Here I poured out all my thoughts on this topic.

You wrote about prison, I think first you need to go over the types of places of detention in the Russian Federation.

1) Correctional institutions - here prisoners are corrected:

a) Colony-settlements - convicts are held for the first time sentenced to imprisonment for careless crimes, for intentional crimes of minor and moderate severity, as well as positively characterized convicts transferred with their consent from a general and strict regime colony.

b) General regime colonies - here are first-time convicts sentenced to imprisonment for committing serious crimes, as well as careless crimes and intentional crimes of minor or medium gravity, unless the court deems it possible to send them to a settlement colony. Living sector there it is divided into three sections of detention: light, strict and ordinary conditions.

c) Colonies strict regime- convicts sentenced to imprisonment for the first time for committing especially serious crimes are held here; convicted of repeat crimes and dangerous repeat crimes, if they have previously served a sentence of imprisonment.

Anyone whom the state considers extremely dangerous to society is sent to these institutions, and even though the colony is a “correctional” colony, in fact, the contingent that ends up there are, as they say, “hardened” criminals and they are simply serving time. An interesting feature: a significant percentage of those who leave there through certain time comes back.

2) Prisons and colonies of special regime - there are 40 corpses between two people

a) Prison (there are 8 of them in Russia) - those sentenced to a term of over 5 years for committing especially serious crimes, as well as especially dangerous repeat offenders and especially persistent violators procedure for serving sentences transferred from colonies. The conditions for serving a sentence are different from other places of deprivation of liberty, since convicts are kept in cells all the time, unlike correctional colonies.

b) Special regime colonies (there are five of them) - men sentenced to life imprisonment, as well as convicts who the death penalty by way of pardon was replaced by imprisonment for certain period or life imprisonment freedom.

Essentially the question:

In the Russian Federation there are many punishments that are not related to imprisonment, there is no point in inventing anything, here they are:

A suspended sentence is a real term of imprisonment assigned to the defendant, but not its actual application.

Correctional work - assigned to an unemployed convict. The place and type of work are determined by the local government.

Compulsory work is free socially useful work that is performed in free time from main work.

Fine - imposition of a monetary penalty

Restriction of freedom - keeping a convicted person in a special institution without isolation from society, but under supervision.

Everything is simple here.

Dreams:

I would like to draw attention to one point: in our country there are institutions for serving sentences, which, judging by the name, should be engaged in the re-education of convicts, and try to lead them on the right path, well, it cannot be otherwise, if your name is - Correctional Facility.

Penal colonies are the most common places in the Russian Federation for serving sentences. There are four types of these institutions: colony - settlement, general regime, strict regime and special regime. I read the descriptions about them, I wanted to understand how they correct the lost, but I couldn’t find anything, the message was not conveyed. Okay, everything is clear with the settlements, the strict regime is complicated, the special regime is generally silent.

The General Regime Penitentiary is really an institution where it is possible and necessary to work with convicts, and I explained why below:

IK OR is a type of institution for the detention of citizens sentenced to imprisonment for the first time, usually for crimes of moderate gravity and sometimes serious ones, usually committed out of stupidity/hopelessness/ignorance, anything can happen. My logic here simply screams that if you work with these prisoners correctly, then recidivism can be avoided in most cases. This requires trained specialists (psychologists and/or clergy, perhaps all in one person, the people there are mostly believers) and the desire of the colony leadership to help those who want it. Everything is voluntary, no one needs to be forced.

You can also add to this an educational aspect (it’s not boring): school, vocational school, correspondence higher education, develop a prison library and some kind of computer with access to books, encyclopedias, etc. it will be generally good.

Earnings: all prisoners have a permanent job, with the average market salary for the region in a given profession, let the money accumulate in their account (you can discuss the issue of contributions to support the infrastructure of the penal colony: new books, furniture, the main thing is transparency of spending, another option is to improve the nutrition of prisoners) . Introduce a system of bonuses and incentives: additional. a date, an hour of Internet access, etc.

goodies: Introduce a system of bonuses and incentives: additional. a date, an hour of Internet access, etc.

And as the main prize - support when applying for parole.

Well, the last thing, just to oh and oh: upon release, a person must be assigned a curator whose duties include helping former prisoners on pressing issues, for example: employment, renting housing, restoration of documents, etc.

With these steps, what will be released is not a prisoner without everything, but a person with initial savings, a profession and an understanding that someone needs him, and they will take excursions to the colony.

Realities:

Each correctional institution has its own rules, somewhere they are less strict, somewhere more, but they more or less fulfill the function, everything is clear with them. I want to write about this, in Lately The number of media publications about colonies in which methods of working with prisoners are “specific” has increased:

The last high-profile example: Ildar Dadin ̶т̶е̶с̶т̶и̶р̶о̶в̶а̶н̶и̶я̶ ̶н̶о̶в̶о̶г̶о̶ ̶п̶р̶о̶д̶у̶к̶т̶а̶: ̶"̶с̶т̶а̶т̶ь̶я̶ ̶2̶1̶2̶ .̶1̶ ̶У̶К̶",̶ ̶к̶о̶н̶т̶р̶а̶к̶т̶ ̶п̶о̶д̶п̶и̶с̶а̶н̶ ̶н̶а̶ ̶2̶,̶5̶ ̶г̶о̶д̶а̶,̶ ̶с̶v ̶o̶z̶m̶o̶zh̶n̶o̶s̶t̶yu̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶d̶l̶e̶n̶i̶ya. In fact, everything in this case is complete bullshit..., but that’s not what I’m talking about. Actually, the essence is that Ildar was sent to serve his sentence in IK-7* and after some time an open letter was published on his behalf, in which he describes all the delights of the correctional methods of this institution: .

*This establishment is penal colony general regime, people convicted of crimes for the first time are sitting here.

Instead of the total:

An alternative to detention is any punishment that does not involve imprisonment. In turn, deprivation of liberty is used only if correction without isolation from society is impossible. That's what they tell us.

In Russia, many places of serving sentences have correctional functions only in name, in fact they are places of detention for prisoners. The only thing that is present in all colonies is various industries where prisoners work for pennies.

In connection with a bunch of scandals and all kinds of accusations, it is necessary to completely reform the penitentiary system, if there is no understanding of how, then take it foreign experience, look in Europe. Change, modernize, train... there is a ton of work there.

Can prison reform a person, or is it only needed to isolate criminals from society? A former prisoner talks about his experience. his letter arrived at the editorial office of PRAVMIR. Published without changes or abbreviations

Sometimes prison can be a good thing. I experienced this from my own personal experience and, naturally, I have the moral right to assert this.

He went to prison on December 14, 1997 for burglary. I was fifteen years old then. Every day in my cell before going to bed I prayed with tears and asked God for forgiveness and a speedy release. I even had the boldness to ask Him to show mercy before the end of the month (January). And God revealed. They changed my preventive measure and released me pending trial on my own recognizance on January 27, 1998. (My accomplice was released on February 4).

