The Ministry of Justice proposed to ease the conditions of detention in the pre-trial detention center. Human rights activists believe that this will not lead to tangible results

The Ministry of Justice has prepared a draft law softening certain standards for the maintenance of persons under investigation and prisoners. The authenticity of the package of documents that RBC has at its disposal was confirmed to the publication by a source in the government.

The following changes are proposed for the new version of the law:

• allow the use of audio-visual, electronic and other technical means of supervision in the pre-trial detention center only against receipt;

• establish the terms and conditions for lifting the penalty imposed on the suspect or the accused;

• introduce a procedure for getting rid of the status of a “malicious offender”: a prisoner ceases to be such if he does not receive a new penalty within a year or he is encouraged by the early removal of the previously imposed penalty;

• increase the amount of money that prisoners can spend on food and basic necessities to a level equivalent to inflation for the period from 2016 to 2021;

• to increase the norm of the area attributable to correctional centers per one convicted of forced labor from 4 to 5 square meters. m.;

• to increase the age of a child in a correctional institution with his mother from three to four years.

According to the publication, the draft amendments are already under consideration by the government commission.

However, Alena Savelieva, a lawyer for the Rus Sitting organization, believes that these amendments will not lead to real changes.

Increasing the limit of funds that can be spent on groceries and essentials will not be able to compensate for inflation. “For real benefit, it is necessary to adjust prices in the stores of the Federal Penitentiary Service,” said Savelyeva.

The e-Surveillance amendments are also partly formal. “In practice, no one ever warns prisoners that surveillance will be set up. When the administration needs it, video recorders work, but when human rights activists need it, they don’t,” says the lawyer.