Humanization has reached the president

Vladimir Putin supported the idea of ​​the Supreme Court to mitigate liability for minor crimes

Vladimir Putin supported the idea of ​​the Supreme Court to mitigate liability for minor crimes

Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev, who for three years tried to realize his dream-idea of ​​decriminalizing minor crimes and transferring them from the criminal to the administrative plane, found support in the President.

And this support was unexpected. If only because the Supreme Court on this occasion was simply dynamized by the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Justice, which did not react in any way to proposals to change the Criminal Code in order to reduce the number of criminal cases sent to the courts, and, accordingly, the number of people with a criminal record. The exception was the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose head Vladimir Kolokoltsev recently openly supported Lebedev, noting that the Ministry of Internal Affairs also spoke more than once about the need to mitigate responsibility for minor crimes.

Well, who will benefit if a person receives a criminal record for late payment of a loan? After all, our courts often do not delve into life circumstances: what prompted a person to commit petty theft; but to create a criminal biography for him, albeit with a suspended conviction, is easy. But a citizen, having stumbled once and received a criminal record, is automatically lost to society: it is difficult to get a good job, problems with a loan ... And then, quite possibly, a relapse. Although the issue can be resolved differently: for the first time - an administrative fine (correctional labor), which does not lead to a partial loss of civil rights; got caught a second time - and then, forgive me - a real term.

Vyacheslav Lebedev discussed all these issues on July 30 at a meeting with the president in Novo-Ogaryovo. He explained: the need for innovation is due to the fact that in recent years the number of cases on charges of committing crimes of minor gravity has increased significantly.

- If in 2000 the courts received cases of minor crimes in relation to 184 thousand people (this is about 15% of the total number of cases sent to court), then last year such cases were received in relation to 330 thousand (46% from all cases that are considered by the courts), Lebedev told the president. “Moreover, the nature, the degree of public danger of these cases are not always adequate to the committed acts, and the consequences of a criminal record, I can say frankly, are negative and inadequate for crimes of minor gravity.

And the amount of theft, for which there is criminal liability, Lebedev stressed in Novo-Ogaryovo, should be increased from 1 thousand rubles to 5 thousand rubles (inflation, after all). And consider embezzlement not from 2.5 thousand, as it is now, but from 10 thousand rubles as significant damage. By the way, all this, of course, does not apply to crimes classified as group crimes, or, for example, pickpocketing. These compositions will remain criminally punishable. Such decriminalization, Lebedev told the president, would create a very good personnel, technical and material reserve for the work of the investigating authorities - let them spend more time and effort on serious, socially dangerous crimes, and not unsubscribe mountains of paper from small things.

Putin agreed with the relevance of the initiative, asked Lebedev to pass this bill on to him, and even reminded that he had already discussed steps to humanize legislation with the chairman of the Supreme Court:

- You once paid attention to the fact that we have a fairly large number of people in places of deprivation of liberty who have committed offenses that are insignificant by modern standards. But nevertheless, we are forced to go through a sad, frankly, and far from always the most effective school of life, - and explained: after discussing this bill at the plenum of the Supreme Court, "we will already discuss this matter with the deputies of the State Duma."

The SC plenum met quickly - the very next day. Now the Armed Forces are looking forward to the State Duma deputies from vacation. Maybe by that time the Prosecutor General's Office with the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Justice will also mature.