Although I was in sincere repentance and the desire to change my life, alas, I was not able to do this. The usual circle of friends, way of life... I quickly fell into a rut. My day followed one scenario. Sleep until lunch, then meeting with friends, alcohol (sometimes even Northern Lights windshield wiper), weed, Moment glue. They made a living by robbing drunken men, taking clothes, money, wedding rings. Sometimes they stole cars, broke into garages, garden houses, and committed many other acts that were not very dangerous to society.

I remembered about God only at night, when I went to bed, and only if I was sober. I mentally turned to Him asking for forgiveness and with the desire to start a new life tomorrow. But in the morning I had no time to think about repentance and remember the evening glimpse of consciousness, as if, driven by ardent evil spirits, I turned and turned the hellish wheel. And in the evening the demon left me again, leaving me to rest, and I thought - why am I living like this? Lord, forgive me.

But life did not change. Six months later, I returned to the pre-trial detention center again, but with a more magnificent bouquet, striking in the variety of articles of the criminal code and an obscene smell. About ten years before my imprisonment, I was very confident. I remember Black August 1998 not only because of the default.

The cells in the juvenile ward were overcrowded. There were 28 of us in a 6-seater room. They slept on the floor with blankets on them. There were bullying and daily beatings from fellow inmates, but... didn't I deserve them?

There was also a Bible in the cell. Without crusts, most of the pages of the first books of the Old Testament and the last of the New were missing. The prisoners sewed a pouch out of the crusts, covering them with fabric and sewing in a zipper. It turned out to be such a very nice folder for storing documents and letters. The pages of Holy Scripture were used for rolling cigarettes, better than paper and you can’t imagine it, it’s as thin as a cigarette! You take a puff and it doesn’t even taste bitter, not like what comes out of a newspaper - it’s a mouthful.

And only then, stuck so tightly, did I first think about my life. If I'm in prison, does that mean there's something wrong in my life? How could such a catastrophe happen to me? After all, I used to think that I would never go to prison. A prison for villains, murderers and seasoned criminals who have lost their human form. And I am so good, kind, modest. I never wish bad things on people.

And when we sometimes play pranks with company, it’s not out of malice. For fun and for money. And in general, prison is somewhere out there, in another world. In a world where there are universities, good work, happy families and always sober parents. All this is in that other world, and I am in reality and... I’m good!

But since I ended up in prison, that means I’m not good. I violated God's commandments and social norms. How can I make sure I never come here again? Is this possible, or am I doomed? In the midst of all this horror, shock and loneliness, hope, as always, was only in Him. I was lucky, in addition to the disheveled Bible, there were letters from my grandfather.

I remember his words now: “Yura, in the environment in which you find yourself, a person’s authority is strengthened not by fluffy jargon and rabid profanity, but by a person’s intellect.” I understood what needs to be developed and who should not be like. I really wanted to change, to become a different, worthy member of society. Honest and fair.

Two and a half years in the stuffy cells of a pre-trial detention center, and at the end (!) the sentence is seven years of general regime and deportation to the most “red” zone of Russia. “Dvoyka” (USH 349/2 Ekaterinburg) is a demonstration experimental colony that every decent prisoner is afraid to end up in. The regime is too harsh, even major authorities, when they get a bad grade, they exchange their romantic principled ideology for warm “goat” positions.

A colony is a model of society. If you know how to do something, have skills and talent, you can get a job. No - that means the dirtiest and most tedious work awaits you, or non-stop drill training and cleaning bathrooms. The life lessons continued.

But the Lord did not leave me here, and I continued to observe miracles in my life, which could not be called anything other than God’s mercy. I began to sing in the spiritual choir at the Methodist church. (I actually came to Orthodoxy two years ago, before that I was always in search of the Truth). In the same choir, the senior brass band sang as the third voice (the orchestra consisted of only five people), and he urgently needed a musician for a large drum with a cymbal.

I was absolutely fine with music, and was even convinced that I had no hearing. But it was me who the orchestra director chose. I could not even imagine such a miracle! I was transferred to another detachment and immediately freed from all the combat training that was depressing the personality. My duties included beating the drum twice a day, when, to the music of military marches, brigades of convicts went to work in the industrial zone. I spent the rest of my time on rehearsals and self-education.

During three and a half years in the colony, I learned the profession of a plumber and ventilation mechanic. Finished the 10th and 11th grades of evening high school. (He graduated from 12 when he was already free). Learned to play wind instruments (tenor, baritone, tuba). I read “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment”, “The Master and Margarita” from cover to cover and was delighted with these great creations. I became acquainted with Yesenin’s poetry, memorizing many of his poems. Kipling’s “commandment” became my commandment, also memorized. He managed to work in the theater as an actor and screenwriter, developed public speaking skills, and, with the help of the stage, was cured of a stutter that he had suffered from since the age of 6. I got inspired and wrote poetry!

I really appreciated this blessed time. I understood that on the other side of the fence a lot of worries and troubles awaited me. There won’t be enough time to read books, and most likely there won’t be a theater with an orchestra either.

For several years after my release, I considered the years of imprisonment to be the happiest of my life! And the first year of freedom was languishing in spirit, because there is no freedom here, just a surrogate, complete shackles, just an imitation of freedom.

This is how, with the help of such a tool as prison, God helped me become a man. Now, from the height of my years, I see that there was no other equally effective way. And who I would be now if not for prison, it’s impossible to imagine without horror.

I don’t want to say that we have an ideal penal system; quite the opposite. But I want to note some fundamental factors for correcting a person, which are not activated under other sanctions, under other conditions.

1. Stress. Catastrophe. “Electroshock”, bringing a person to his senses, forcing him to completely rethink his life, his behavior, way of thinking, scale of values ​​(repentance in our opinion).

2. Prison takes a person out of his usual environment. To change yourself, habits, character - this is a necessary condition.

3. Eliminates sources of temptation and objects of addiction (alcohol, drugs, the Internet, the opposite sex, etc.)

4. Provides the necessary time resource for qualitative change.

The most important thing is to want to improve and find out how to do it. I think these functions should be taken over by priests in the penitentiary system.

You can reform if you want to, but prison should only create the necessary conditions for correction, to help anyone who wants it.

Increase efficiency correctional system Can. There are no prisoners today that tough one Institute of Thieves, which was in Soviet time. Consumer and liberal ideology have done their job. There is nothing to hinder educational and pedagogical technologies at the appropriate level.

But no matter how hard I try to enter society, I can’t. At some points I notice that I still oppose myself to society, that is, I maintain, as teachers would say, a hostile attitude that formed in me due to circumstances. Just as I was a deviant, I still am. But I moved to the other pole. From negative deviation to positive. A person who is accustomed to stepping over flags cannot be taught to live within the limits, but he can be reoriented to step over flags in the other direction. Not towards selfishness, but towards Love.

Today, real Orthodox Christians (not only in words, but in thoughts and deeds) are deviants. For it is said, “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it” (Matthew 7:14).

There is no need to look for a way out in mitigating the punishment or improving conditions of detention. The purpose of the system should not be isolation and punishment, but to help a person change and become better - after death it will be too late. This is possible only with the active participation of the Church, for it is not man himself who corrects himself, but only through the Grace of the Lord this is possible.

