable salary prisons was transferred from reforms have survived his period Interior to Justice departments. levels, the principal argument of tenure and appear to have against that one needs to shift the New prison directors were become routinised. Elsewhere appointed, existing staff in inflexible mind-sets that have the path of reform has been been induced over generations. greater or lesser numbers were altogether more tortuous, though dismissed or chose to leave, and But the virtues of military it is fair to say it has probably discipline should not be dis- with at least one eye to member- had further to go. ship of the Council of Europe, counted. An ability to obey new legislation and penal orders, providing the right orders executive codes were introduced The Romanian are given, can be a powerful and or planned. Prison populations experience speedy instrument for change. fell, in some cases dramatically. Perhaps the half-civilian, half- In the second phase, prison In Romania there have been systems have been required to Table 1 respond to the anomic problems Numbers Held in Penal Institutions and Rates per 100,000 of fledgling market economies: in the inevitable time-lag General Population for Selected Countries between the establishment of new systems of production and 1985-87 Peak 1989-91 Trough Mid-late 1994 distribution, criminal activity is Total Rate Total Rate Total Rate perceived to be filling the USSR ,525,600 vacuum created by the collapse Russia 698,000 470 885,000 590 of the old communist systems. Ukraine 120,000 230 180,000 345 Prison populations have grown * 31,204 310 14,235 140 35,720 345 almost as dramatically as they 14,888 415 8,586 230 12,782 340 fell, sometimes more so, and the Poland 110,182 295 40,321 105 62,71.9 165 fragile basis for reform has been Romania 60,269 265 70 caught between the twin 16,429 43,990 195 pressures of limited resources on the one hand and law and order *Data for Belarus reh tes to sentenced adults only.

CJITI no, 27 Spring 1997 ociologists of the police organisation have long S understood policing to be a central expression of the sovereignty of nation states. To use the somewhat inflated jargon of police studies, police are the repositories of legitimate coercive power that the state uses to ensure its claim to binding rule making over a specified territory. Certainly, policing is not just about coercion. In liberal democracies this institution provides a wide range of services; but all these services, including policing in Folkdevils A dormitory cell in Krakow prison, 1990 & Eurocops military model of the Poles the metaphorical phrase that the strikes the right balance. prison system needs a breathing space into a nightmarish reality. James Sheptycki argues that we The problems in It has just been announced that General Kalinin who has must keep an eye on the debate Russia generally received the credit for The Russian Federation has no the reforms so far achieved has around trans-national policing. plans to change the military taken 'early retirement'. His organisation of its prisons or to departure may not be unrelated to move them from the Ministry of his reported admission that its coercive mode, have one end: the Interior. A new penal deaths of the kind seen at the maintenance of the 'health' executive code has received the Ekaterinburg are not uncommon. of the social body. In short, the approval of the Duma and a If it is related, the question police organisation is one of the presidential signature and should whether it was the fact of the important building blocks of come into force in July 1997. deaths, or his admission of the governance. As governance Providing it is implemented on fact, that was crucial remains. the ground this should solidify Russia, of course, is not the only becomes increasingly the procedural improvements system to lose its Director transnational, so too does first introduced in June 1992. General prematurely - as Derek policing. Notwithstanding these welcome Lewis can testify. East or West Of course, this process is developments, the problems of these are not easy jobs to fill. politically fraught, not least the Russian system are immense, because states are often loath to and by no means limited to its Roy King H give up any dimension of their government reneging on its Centre for Comparative Crimi- sovereign power. Then too, Council of Europe commitment nology and Criminal Justice policing itself is highly politi- to suspend the death penalty. University of Wales, Bangor cised, which is why one of the Increases in the size of the abiding problems for liberal Russian prison population have References on average over the last five Roy D King (1994) Russian democracies is to ensure both years been equivalent to adding prisons after perestroika - end of that police institutions conform the 1995 prison population of the ? British Journal of to the rule of law and that England and Wales every year to Criminology, 34, Special Issue: adequate mechanisms of a system that is already vast; and 62-82. accountability to the social body the Russian incarceration rate - (1996) Prisons in Eastern as a whole are in place and now exceeds that of the United Europe: Some reflections on working well. States. prison reform in Romania, The conditions I described in Howard Journal of Criminal 's Butyrka prison (King, Justice, 35,3,215-31. 1994) had worsened still further United Nations (1995) Report of "In considering the future of European by the time of Nigel Rodley's the Special Rapporteur, Mr Nigel policing we are well advised to remember report as Special Rapporteur for Rodley, submitted pursuant to the United Nations (1995). But Commission on Human Rights the words of William Pitt the Younger: the death of several prisoners resolution 1994137: Visit by the from lack of oxygen in the Special Rapporteur to the 'Necessity is the argument of tyrants; it is overcrowded remand prison at Russian Federation, United the creed of slaves*.** Ekaterinburg in 1995 has turned Nations Economic and Social Council

