Translated material
Arrest house and compulsory work
Alternative punishments for criminals in the form of compulsory labor, restriction of freedom and arrest were provided for by the “new” Criminal Code, which came into force on January 1, 1997. They could not be introduced immediately due to lack of funds, so it was decided that the innovations would be applied gradually, according to financial capabilities, until 2001. However, this date, as it now turns out, was set arbitrarily, without taking into account the economic situation, and new types of punishment are still not in effect. The main type of punishment in Russia (besides a fine) remains imprisonment, and the courts have only one choice - to give either a real or a suspended sentence. As a result, according to the Ministry of Justice, over the five years of operation of the “new” Criminal Code, the volume of application of punishment associated with deprivation of liberty has not actually decreased - 32.7% of the total number of convicts in 1997 versus 29.6% in 2002. Maintaining such a large number of prisoners is very burdensome for the budget.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Justice, there remains a purely humanitarian problem, which President Putin pointed out in his “Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation” in April 2002: “Currently, crimes of minor and moderate gravity are subject to the same sanctions as serious ones. Why crime doesn’t decrease, but people become embittered.”
Regarding the practice of applying new punishments, representatives of the Ministry of Justice made the following breakdown. Compulsory work is planned to be used when, for example, it is impossible to collect a fine from a person, and imprisonment would be too severe a measure. At the same time, the convict, in his free time from work and study, will be involved in community service, landscaping the territory and providing social assistance to the disabled and the elderly.
Labor will be free. The duration of this punishment can range from 60 to 240 hours, but not more than 4 hours of work per day. The criminal-executive inspection (CII) at the place of residence must control the convicted person. To implement this scheme, about 1.5 billion rubles are needed. to create additional inspections (there are currently about 1,800 of them in Russia).
A sentence to restriction of freedom will mean serving the sentence in one of the 160 special correctional centers that are expected to be built in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. They are designed for a total of 48 thousand people, which requires another 22 billion rubles. These centers will be similar in conditions of detention to the current colony-settlements, but with a softer regime. Convicts will live unguarded in a special dormitory without the right to leave it at night.
Regarding the last new type of punishment - arrest, the Ministry of Justice believes that even theoretically it “too much” violates human rights and sooner or later it should be abandoned altogether. Arrest means keeping convicts for 1 to 6 months in conditions of strict isolation in custody in arrest houses, with restrictions and prohibitions on visits (except for a lawyer), receiving parcels, transfers, etc. “Clients” of arrest houses will only have the right to a daily one and a half hour walk and purchase food once a month. To build and equip 140 arrest houses, 75 billion rubles will be required.