The topic of prison, the living conditions of prisoners, the fairness of punishments and the meaning of imprisonment is becoming one of the key topics of public discussion. Natalya Kuznetsova knows firsthand what a person who goes to prison experiences first-hand. She has been helping prisoners for many years. Recently, as a member of the Public Monitoring Commission of the Moscow Region for public control over the provision of human rights in places of forced detention and assistance to persons in places of forced detention (POC MO), a representative from the RPO "Mercy". Priest Dmitry Sverdlov talked with Natalya Kuznetsova about what modern Russian prisons and colonies are.

Natalya Kuznetsova. Photo: miloserdie.ru

– What are your general impressions of places of detention?

- Prison is a cursed place. Therefore, it is better not to put anyone there. At the same time, there are people who actually pose a real threat to others. But, to be honest, during all the time of my work I saw a considerable number of people in pre-trial detention centers and colonies, and I got the impression that a significant part of these people might not be there. There is no need to isolate them from society.

Of course, they don’t need to be idealized, but they don’t need to be demonized either.

Imprisonment has improved almost no one's life. Vice versa. As a rule, it only criminalized. A person learns to live according to these criminal laws. If he didn’t know them before and got there for the first time, then he gains experience that he might not have acquired.

I don’t see any point in maintaining this, in my opinion, enormous number of prisoners – 740 thousand people in Russia as of May 1st. In addition, we have about 340 thousand employees who guard and serve prisoners. Here we must also add relatives and, in general, everyone associated with this area - social workers and other services. It seems to me that in the end almost a third of the country is connected with the penal system.

Imprisonment is not good for prisoners. Gathered in one place great amount completely different, strangers, forced to live side by side, in rather cramped conditions. On the one hand, they are criminals, and there is no reason to organize a resort for them. But, on the other hand, the conditions must still be human.

– Are they inhuman?

– Are all human beings free? Not everyone has it. So there it is - in the square. Detention center- This is generally an institution where people under investigation are kept. They were locked there, isolated so that they would not run away or interfere with the investigation of some case. And here they are sitting there.

– At the same time, they are innocent because their guilt has not been proven?

– While they are under investigation, until their guilt is proven and the court finds them guilty and sentences them to some type of punishment, then they are not convicted. But they are already there. They are deprived of freedom, they are separated from their families, children are separated from their mothers, from their fathers. What's good about this?

It’s the 21st century, our prisons are trying to be repaired and adapted to international standards, but this is still a long way off. It is clear that when you come with some scheduled inspection, they show you the cameras - everything seems so clean. And then the aunties get up, their beds there are still two-tiered. Or even three tiers if there is overcrowding... Mattress, pillow, blanket. Nightstand. The toilet is blocked off by a curtain. Or it is not blocked - then you need to write to block it. Table, on the table there is a large bowl full of cigarette butts. It’s quite difficult to breathe in such a cell, it’s smoky. The very language that everyone speaks there, and the atmosphere itself...

When I arrive, I always look first of all from the point of view of what would happen if I got here? Or one of my close relatives. How to survive? This is what I don't know. I don't consider myself strong man. Would I have stayed there? I can’t answer myself. I want to hope and believe that yes, my faith would somehow support me. But until you check, you won't know. Because this attraction is not for the faint of heart.

Lots of hard stories. One woman asked our commission to help with her child. He is 10 or 11 years old. She was convicted, but the case was submitted for review, and she is fighting to have her sentence reduced. In the meantime, the child was taken to an orphanage. This is okay, normal. But the worst thing is that the boy was put up for adoption. How is this even possible?! The case has been filed for review, she could theoretically be released soon, and the child will be adopted by other parents? Moreover, this is not the mother who abandoned her son, but the one who wants to raise him herself. She wrote to the director of the orphanage and asked not to do this. And there is no answer.

How do people live there? In a small space, some things are hung, something is laid out. Camp in miniature. Only in the camp there is a family, and here are people who, by coincidence, are driven into one room. Here, go and get along with your husband in the same apartment, but in such conditions, how? I understand that there are indeed criminals. There are women who have committed some crimes with cruelty. But the majority did not commit socially dangerous acts.

The conditions of imprisonment clearly have a negative impact on a person and can plunge a person into despondency and depression. Or he will begin to defend himself, to behave harshly, which is also not good for him. And there is less and less humanity left. If you want to survive there, you have to be tough.

Here, for example, is a women's colony. More than one and a half thousand young women, from 18 to 65 and even older. You are visible all the time. You can't go into your room. You can't even have privacy in the toilet. You are endlessly in full view. And so you stew in such circumstances... It’s the same in a pre-trial detention center. Only there they can also tell you: “You know, we found out that you are innocent. You can leave."

- Innocent? Leave? But I am familiar with statistics that say that in our country a very small percentage of accused persons receive an acquittal.

- Yes it's true. But this does not mean that all those convicted are truly guilty. Imagine, someone was arrested, an investigation was underway, dozens of people were involved. They are considered to be professionals. And suddenly the court acquits him. That is, it turns out that they all worked in vain, and the person is innocent, and most importantly, the crime has not been solved? The system is not often willing to admit this.

Here is another story from the latest terrible cases in the pre-trial detention center in Yegoryevsk. Members of our commission went to look into this. The suspect died. The parents were told that the guy had hanged himself. But in fact, the examination was carried out with a number of violations. A repeat examination at the city hospital revealed that he had been beaten all over his body and had marks similar to rape. During the initial examination, they didn’t even take tests or conduct a study; death occurred before or as a result of strangulation. He allegedly hanged himself in a punishment cell on a wire. Well, how could there be a wire in a punishment cell when even a cross is removed from a person?

Further. In Saratov, a guy was sentenced to 120 hours forced labor. But he didn’t go to work because his leg was broken and in a cast. We arrived home, took him to the colony, and a few days later they called his parents and said that he had died of a heart attack. And they didn’t want to give up the body, they said, we’ll bury it ourselves. Of course, the parents did not agree and came. The body is a complete bruise, the head is cut off and sewn on. This is scary.

For me there is a huge problem here. I communicate with employees as an inspector or simply come from Mercy with some kind of humanitarian aid, promotions, concerts. And the correctional officers are all seemingly normal people. Well, maybe sometimes they talk more rudely to people. Sometimes it's quieter...

But what happens to them afterwards? This is a terrible temptation when another person is in your complete power. And if there are no internal brakes, then the roof blows off. Because you can afford anything, you can do whatever you want with this person. But it has not even been proven that that person is a criminal. All these cases that we are talking about now took place in a pre-trial detention center.

...I measure myself all the time. If I went there, how could I survive there? How? Due to what? If you are a weakling, you will suffer there. In order to somehow establish yourself there, certain qualities are needed - and these qualities, most likely, are not those that we would like to see in a prisoner when he returns from there to society.

– Why, then, is this preventive measure, imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center, so popular in Russia? legal practice?