8 Cjm no. 27 Spring 1997 holiday to Paris. His problem was that he suffered from a condition popularly known as 'short term memory disorder'. He had often got notions about travel abroad and his family had made arrangements with the local travel agents in Loughbor- ough to ensure that their father would not book fabulously expensive holidays in exotic locations. On this occasion, he gave his family the slip and was off on his adventure. He was discovered several days later, sleeping rough under a pedes- trian underpass by French police in the town of Lille. He was lost in a foreign country where he did not speak the language. Fortu- nately, this old fellow had a credit card in his possession and, using the network of European liaison officers that has been built up over the past few years, Thus the process of pointing out, social solidarity is criminals. The underlying theme it was possible to locate his transnationalising policing in partly produced by social groups is always the need to boost the family home. Indeed, police were Europe is made difficult on two setting themselves up against powers of NCIS or MI5 to mount able to trace this man's move- counts. On the one hand, political 'outsiders' and things perceived undercover operations, tap ments over much of his journey representatives who have the as inimical to social order. In this telephones, bug homes and from Loughborough. A patrol national state as their basis of functional sense, the evocation of offices and troll banking records officer visited the family home, political power vie with those folkdevils by professional police and other sources of personal but nobody was there, A who work from transnational is inevitable; it is only natural data in order to combat this neighbour knew the name of the (European) institutions for that the formal agents of social scourge against our civilisation. company for which the eldest son control over policing. On the control draw attention to the role And these national police worked and that information was other, people who are worried they play. agencies are said to need to link passed back through the police about local police matters (a rash up with Interpol or Europol and, communications network. It of burglaries in their neighbour- through these organisations, eventually proved possible for hood, or young people 'hanging Enter the folkdevils other national police agencies police at Dover to call the son on out' and causing trouble, for Having made this qualification, abroad in order that all of this his mobile phone. As it hap- example) wonder about the need there is a sense that the issue of criminal intelligence can be pened, he was stuck in traffic on for policing to take off into the the European! sati on of policing, pooled internationally. Public the M25. A detour was possible, stratosphere of European or, and perhaps policing more debate about the issue of arrangements were made with worse still, global politics. generally, has lost all sense of clandestine police methods and the French police and the old proportion. The need for transnational policing is largely gent was picked up off the ferry international police co-operation obscured by folkdevils, real and at Dover. Police returned this A sense of mission is routinely justified by reference imagined. man to his family in less than However, police are not them- to "the usual suspects": drugs one working day. selves neutral in this process. As and arms traffickers, terrorists, every student of this institution paedophiles, pornographers and A trans-national tale knows, police officers are organised criminals. But a recent My own research in the English A mobile population instilled with a strong sense of study carried out by the Associa- Channel region over the past Without the transnational mission. The notion of the 'thin tion of Chief Police Officers three years has convinced me network of police this man blue line' is not peculiar to the shows that a very small propor- that transnationalised policing is would have eventually got home. British. Sociologically speaking, tion of central squad activity already well developed in After all there is a British we can say that police view (that is the work of Regional Europe. Let me give you one consulate in Lille which would themselves as guarding against Crime Squads and the like) example. Some time ago an have taken responsibility. society's folkdevils. Indeed, actually involves this kind of elderly gentleman, aged 82, However, given the highly police consciously evoke the fear international crime. The figure of decided that he wanted to go on a mobile nature of people and of various folkdevils in order to about ten per cent is the gener- show the public that there is a ally accepted figure. But we must need for police services. keep in mind that this is ten per "Criminologists need continually to re- cent of an already specialised The evocation of folkdevilry kind of police work. As a mind the public that, in terms of hard is not, in itself, a bad thing. It proportion of all police work put may be used to create a fog together truly international crime cash, fraud and other forms of white which obscures systematic is minuscule. And yet our corruption, inefficiency or collar crime (not least against the Euro- newspapers are full of stories incompetence, to be sure. On the about 'The Russian Mafia' and pean Union itself) cost European society other hand, as sociologists of a other organised gangs of Durkheimian bent never tire of far more than the sale of illegal drugs."

