Putting credit policy for people who have completed their prison sentences into practice

Community reintegration is a humane and humanitarian policy of our Party and State, aiming to create conditions for people who have completed their prison sentences to soon become useful citizens for society, limit recidivism, contribute to maintaining social order and safety and socio-economic development in accordance with the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party. With Decision No. 22/2023/QD-TTg, the Government has issued regulations on credit for people who have completed their prison sentences. Accordingly, the borrowers and loan conditions include people who have completed their prison sentences, including people who have completed their prison sentences and have been granted certificates of completion of their prison sentences as prescribed in the Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments and people who have been granted amnesty certificates as prescribed in the Amnesty Law. Production and business establishments include small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives, cooperative groups, and business households that employ people who have completed their prison sentences.

Nghi Loc puts into practice credit policy for people who have completed their prison sentences.

Specifically, a person who has completed his/her prison sentence and needs to borrow capital, is on the list of people who have completed their prison sentence and are residing in the locality, has complied with the provisions of the law, has not participated in social evils, is established by the commune-level police and confirmed by the commune-level People's Committee. The maximum time from the completion of the prison sentence to the time of borrowing capital is 05 years. The production and business establishment is legally established and operates in accordance with the provisions of law; employs at least 10% of the total number of employees who have completed their prison sentence and meet the conditions specified in Point a of this Clause and sign labor contracts in accordance with the provisions of the law on labor; has a capital borrowing plan and is confirmed by the commune-level People's Committee where the plan is implemented according to Form No. 02 attached to this Decision.

Regarding the lending method, the lending method is implemented through the household. The representative of the household of the person who has completed the prison sentence is the person who takes the loan and transacts with the Social Policy Bank. In case there is no member in the household who is 18 years of age or older or the remaining member is no longer able to work or does not have full civil capacity according to the provisions of law, the person who has completed the prison sentence directly takes the loan at the Social Policy Bank, the Social Policy Bank where the loan is made shall carry out the loan in the form of entrustment to socio-political organizations.

Vocational training for prisoners. Photo from the internet

For loans for vocational training, the costs of studying and living expenses of people who have completed their prison sentences during their studies at universities or equivalent, colleges, vocational colleges and vocational training institutions established and operating under the provisions of Vietnamese law. These costs include: Tuition fees; costs of purchasing books and learning materials; food, accommodation and travel costs. For loans for production, business and job creation, the costs of production, business and job creation include costs for carrying out production, business and job creation activities.

The maximum loan amount is 4 million VND/month/person who has completed a prison sentence. For loans for production, business, job creation, and for people who have completed a prison sentence: The maximum loan amount is 100 million VND/person who has completed a prison sentence. For production and business establishments: The maximum loan amount is 2 billion VND/project and not more than 100 million VND/worker at the production and business establishment. The loan term is the period of time calculated from the date the person who has completed a prison sentence begins to receive the loan until the date of full repayment of the principal and interest. The loan term includes the loan disbursement period and the debt repayment period.

The loan disbursement period is the period from the date the person who has completed the prison sentence receives the first loan until the end of the course, including the time when the person who has completed the prison sentence is allowed by the vocational training institutions to take a temporary leave of absence from school and to reserve their study results, if any. The debt repayment period is divided into repayment periods as prescribed by the Social Policy Bank, such as for training programs with a training period of no more than one year, the maximum debt repayment period is equal to 02 times the loan disbursement period, for other training programs, the maximum debt repayment period is equal to the loan disbursement period.

For loans for production, business and job creation, the maximum loan term is 120 months. The specific loan term is considered and decided by the Social Policy Bank based on the capital source, production and business cycle, and the borrower's ability to repay the loan to negotiate with the borrower. The loan interest rate is equal to the loan interest rate for poor households prescribed for each period. The overdue debt interest rate is 130% of the loan interest rate. People who have completed their prison sentence to borrow capital for vocational training and to borrow capital for production, business and job creation do not have to provide loan security. Production and business establishments using laborers who have completed their prison sentence to borrow capital of over 100 million VND must provide loan security in accordance with the provisions of law and the Social Policy Bank on ensuring the performance of loan obligations./.

Bui Tue