– Well, the prison is the most expensive hotel in the world. In any country. Maintaining a prison is very expensive for the state, but very profitable for the department, it is very big funds. And then, this system did not develop yesterday. It seems to me that she is not even Soviet, but she is also from the NKVD. “Everyone is an enemy of the people, shut them all down.” “No person, no problem.”

It seems to me that many of these people need not be imprisoned. Now there are so many modern technologies, when you can track a person’s movement, you can organize for him House arrest. This system reproduces itself; it is absolutely inhuman. It is punitive, not corrective. The person will be put in a pre-trial detention center. He has not yet been convicted, but he is already being punished. Well, what is this?

“They just weren’t there themselves.” No personal experience? “As you want people to do to you, do so to them.” No one has yet canceled the Gospel.

It seems to me that the world has changed a lot. Human life ceases to be valuable at all. Previously, during the war, people surrendered in order to save their lives at any cost. In the camps they resorted to betrayal just to come out alive. I'm not saying this is right, but...

Not so now. There are young guys and girls I know. You tell them: “Well, what are you doing? You drink, do all sorts of murderous things to yourself. You are ruining your life. You might just die early. Do you go to places where there is risk? sudden death increases significantly. Why do you feel this way about your life?” They say: “I don’t care.” And this “I don’t care” makes me scared, because this didn’t happen. It probably happened, but not on such a scale, and the people were not so young. I don’t remember such a period and I haven’t read about it for this to be the case.

It probably happened that a person gave up on his life, but he had to get to this point. And now at the beginning of their lives this is their attitude towards life.

This may be due to the virtualization of life. They've seen enough of computer games where there's blood in the river and everyone dies for fun. And they seem to understand that this is death, but at the same time they understand that this is not death. Maybe that’s why they approach their lives this way.

But the problem is that they treat other life the same way. They don’t feel sorry for either their own or someone else’s. It's a simple problem. In Russia, in general, of course, it has always been the case that “women give birth to new ones.” That's where it comes from too. This didn't start yesterday. But are you guys and I living today? We are responsible for ourselves. If we still want to be human, can’t we always fall back into the Middle Ages and into cruelty?

– What can the Church do today to, if not radically change the situation, at least try to improve it?

– We have churches in almost all colonies and many pre-trial detention centers. Some are detached, some are house-built. If there is no temple, then there is a chapel or prayer room. You arrive and ask: “Oh, do you have a temple?” - “Yes, we have a temple.” - “And in honor of whom?” Then there is silence. Neither the staff nor the prisoners know.

On rare occasions, where the priest actually visits every week, everyone knows him there. They know their name. They know when he arrives. But this is rather an exception. Most of the temple is still standing, but closed. By large church holidays, of course, they serve almost everywhere. In many places - about once a month. Well, there aren't enough priests.

– That is, the temple exists nominally?

- “Does father ever come?” - "Happens". - “Does it happen often?” - “Often” - “What’s the priest’s name?” - “Oh, I don’t remember. Now I remember, but I forgot.” The employees may still know their names. Why do they know? Because they invite him to all events. At the Spartakiad, the Easter cakes are blessed, sometimes at baptism, sprinkle everything with baptism water.

Maybe I was unlucky, I haven’t been to all the colonies. But I have not seen a schedule of services in any prison church. If, God forbid, I had ended up there somewhere as a prisoner, I can’t imagine how I could have received communion or confessed. “When will Father arrive?” - “When he can. I was just there, I left.”

There are no obligations. Commitments to people first.

What to do? Don't know. Of course it is possible, administrative measures force the priests. You can put a priest in each colony so that he can serve there 2-3 days a week. But there is no such thing as mercy according to orders. And if he himself does not like this service, or is not inclined, or is not close to him - well, what will you do here? And where can you find so many priests?

– What could be the way out of this?

– If there was a way out, it would probably have already been found... It seems to me that a wider one is needed public control. Here in the same district departments where detainees are taken - why not make a transparent wall so that relatives can come and see that everything is okay with the person? It's not about a date, not about communication, but just to see and calm down.

In addition, I think that if there is a rotation of observers, then more people will learn and see what exactly is happening in this system. And there will be no illusions, there will be less indifference and lack of involvement.

Forgive me, it seems to me that I am saying some well-known things and have not discovered any America. But if I suddenly opened someone’s eyes to something, it would be nice if they remained open.

They are accused of giving alcohol to a minor, what could be the punishment?

A very stupid situation happened to my friend. He is 16 years old and goes to school. Recently he met a guy who is 13 years old. My friend is now accused of getting this 13-year-old boy drunk, although in fact he just gave him 50 rubles, not knowing that he would go and buy a liter and a half of beer and drink it at school. After he gave him 50 rubles, he didn’t see him, and almost the last one found out that he was drunk!

Now they want to register their friend at school, and the father of the guy who got drunk wants to write a statement to the police. Does the school have the right to register him, and can the police do anything?

Mukhin Dmitry Andreevich Lawyer

Hello! Your friend’s actions do not constitute a criminal offense (Article 151 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is applicable only in the following cases:

1) the age of majority of the potential offender;

2) the systematic nature of these actions, i.e. two or more times;

3) direct intent.

Your friend does not meet any of these criteria. No and administrative offense(Article 6.10), since committing this offense and bringing to administrative responsibility is possible only with direct intent, which did not exist, based on the situation you described. A school is an educational organization, registration in the department for work with minors is handled by the Department of Internal Affairs, this is their competence. Regarding the police, I replied that I did not see any offense in his actions. On the face of it, an ordinary gift agreement (Article 572 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) or a loan agreement (Article 808 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), depending on the conditions on which your friend gave it to him money for the guy.

The need to ask a lawyer a question may arise at any time. What to do if you do not know a single qualified professional, do not have the opportunity to visit a lawyer’s office during his office hours, or simply there is no truly competent specialist in your locality?

The adoption of the law was preceded by heated debate. No, no one objected to the idea itself, but opinions differed regarding the technology. Initially, the Ministry of Justice (this was under previous leaders) proposed to develop a system of state legal bureaus, where they would help people for free. The then heads of the department noticed this system in Finland. As an experiment, similar bureaus were even created in 10 regions; the experience was considered successful, but things did not go any further. The reason is the critics of the project, including the legal community. Professional advocates proposed not to increase the number of government agencies, but to transfer the good cause and the corresponding funding to them. As a result, a compromise option was chosen: each region will choose its own system of free state legal assistance. Where they decide so, they will create a state bureau. Where they want something different, they will involve lawyers. By the way, in the Moscow region, as part of that same experiment, a state legal bureau was created. Residents of the capital, who were not accepted there, I remember, were very offended, and even wrote to the newspapers, saying that it was a rare case when a person with a Moscow residence permit ends up losing. Well, now such experiences are in the past, a Muscovite will be able to choose any lawyer he likes from an extensive list. Supervises free assistance in the capital department social protection population of the city of Moscow. He will also update the lists of free lawyers every year.

Free legal advice is provided by the Moscow Bar Association, under the social program of legal assistance to the population. With us, you can ask a lawyer a question free of charge, at a personal meeting by telephone appointment.

