The chamber's main duty is to examine challenges to the public prosecutor's decisions on behalf of convicts.
Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) MP Dan Biancalana, also the mayor of Dudelange, is a criminologist by trade. He submitted a parliamentary question concerning the judgements made by the relatively new institution.
Minister of Justice Felix Braz explained that between 15 September and 31 December, prisoners had challenged 85 of 661 decisions made concerning criminal leave, transfers between the Schrassig penitentiary centre and the Givenich semi-open penitentiary, suspended sentences, and sentences with electronic ankle tags.
As for the 85 challenges, Braz broke those down by category:
18 concerned early release,
12 concerned criminal leave,
8 concerned suspending the sentence,
6 concerned transferring from Schrassig to the semi-open prison in Givenich,
and 3 concerned transfers from Givenich to Schrassig for disciplinary reasons.
Braz also outlined eight personal cases in which inmates requested leave for specific reasons, including visiting their partner, a family member in hospital, a meeting at a consulate, or to marry.
In all those cases, the CHAP declined competence in 11 cases and estimated that 30 challenges were inadmissible. In 36 cases, the CHAP confirmed the public prosecutor's decision and reformed six of those decisions. Two remain to be concluded.
