Translated material
Correction of the colonies
The Ministry of Justice starts a large -scale reform of criminal legislation
Farewell to Gulag? A few years ago, in the report of Amnesty International, the Russian prison was called "Hell on Earth." And finally, the Ministry of Justice starts a large -scale reform of criminal legislation and the system of execution of sentences. Whether the reformers will be able to reduce the prison population as promise, as they promise, and turn the prison into a relatively civilized institution that meets international standards- the Andrei M. was released from Mordovian IK-18 a month ago, and served the deadline from the call to the call. He claims that for 7 years they sold him unfairly: the fight began not through his fault - it was impossible not to not stand up for his wife, and no one was particularly injured. The result is “intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm that is dangerous to human life” (Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On this article, 130 thousand people are sitting now, every fifth, serving a sentence of imprisonment. According to the “Concept for the Development of the Criminal Executive System in the Russian Federation until 2020”, which was at the disposal of The New Times, this and several dozens of articles of the Criminal Code must endure significant changes. Otherwise, the authors of the document believe, a catastrophic trend - over the past three years, the number of convicts has grown by 22% - not to turn it over.
The amendments to the criminal legislation, which were arising from the concept, were ready in April this year, but so far they have not reached the State Duma.
Every fourth authors of the concept propose, in particular, to specify or completely remove from paragraph 1 of Art. 111 “Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm that is dangerous to human life ...” a sign of “dangerous to human life”. “Now,” says former deputy chairman of the Supreme Court Vladimir Radchenko, who headed the working group in the Ministry of Justice to improve criminal law, “it is often used in which harmful or moderate harm has been caused. For example, her husband and his wife quarreled, she hit him with a knife, the wound is not strong, but the experts say: if the blow fell a little to the right, the knife would hit the heart, it means that it is dangerous for life. The husband leaves the hospital after 4-5 days, and his wife is in prison. And there are about 40 thousand of them today - they have nothing to do behind bars. When sentencing, judges should not proceed from potential, but exclusively from a real danger to life as a result of harm caused. ”
The concept also implies the decriminalization of a number of crimes that are currently considered criminal - they will be punished in administrative order. Now for the theft of a mobile phone worth more than 1000 rubles, you can please several years in jail. If the amendments to the Criminal Code are accepted, at the cost of stolen from 2 thousand to 10 thousand rubles, only those who have aggravating circumstances will be planted.
Today, out of 745 thousand Russian convicts, 28 thousand are serving a sentence for crimes of minor gravity and 117 thousand - average. “If we are not talking about intentional murder, then I am a supporter of a short time: 1-2 years of imprisonment, 3 is the maximum,” says Radchenko. - And then we out of 40 million adult men are one percent annually to places of imprisonment. Every fourth man has a criminal record, and in bars in 20 years, 8–9 million had been. ”
However, even if the concept is implemented, there is no need to expect general mitigation of Russian criminal legislation. Speaking in September at a scientific and practical conference on the reform of the penitentiary system, Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov emphasized: “It is not about the fact that the Ministry of Justice initiates the liberalization of the criminal law, universal forgiveness and mercy.” In other words, along with the softening of some articles of the Criminal Code, toughening others should be expected.
A prison instead of a colony at the same conference, the director of the FSIN, Alexander Reimer, for the first time announced that the colonies would be replaced by prisons and colony settlements, and colonies for minors were transformed into educational houses. Correctional colonies are a purely Soviet invention of the time of the Stalinist Gulag. Throughout the world, convicts are serving a sentence in prisons with different regimes. The prison considers Russian legislation as an exceptional type of punishment, and so far only a particularly malicious violators of the regime have been sent from the colony to it from the colony. “The only plus of the camp system is the opportunity to use convicts in collective work,” says Sergey Skalaukh, a former employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Chelyabinsk Region. “Everything else is the disadvantages.” True, many current and former sidelski consider it differently. The convicted person, despite the public protests, for espionage, military journalist Grigory Pasko, who had been in prison for about two years and for more than six months in the Ussuri colony, opposed the transition to the prison system. “The colonies-settlements will be used as an instrument of pressure: you will be obedient-translate, but no-you will die in prison, like Magnitsky.” “There is nothing attractive in prison mode,” writer Eduard Limonov echoes him. - Arriving at the camp from the pre -trial detention center, I saw the trees, I was able to breathe air, walk more. Prison is a nest of all diseases. ”
The tightening of the conditions that they have committed minor crimes and “first -time” should be kept separately from the recidivists for a long time. It seems that this idea will finally be implemented. However, human rights activists note that this will lead to a deterioration in the content of those who are convicted by difficult articles: the regime in prisons of enhanced and special regime will be more strict than in the current colonies of a special regime and those where life sentences are serving. In a special regime prison, convicts will sit in two in the cells, without the right to date and on telephone conversations. In a year, they will be able to receive only one parcel and one gear. Having served half the term, a prisoner, provided that good behavior will receive the right to one short -term date and one phone call per year. “When I read this section of the concept, I did not believe my eyes,” says human rights activist Andrei Babushkin. - The conditions for serving a sentence for lifelongs want to extend to five more categories. It turns out that we simply delete people from life, they will not be able to work or study. With all the humanistic pathos of the concept, such conditions of content can lead to a national disaster. The prison will stand on its hind legs, turn into a source of social stress. ” “The prison should scare,” objects Vladimir Radchenko. “Otherwise, she will not fulfill her function.”