Pensioners, disabled people, and the poor whose incomes are below the subsistence level can apply for help. Full list those who are entitled to free legal assistance, specified in the law. In some regions, they are discussing the idea of ​​allowing free assistance to people who find themselves in difficult life situations. But here we need to work out clear criteria. By the way, in addition to the state system, a non-state system is also unfolding in the country free help, the Russian Lawyers Association is actively involved in this work.

Today, every person wants to be protected. From crime and, quite often, from the state. More precisely, from his coercive apparatus, which implements sanctions for unlawful behavior.

The adoption of the law was preceded by heated debate. No, no one objected to the idea itself, but opinions differed regarding the technology. Initially, the Ministry of Justice (this was under previous leaders) proposed to develop a system of state legal bureaus, where they would help people for free. The then heads of the department noticed this system in Finland. As an experiment, similar bureaus were even created in 10 regions; the experience was considered successful, but things did not go any further. The reason is the critics of the project, including the legal community. Professional advocates proposed not to increase the number of government agencies, but to transfer the good cause and the corresponding funding to them.

Residents of Moscow and the Moscow region have the opportunity to contact our lawyers by landline phone for advice. If for any reason you are not satisfied with this, you can arrange a personal meeting with a specialist. Consultation in both cases will be absolutely free.

But don’t forget, because getting a consultation, even a detailed one, is one thing, but defending your rights in the hall court session- completely different. After all, knowing that you are right is not enough; you still need to prove it. And only an experienced specialist who has an excellent understanding of the law, procedural subtleties and the prevailing public and private rules can cope with such work judicial practice.

Everyone, sooner or later, has a situation when it is extremely necessary to ask a question to a competent professional lawyer. And only in such cases, you can safely contact us. And we, in turn, will try to give a comprehensive analysis of the current problem.

Unfortunately, ask free question contacting a lawyer is only an “emergency” measure that will not save you from the need to meet with a lawyer in cases where you are resolving a truly complex issue. This is due to the fact that each situation has a large number of subtleties, insignificant at first glance, but of great legal significance. In order to understand difficult matter, the specialist needs to study the attached materials (documents) in detail and only after that he can give you truly correct advice on what you should do in this situation.

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Can criminal punishment reform a criminal?

Opening a criminal case is not so easy. A citizen who contacts the police or prosecutor's office should know that such cases do not arise out of nowhere. A prerequisite for applying is evidence.

Let's look at the procedure for initiating a criminal case in Russia.

The procedure for initiating a criminal case in the Russian Federation - authorities and authorized persons

A citizen of the Russian Federation has the right to contact the police and ask to initiate a criminal case.

The order of this procedure is as follows:

1. A citizen comes to the police department of a city or district with written request- statement, which contains a request to initiate a criminal case, and also indicates the grounds for this action.

You can attach copies of documents confirming your criminal act.

2. Issuance of a certificate-notification of acceptance of the application

According to Part 4 of Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the person who accepted the document must issue a notification indicating his data, date and signature.

3. After submitting the application, the employee of the inquiry body, who is also the interrogator, must take testimony from the applicant and ask everything about the current situation

In addition, witnesses may be interviewed, and the specialist may demand to present documents and items that will establish information about the case.

All circumstances and characteristics of the crime that the investigator learns will be set out on paper and certified by the signature of an employee of the inquiry agency.

4. At the next stage, all documents are submitted to the investigator or prosecutor

Remember, only the prosecutor can open a criminal case.

In some cases, this right is given to the investigator or interrogating officer, but these officials there must be written agreement by the prosecutor.

A case will be opened if:

1. The prosecutor will find evidence of a crime by reviewing the documents.
2. The investigator independently discovered the criminal act while examining other cases. The specialist, as a rule, must petition the prosecutor and ask for his consent to consider a new criminal case.
3. The investigator needs to carry out urgent investigative actions indicated in Part 1 of Article 157 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. Usually, the body of inquiry, just like the investigator, makes a petition to the prosecutor.
4. The authorities received a report of a crime committed in public against a private person. Please note that in the place of the victim there must be a person who is in a dependent state, or who has not taken advantage of his full rights for protection. As a rule, the authorities cannot hesitate and need to investigate.

5. Then the prosecutor either initiates a criminal case, sending it to court, or writes a refusal to initiate

Note that no other government official except the prosecutor can initiate a criminal case.

The applicant will be informed whether a criminal case has been initiated. Usually a written decision is sent to his specified address.

It is worth knowing that there is a slightly different procedure for initiating and considering criminal cases

It depends on the type of case in question.

1. Private prosecution case, provided for in articles 115, 116, 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

In this case, the applicant must contact the magistrate. It is he who accepts the statement from the victim.

Such cases, as a rule, can be terminated if the parties reconcile (Part 2 of Article 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

2. The matter is private public accusation, described in articles 131,132, 137-139, 145-147, 159-159.6, 160, 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

When considering such cases, reconciliation between the parties is impossible. The application is also written to the magistrate.

The accused in such cases, as a rule, will be punished (Part 3 of Article 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

Remember: if a citizen cannot defend his rights on his own due to dependence or helplessness, then a case is created automatically - in the general manner.

3. Cases of public prosecution specified in Article 447 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation

They are considered in the same way as the previous ones, only with public disclosure if the parties so desire.

A case can be initiated by a representative of the inquiry body, an investigator, in accordance with Article 146 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

Grounds for initiating a criminal case under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

You can’t open a case just like that; there needs to be compelling reasons for this.

According to Part 2 of Article 140 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, first of all, the prosecutor looks at the data, which should indicate all sorts of signs of the committed act and confirm it. Such information must reflect the external and internal aspects of the crime committed against the laws of the Russian Federation.

When determining the presence of signs, the prosecutor or a person replacing him - an investigator, an interrogating officer - notes:

1. What is the object of the crime?
2. Was the event socially dangerous and illegal?
3. How was the crime committed?
4. What means, tools, devices were used to influence the victim.
5. Where the illegal act was committed, at what time.
6. What is the identity of the criminal, are any facts known from the suspect’s biography. For example, has he been convicted, is he sane?
7. What is the age of the person who committed the crime. In the Russian Federation, criminal liability begins at 14 and 16 years of age.
8. What was the purpose, motive and intent of the crime.

It is also taken into account whether there are grounds for refusal listed in Article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. If they are missing, then a criminal case is initiated.

Time limits for consideration of applications to initiate criminal proceedings

Representatives of the authorities are obliged to accept and consider any received report of a crime within 3 days .

In addition, during this time the prosecutor, or his replacement, must make a decision – initiate a criminal case and send it for investigation, or refuse to initiate a case (Part 1 of Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

Deadline for consideration of your application can be extended up to 10 days, according to the same article.

This only happens when it is necessary to:

1. Forensic examination.
2. Control and reliability of documents.
3. Checking items, murder weapons, etc.
4. Examination of the corpse.

It happens that the prosecutor increases the period for consideration of cases to 30 days . It is this period that is required to carry out activities aimed at searching and verifying something or someone (Part 3 of Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

Of course, every decision will be justified. If the period for consideration of your application is increased, you will definitely know about it. According to Article 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the police must inform the applicant about the decision. In addition, you should be told about your right to appeal the decision.