Cjm no. 27 Spring 1997 A threat to Europe? Patricia Rawlinson assesses the dangers of Russian organised crime, and Western complacency. things in Europe today, it is sense of proportion, but crimi- resident Yeltsin's state of hardly surprising that a police nologists must strive to ground the nation address on system has evolved that can the debate about policing in PMarch 6th of this year handle the very large amount of Europe in other ways too. Of once again focused attention on 'social ordering' that a popula- central concern must be to ensure the growing problem of organ- tion on the move requires. People that the police system that ised crime in Russia. However, go missing, stolen property is evolves for the transnational as many European states are transported across great dis- Europe of the 21 st century aware, almost all of whom have tances, road traffic accidents operates within the rule of the experienced to some degree or happen while people are on law and in keeping with the spirit other the activities of Russian holiday, holiday-makers are of natural justice and the highest gangs on their soil, this is not a occasionally robbed or attacked, notions of civil liberties. The situation confined to Russia. their homes are burgled by very real danger is that the What kind of threat does the travelling criminals while they rhetoric of folkdevilry, together proliferation of Russian organ- are away - there are many such with the enhanced scientific and ised crime offer to Europe? real-life examples from our fast technical capacities that are now The Baltic states are among paced transnational world that available to police, will over- the most vulnerable and not just require police to be intercon- determine that emerging because of geographical proxim- nected. infrastructure. ity. (In 1995 Finland saw a There are also the folkdevils, The ideological superstitions 13.1% increase in cargo trans- to be sure. Terrorism is some- purveyed in the news media ported from Russia through its thing of a problem and policing about the awesome folkdevils borders yet has managed to avoid transnational clandestine markets that confront us are harmless the systemic influence of Russian in everything from weapons, to only as long as they are not taken organised crime1). Easy access to hazardous chemicals, indeed too seriously. Once their claim to the Baltics from Russia has even in people, remains an total validity is taken literally facilitated links between criminal abiding task. But the bulk of they become the nuclei of a groups which have taken transnational police work, as police system in which, as with advantage of the economic with police work in general, is the systems of paranoiacs difficulties facing the countries far less glamorous than the generally, everything follows after declaring independence Sunday papers make out. comprehensibly and even from Moscow. Estonia remains a The current debate on compulsorily from that first favourite conduit for illegal policing in Europe suffers from a premise. The curious logicality industrial metals while Latvia distorted sense of proportion. with which our folkdevils are and Lithuania have become Too much is made of the dangers constructed, which places a popular transit points for illegal posed by organised crime, as if it simple-minded trust in the narcotics from Afghanistan and is the sale of cannabis that will salvation value of our police, Central Asian states into Europe. bring about the ruination of our already harbours the first germs The murder in 1993 of Vitas society. Criminologists need of totalitarian contempt for Lingys, the deputy editor of one continually to remind the public reality and factuality. In consid- of Lithuania's leading newspa- that, in terms of hard cash, fraud ering the future of European pers and a vociferous campaigner and other forms of white collar policing we are well advised to crime (not least against the remember the words of William "In a country which can no longer afford European Union itself) cost Pitt the Younger: 'Necessity is European society far more than the argument of tyrants; it is the to pay many of its public sector employ- the sale of illegal drugs. creed of slaves'. ^H ees, where the previously unknown spec- tre of unemployment has devastated Justice and logic James Sheptycki is currently - family life with insufficient state funds to Evidence is now beginning to an ESRC Research Fellow in the emerge that helps to give the Centre for Law and Society at alleviate the misery, crime inevitably is on debate on policing in Europe a Edinburgh University the increase."