“The fact that tightening of the conditions of detention can reduce crime,“ chimera, ”says Sergey Skalah. - The restraint is not the rigidity of the punishment, but its inevitability. The more bestial conditions to create a person, the big cattle he will come out. ” Andrei M. who was freed from the Mordovian colony says that the most difficult conclusion is constant humiliation from the staff. “If you refuse to walk in construction and sing a song, you are planted in a schizo (penalty area) or in a SUS (strict conditions of detention). They don’t take a walk on Susa, they humiliate the slightest offense, take the clothes that are transferred from the house. ” Such an attitude towards prisoners among the jailers has been formed for decades, and the elimination of the colonies is unlikely to change anything here. “Even if the reform developers have good intentions, they will not succeed,” says Eduard Limonov. “It is impossible to carry out a real reform with those personnel that are now in the prison system.”
The FSIN Corporation, although Alexander Reimer does not get tired of repeating that with the “remnants of the Gulag is over,” this does not mean at all that our penitentiary system is going to abandon the Gulag's main heritage - forced labor. The colony-settlement is supposed to be created nearby from under construction or developed state objects. And the colony-settlement with enhanced observation and a general regime prison will be formed on the basis of former colonies that have a developed production base. Alexander Konovalov does not hide that the Ministry of Justice is going to earn on prisoners: “We must consider the involvement of the special contingent as one of the most important tasks and the dominant. Today there is not enough good modern management, which will allow the use of unique conditions available in the FSIN to organize production with good results, with good income for the system itself. ”
The developers of the concept propose to completely free prison institutions from tax burden and allow them to direct income from the labor of prisoners to improve the conditions of their maintenance. Grigory Pasko notes that the section on labor activity is spelled out in the concept most clearly: “The FSIN realized that the state will continue to finance the ZEKOVs worse than pipelines, Sochi and other fun, and decided to return the gulag - the labor service of the camps in order to make money to earn money. Hence the phrases on “interaction with the federal bodies of state power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipalities to create conditions” and “wide involvement of business to the creation of production sites”. They plan to carry out reform in three stages. The first provides for re -profiling of part of the colonies and pre -trial detention centers in a special regime prison. Deputy Head of the FSIN, Alexander Smirnov, at a meeting of the Public Chamber, said that each such prison would cost about 200 million rubles. At the initial stage, the FSIN promises not to request additional funds from the state, hoping to do with extra -budgetary funds. But then the money will be needed, and considerable. Interestingly, in the late 80s of the last century they already tried to abandon the camps in favor of prisons. Then this idea was allegedly buried due to a lack of funds. It is hoped that this time there is enough money and political will.
As of August 1, 2009, the UIS institutions contained 884.2 thousand people.
In 225 pre -trial detention centers and 164 pre -trial detention centers in colonies - 138.4 thousand people. In 755 correctional colonies - 745.8 thousand people, in 7 prisons - 4.3 thousand people, in 62 educational colonies for minors - 7.5 thousand people. Correctional colonies contain 48.6 thousand women, with female colonies there are 16 houses of a child in which 820 children live.
The bill “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation” provides for the exclusion from the Criminal Code of a number of compositions of socially harmful acts that are not a significant danger to the law and order, establishing administrative liability for them. These include: beatings (part 1 of article 116); slander (part 1 of article 129); insult (part 1 of article 130); violation of the inviolability of the dwelling (part 1 of article 139); violation of copyright and related rights (part 1 of article 146); appropriation or embezzlement (part 1 of article 160); causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust (part 1 of article 165); illegal cutting of forest stands (part 1 of article 260); insulting a representative of the authorities (Article 319); acquisition or sale of official documents or state awards (Article 324); Self -confusion (part 1 of article 330).
After the reform is completed, the new structure of the penal correction system (the penal system) will include: 196 pre-trial detention centers with the conditions of maintenance corresponding to European standards; 210 colonies-settlements, including colonies-settlements with enhanced observation; 246 prisons of a general regime with a limit of 1000 seats each, including 58 prisons of a general regime for women; 161 prison of a reinforced regime with a limit of 1000 seats each, 21 prison of a special regime with a limit of 400 seats each; 84 medical and medical institutions; 33 educational houses for minors.