But it also happens that the applicant is not notified, although the papers in the authorities say otherwise. Call by phone, come in person and try to find out at what stage your case is stuck. If you hear evasive phrases in response, you should write a statement of complaint to the prosecutor.

Results of consideration of a crime report - when can a criminal case be refused?

When determining the decision to create a case according to the criminal code, a representative of the prosecutor’s office or the investigative committee is necessarily guided by important document– Article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

Accordingly, there are some conditions for refusal.

Let's list them:

1. The act was not committed, and this is proven by the facts.
2. There are no signs indicating a possible crime.
3. The statute of limitations has expired provided for by part 1 Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
4. The death of the accused occurred.
5. The victim refuses to submit a statement or has withdrawn it from the police.
6. The crime committed under one article “overrides” the new criminal law.
7. The court ruled that no illegal acts were observed in the actions Attorney General of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (clause 2 and clause 2.1 of Article 448 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).
8. The age at which criminal liability begins has not reached.
9. Antisocial thoughts and ideas were not translated into actual action.
10. Punishment should not come under criminal law, but through administrative and civil law.

Within 24 hours, the decision to refuse must reach the applicant.

I don't understand the law

Difficulties in understanding the laws arise due to the fact that legal language complex and incomprehensible, it is full of strange turns of phrase and anachronisms. What to do and how to correctly interpret this or that law? Here is what Wikipedia writes: “Interpretation of law is an intellectual process aimed at, firstly, identifying the meaning of the rules of law by the interpreter himself (clarification) and, secondly, bringing this meaning to the attention of others interested parties(clarification). Clarification and clarification of legal norms are two of the most important results of the interpretation process, but at the same time, the process of interpretation of law is often limited to understanding, that is, knowledge of the meaning of the norm “for oneself,” without communicating this result to other subjects. Interpretation is the most important component of the process of applying law; moreover, without interpretation there is and cannot be law enforcement.”

Let's consider ways of interpreting legal norms. Grammatical interpretation of legal norms is an analysis of a legal text using the rules of linguistics - grammar, spelling, morphology, syntax, punctuation, etc. With this type of interpretation of legal norms, the meaning of individual words, wording, punctuation marks, connections between words in sentences, etc. .d. Rules of grammatical interpretation: · words and formulations are given a commonly used meaning, giving words and formulations a different, special meaning must be justified; · if there is a normative definition of a term in the legislation, the term should be used in this meaning; · the meaning of a term, normatively established for one branch of law, cannot be applied in other branches without sufficient grounds. This is especially true if we're talking about on branches of public and private law; · if the meaning of the term is not normatively defined, one should be guided by legal, primarily judicial, practice and legal doctrine; · giving different terms the same meaning, as well as identical terms different meanings, is not allowed without sufficient grounds; · no word, wording, judgment or punctuation mark can be interpreted as unnecessary. Systematic interpretation of legal norms is the identification of the meaning and content of a norm through its comparative analysis with other legal norms. Logical interpretation of legal norms is the use of logical analysis, i.e. study of internal connections between words, formulations and judgments. Historical interpretation of legal norms is the study of the specific historical conditions for the creation of a norm, the reasons and purposes of issuing the corresponding legal act. Functional interpretation of legal norms is the study of the established practice of applying legal norms. Let's consider the types of interpretation of legal norms. Official is the interpretation of the law by competent government agencies, which is of a generally binding nature. Official interpretation is carried out in the established procedural form, its result is documented by special act. Acts of official interpretation have legal force, that is, a sign of universal bindingness. Official interpretation is classified by subject into authentic or author's and delegated. Authentic interpretation carried out by the body itself that issued the interpreted norm. IN in this case the subject of lawmaking and the subject of interpretation of law coincide in one person. Delegated interpretation is carried out by a specially authorized entity. For example, the Constitutional Court is authorized by law to officially interpret the norms of the Russian Constitution. By content official interpretation is divided into normative and law enforcement - casual. Regulatory interpretation applies to all legal situations of a certain kind. Enforcement or casual interpretation applies to a specific legal situation - an incident. Process normative interpretation identical to lawmaking. Acts of normative interpretation contain specific norms, that is, they have normative character. Informal interpretation is the interpretation of law by private actors. Unofficial interpretation is carried out in any form - oral or written and does not have the sign of official binding for third parties. IN unofficial interpretation There are three varieties: · doctrinal; · professional legal; · ordinary. By volume they distinguish: · literal interpretation; · broad interpretation; · restrictive interpretation. With a literal interpretation, the results of interpretation completely coincide with the text of the interpreted norm. With a broad interpretation, the results of interpretation are broader than the textual content of the norm. At restrictive interpretation interpretation narrows the textual content of the norm.

• Page not found Sorry, the resource you requested was not found. You can go back, or go to the main page and use the search. State of the database Total documents: 233329 In Kazakh: 116993 In Russian: 115930 In English language: 406 Update date: 06/08/2018 […]
• Which is correct: a woman is a citizen or a citizen of Russia? December 23, 2013 17:08 The administration of the city of Yekaterinburg, within the framework of the project “Ekaterinburg speaks correctly,” addresses complex issues written official business speech. When filling out forms and other official documents, the applicant is often faced with [...]
• Legal advice on housing and communal services Housing and communal services are a complex of sub-sectors that ensure the functionality of the infrastructure various buildings, by providing services that create or maintain the comfort and convenience of living of citizens. This complex includes: companies […]
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• 1.1. Statement of claim to the district court (collection under a promissory note). 1.2. District Court decision. 2. RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENT OF CLAIM. 2.1. Response to the statement of claim in [...] Online legal consultation Quick response - to an urgent question, response within an hour 100% guarantee of legal advice 24/7
• online consultation 24/7 Clear answers to questions of any complexity Always in touch lawyers lawyers online right now Real advice from live lawyers Answer immediately […] New in blogs How to get money back for incorrectly calculated taxes By the end of this week, Russians will receive another “chain letter” - this time from
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• Examination estimate documentation in Tver Checking turnkey estimate documentation For any work in a short time Checking estimate documentation is an analysis of the estimate aimed at determining the correctness of its preparation, the correctness of the application of current standards and the accuracy of the data used. The main objective […]

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"This is a machine that produces criminals"

What's wrong with Russian prisons and can it be fixed? Interview

David Frenkel/Kommersant

The Russian prison does not fulfill its main function - it does not correct criminals. Human rights activists think so, and the numbers confirm this opinion. Two-thirds of criminals who have served time in domestic colonies and prisons will one day return there. Every second crime in Russia is committed by a previously convicted criminal—that’s twice as much as ten years ago. And that's not the worst part. If you read numerous publications in the media, talk with former prisoners, and open forums for relatives of inmates, it becomes clear: a Russian prison is just a slightly lighter version of the Gulag, a territory of lawlessness, violence, and torture. A Russian prison is a shame for Russia.