10 Cjm no. 27 Spring 1997 against organised crime, revealed in Russia and Eastern Europe. the extent to which gangs would The trade in illegal immigrants and could go to protect their forced Sweden to tighten its interests. The emergence of former lax legislation on refugee indigenous criminal groups has entry after an increase of human further exacerbated the spread of smuggling which included violence. growing numbers of Kurds, as Hungary plays host to scores well as refugees from Iran, India of successful Russian bosses who and Pakistan. Kidnapping has are able to launder money also created cause for concern through the banking system or by after the failed attempt on a investing in clubs and restau- member of the Swedish million- rants. The recent arrest in aire Wallenburg family. Ger- Budapest of Sergei Mikhailov, many, France and Belgium have boss of one of Moscow's most all recorded murder incidents powerful groups, the Solntsevo linked to Russian organised gang, for money laundering crime as has the UK, when in Red Square and the Kremlin highlighted the proliferation of March 1993, the bodies of two is dirty.' Spain and Cyprus have Tax Police and Regional Russian illicit business activity in Chechen businessmen were also benefited from rich Russian Departments to Combat Organ- the country, giving further discovered and linked to 'mafiya' 'businessmen' anxious to buy a ised Crime (RUOP) but are often credence to reports that it had activities. These however are second home. limited by funds and conflicting become a favourite meeting isolated incidents and hardly Banks too have shown a interests with business. Political ground for Russian and interna- constitute a real threat. Most reluctance to police their instability in Russia has aggra- tional criminal organisations. prolific and arguably the biggest creditors. In 1990 the Council of vated the fragile base of trust as Poland, the Czech Republic, threat to Western Europe from Europe set up directives on has the increasing number of Bulgaria and the Balkans have Russian organised crime comes increasing mutual assistance corrupt Ministry of the Interior also experienced a significant from the less 'sensational' between agencies in an attempt (MVD) personnel. The latter growth in organised crime from economic crimes such as money- to curb money-laundering. In scenario reflects the dangerous Russian and indigenous gangs. laundering. 1994 new regulations in the UK position Russia now finds itself Activities include the sale of came into force obliging in as most MVD officers accept nuclear materials, drugs, metals, financial institutions to report bribes not because they are weapons, protection, pornogra- Cui bono? suspicious transactions. Imple- genuinely corrupt but as a means phy and prostitution rings. In one year alone it was esti- of supplementing an inadequate mated that capital flight from menting regulations is not only income. In a country which can Russia to the West stood at $50 difficult but requires the will to no longer afford to pay many of Effects in the West billion-, thereby draining the follow through what is often only its public sector employees, country of much needed a hunch and would anyway result Western Europe, to a lesser where the previously unknown budgetary resources. The money in a profit loss for the organisa- degree and in more restricted spectre of unemployment has instead works for the richer states tions involved. Swiss banks have areas, has experienced the effects devastated family life with which have been, in many cases, found themselves under attack of organised crime proliferation insufficient state funds to suspiciously lax in from lawyers representing alleviate the misery, crime implementing banking suspect criminals when investi- inevitably is on the increase. and fraud legislation. gations have begun into their Capital flight on the scale we are The purchase of real accounts. Loopholes in Swiss now witnessing becomes even estate is one of the legislation have often rendered more invidious, taking from the more popular methods the too few attempts to control poor to give to the rich. of cleaning dirty laundering ineffective. Busi- capital. Britain is nesses can also be reluctant to jeopardise a lucrative deal by The real threat to Europe particularly conducive from Russian organised crime to this as there exist reporting their suspicions regarding partners from Russia lies as much in the expedient no residency laws complacency to economic crime upon which the sale and Eastern Europe. There is sufficient anecdotal evidence of as in tht dangers of smuggling, of property to non- protection rackets and illegal nationals is contin- British businesses acting as complicit partners in money- drugs and arms dealing. How far gent. It is simply a we have the will to combat it is a question of handing laundering operations to justify this claim. crucial factor in the fight against over the cash (many its proliferation. ^_ Russians have bought high priced houses Patricia Rawlinson lectures at with banknotes) and Conflicts of interest? the University of Wales, Bangor, signing the lease or Curbing organised criminal freehold. During activity in the legitimate 1. Gregory, Rawlinson & Collier slumps in the housing financial structures requires trust between intelligence and law (eds) Crime, Law and Policing in the market foreign buyers Former USSR: The Problems and Pros- are a welcome relief, enforcement agencies. Liaison pects for Transnational Cooperation with few questions police officers from inter alia, Between Law Enforcement Agencies, asked, and purchases Finland, Sweden, Germany, the 1996. The Police Research Unit, justified on the basis US (Britain has dragged its feet Mountbatten Centre for International that 'we can't prove at over this issue) have been Studies. source that the money established in Russia and work 2. S Cooke 'The Trials of the Tax with reliable networks from the Police' Euromoney May 1995, 51-54.

Cjm no. 27 Spring 1997 II