A week ago, the All-Russian Civil Forum (ARC) was held in Moscow, at which experts presented the concept of prison reform. The media reported their proposal to create a “prison state corporation.” One of the experts who worked on the concept was journalist and human rights activist, head of the Sitting Rus' organization Olga Romanova. In 2008, her husband, businessman Alexei Kozlov, was arrested, and since then Romanova has been dealing with the problems of prisoners. The site's correspondent came to the human rights activist to talk about whether it is possible to correct Russian system execution of punishments. How can we make it cheaper, more humane, and most importantly, ensure that it reduces rather than increases the crime rate?

from personal archive

— The concept proposed by the UCF experts speaks of a “crisis of punishment.” What does it mean?

— It says that the existing concept of crime and punishment in Russia does not correspond to the 21st century. The civilized world is moving towards reducing the number of offenses for which criminal penalties are imposed, and the methods of punishment themselves are being liberalized. The main thing today is not punishment for already committed offenses, but crime prevention. That’s why experts talk about a “punishment crisis”: brutally punishing criminals is expensive and ineffective. Cruel - impossible. Tough - it is necessary.

Let's look at what has happened in our country over the past ten years. The level has more than doubled violent crime, the overall crime rate has decreased by more than one and a half times. But already every second crime is committed by repeat offenders. That is, prisons and the Federal Penitentiary Service have turned into a forge of criminal personnel.

- A formerly prison was it more effective? What changed?

- For example, the passage of time has accelerated. Today, after five years of imprisonment, it is already very difficult for a person to go back, because in five years the world changes a lot. Imagine how today people are released who, for example, ten years ago and do not understand what social networks are.

— I remember how Khodorkovsky mastered the iPhone and iPad after his release.

“He learned it quickly, he’s a smart guy. But people with a different intellectual level find it very difficult to get used to the new world, and they are left without social connections, without the opportunity to catch up with everything. If you are a young guy or girl, even a very capable one, what professions can you be given in prison? Painter? They won't teach you more or less in prison. modern profession- this is the level of our FSIN.

Another factor that makes it difficult to arrange the lives of released prisoners is the growth public sector in economics. It is very difficult for a person with a criminal record to get a job at a state enterprise; it is not even easy for him to get a bank card. And since there are fewer and fewer private businesses in the country, it is increasingly difficult for those released from prison to find a place for themselves.

The main problem is that in Russian prison there is no system of re-socialization, the return of a person to society, or the preservation of his social connections for the duration of his imprisonment. Compare level repeat crime V European countries, where the punishment system is structured differently: in Denmark - 16%, in Germany - 20%. Ours is 70-75%.

Dmitry Korotaev/Kommersant

— How can you not tear a criminal out of society?

— First of all, let him communicate with family and friends. Let's take the Internet. What's wrong if a person, while in prison, communicates with his child or his wife via the Internet? Yes, you can commit crimes using the Internet - so limit the traffic, monitor it. If the whole country is going to look at the traffic, this can be done for several hundred thousand prisoners.

Contact with family maintains a person's desire to return to normal life. Now we have people leaving prison who have never seen their children at all. The man was imprisoned when the child was three years old, and when he returned, he was already an adult. And that's it - no contact. This is a very difficult moment.

“Shouldn’t a murderer or rapist just be isolated from society?” Isn't that the point of punishment?

“We need to look differently at hardened criminals, people who have been sentenced for life, and people who have committed relatively minor crimes. Eat special categories criminals - sexual maniacs, serial killers, and these people need to be treated in a very special way. But there are people who went to prison for the first time and for minor offenses. About 30% of our people are imprisoned for nothing: miscarriages of justice, custom cases, political cases.

- Where does this figure come from?

— This is an approximate figure on which human rights activists, lawyers, and the ECHR agree. About a third of sentences are made with gross errors. Take the recent case of a teacher from Yekaterinburg, who moved to Kurgan for love, and who sat down to repost. It is quite clear that the judge did not take into account the circumstances of the case. Was there a repost? Was. But why is this considered a crime when a person in his message, on the contrary, was outraged by the abuse of a child? It's completely unclear. This is an example of a man who is sitting apparently for no reason. Or the “Bolotnaya case” - also obvious. 36 people were imprisoned - these are people who went to a permitted protest event.

You know, one high rank I once said: a third of us are in prison for nothing, and a third are in jail for the wrong reasons. Those who did “the wrong thing” were given a much harsher punishment than they deserved. They get seven years for stealing a mobile phone!

— How big is the problem of political prisoners in Russia?

- For example, in Tambov there is a whole colony that specializes in “reposters” - those convicted of reposting. They are all sent there. Udaltsov is sitting there. “Colony of reposters” cannot be translated into any language.

Such “criminals” appear for a simple reason. Each region has a plan for extremist crimes. But in Uryupinsk, for example, no extremist crimes, not a single protest citizen...

- Certainly. For a similar reason, we have almost no rapists left, but there are more than enough pedophiles. Because try to prove the guilt of a rapist, but no problem with a pedophile. If a woman comes to the police with a statement about sexual violence, most likely, her application will not be accepted, and if accepted, it will not end in anything. But the prisons are full of pedophiles: teachers, children's trainers, pedagogues, educators. These are all now at high risk.

Here sits ophthalmologist Matveev. A story widely known in the medical community. In February, a boy and his grandmother came to him to check his fundus. A boy in a ski suit, all wrapped up, it’s cold. The doctor took the boy to check the fundus of the eye - into a niche where there was not even a door: the grandmother, the nurse - everyone could see. I lifted him up by the butt so that he could rest his chin on the device, and bent down to look into his eye. And the day before the boy’s mother gave a lecture about pedophiles. The boy comes out from the doctor and says: “my uncle took me by the butt and wanted to kiss me”... 14 years of strict regime! However, if you are not guilty, do not despair: you will be sentenced to 14 years, and then reduced to five or seven, but also of a strict regime. This will be a signal to everyone that you are innocent.

— How are such “pedophiles” treated in prisons?

- By the way, it’s fine. Because the “blat committee”, which keeps order in the prison, is fair in this sense. If a real pedophile comes, his life will be hell. And if such a “pedophile” is, then he will live normally and sit quietly. Here the Blat Committee is fairer than the court.

“...One of the general considerations is the proposal to separate the institutions of early and conditional release. Thus, a significant part of convicts who are currently on parole may be released early, and other convicts may be conditionally replaced unserved portion punishment by another type, which implies additional administrative supervision their behavior for quite a long time. Prisoners who have not previously served a sentence and who have not violated the order of conditional release should be released early.”

— Journalists wrote that you propose to abolish the FSIN and create a “prison state corporation.” It's right?

- This is only one aspect. I will make a reservation that I cannot answer for everyone, because I am only one of the experts, and even in this expert group I found myself in opposition to my colleagues on some issues. The main idea is not in the form of ownership, but in de-militaryization and demilitarization of the FSIN system. People in uniform should remain there only on the perimeter, in the convoy, as guards. The head of the zone must be a civilian. He may have a deputy for operational work - a man in uniform, and two more deputies - for social work and in production - must also be civilian. And all personnel in the institution, except for security, must be civilians.

— In this case, the paramilitary part of the employees will obey the “civilian” leader?

- Why not? We have a Minister of Defense - civilian, to which people in uniform obey.

— What will demilitarization give?

— People in uniform obey orders, and civil servants obey the law. The law must rule in correctional institutions. To do this, civil servants must come: doctors, foremen, psychologists. The most important thing is that the very purpose of the FSIN system must change. Today the Federal Penitentiary Service carries out punishments without thinking for a second that a person must reform. This is a machine that produces criminals, but it should produce people who can live in society. She should give them a profession, support their family, and deal with their psychology.

“I foresee reader comments: “These are criminals, they should be punished, but you put them in a sanatorium where they can communicate with their family.”

- Firstly, your freedom in prison is still limited. You can't go wherever you want, you have a routine. You can't go to the movies, you can't go to bed at 11 pm instead of 10. You can't see your child every day, you can't check his homework and pat him on the head. But I think family visits for prisoners should be not once every two months, but once a week.

Breaking up a family is a terrible thing, because when a person returns to freedom, and he has neither housing nor family, where should he go? And you need to understand why families of prisoners often break up. Not because such bad wives don’t want to wait for their husbands. If your close person ends up in prison, you start spending 80-90% of your time in prison. And you still need to work, feed and clothe your children. Many people simply cannot support their family when this happens.

The law does not say that, as punishment for a crime, you must be deprived of contact with your family, reading glasses and aspirin, and also forced to work around the clock. It only says that you are deprived of your freedom. That's all.

In any case, prison is a restriction of freedom, and a very painful one. You had plans for your life, but everything fell apart. But for some reason, in our country, prison becomes synonymous with torture, humiliation, and the complete destruction of social ties. It is clear that a person returns from there distorted and therefore often cannot find a place for himself in life.

Dmitry Korotaev/Kommersant

— Is there any reason to believe that a more humane prison system will reduce the crime rate?

“We all laugh at Norwegian and Dutch prisons with three-room cells. Our middle class does not live like their criminals. So after all, these prisons are empty - let's think about why? Humanism re-educates. High crime where strict prisons, - in Russia, in the USA. Americans have monstrous prisons, tough penal system and also a very high relapse rate. Americans and we are idiot brothers in terms of organizing prison systems. Remember "The Shawshank Redemption": cruelty, corruption, torture. Very familiar.

There is a science called criminology, which studies crime and punishment. She says attitudes towards crime and punishment have changed over the past 50 years. The world is coming to the humanization of punishment, and this brings effect. Even Australia, a country of convicts, managed to rebuild the penal system and make it effective.

We need to ask ourselves: what is the task facing us? Punish for the sake of punishment? It seems to me that our task is to ensure that there is less crime, and ideally, no crime at all. And this is led to by the resocialization of criminals, the reduction of recidivism, and not cruel punishments.

An indicator of the effectiveness of the FSIN system and individual units should be the number of recidivisms. If a large percentage of convicts held in a particular colony commit crimes again, it means that the head of the colony is not coping.

From the concept of reform of the penal system: “...The penal system is being transformed into a non-military agency headed by a civil servant. The demilitarization of the Federal Penitentiary Service is being carried out with the separation of the penitentiary police from security and escort officers, operational search services, security and duty units. All other functions must be passed civilian specialists, starting with the general management of pre-trial detention centers, colonies and colony-settlements for execution social functions and personal services, the implementation of the main goal of compulsory detention of this type - the resocialization of convicts. This will require simultaneous significant increase salary levels for personnel, especially those categories that work directly with convicts.”

— There are 650 thousand people imprisoned in Russia. When compared with the number of inhabitants, this is three times higher than the global value and 1.5 - 2 times higher than in the countries of the former USSR. You have already said that “a third are in prison for nothing, and a third for the wrong reasons.” If you release them, you will get exactly the world average level.

— The prison population in Russia is artificially high; we have a lot of “extra” inmates who are kept in prisons for various reasons, primarily economic. The most important reason is the Federal Penitentiary Service per capita financing. The more people there are, the more money they give, so, for example, it is not beneficial for anyone to release prisoners on parole. Now our FSIN has become the sixth largest recipient budget funds in the country. Over the past ten years, its budget has grown tenfold. 300 thousand people work there - for every two prisoners we have a security guard. At the same time, 75% of the funds are spent on the functioning of the FSIN system itself, and the maintenance of each prisoner costs only 100 rubles a day - a little more than one and a half dollars.

The second reason is systemic corruption, which is associated both with obtaining parole for money and with “promka” - production in zones. How is production organized in the zone? As a rule, there are several local entrepreneurs for whom it is very profitable to work with the FSIN, since this is a free labor force. However, according to the law, it is not free. But convicts work in three shifts of 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and the work time sheet states that they work 8 hours a day with a lunch break and days off. The profit that comes from free labor is divided between the entrepreneur and the head of the zone - this is corruption. Convicts are deducted money for uniforms, accommodation, food, and so on. They receive almost nothing in their hands. Those who complain will be dealt with by the “blat committee” - convicts who have reached an agreement with the colony administration. The administration gives them some concessions, for example, turns a blind eye to the use of alcohol and drugs, and the “blat committee” in response puts pressure on prisoners who try to complain about corruption in the zone or low pay labor.

“But some complaints still leave the colonies and reach the prosecutor’s office.

— It is often also unprofitable for prosecutors to enforce the law in the zones, because when deciding on the issue of parole, prosecutors are in agreement with the administration of the colonies. Parole is another element of the corruption system. The issue of parole is decided by the court, and it listens to the opinions of two parties: the administration of the colony, which characterizes the prisoner, and the prosecutor’s office. If both parties agree to parole, the person is usually released. Accordingly, if parole is sold for 100,000 conventional units, then half will go to the prosecutor.

It turns out to be a vicious circle: local business, the management of the zone (and the entire administration of the Federal Penitentiary Service, because this corruption connection goes from top to bottom), the prosecutor’s office, and the Blat Committee are interested in maintaining the status quo.

Trond Isaksen/Statsbygg

Dmitry Korotaev/Kommersant

— Is torture in colonies also a systemic problem? Or rather, an exception?

— Torture is also a consequence of corruption. After all, they don’t torture for no reason. They torture those who complain and intend to defend their rights. This system operates everywhere in male and female colonies from Smolensk to Magadan. There are not so many sadists in this system. They torture for a specific reason, because the system is interfered with: this complainant interferes with making a profit, this complainant interferes with the release on parole. The only thing is that it is quite rare for the employees themselves to beat them; usually this is done by the hands of other prisoners who maintain “order.” And those who help the administration maintain “order” receive better conditions, including girls and black caviar (although they prefer drugs), for beating and torturing other prisoners.

— After all, the roots of this system go back to the times of the Gulag, when jailers used thieves to control political ones.

- I think that in Soviet times there was no such open merging of the police power, the “reds”, with the thieves’ power - with the “blacks”. But a zone is always a cross-section of society. If in our freedom Italian and Shakro Molodoy turn out to be connected with the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor's Office, then what can we say about the zones? Now there is no such confrontation between criminals and authorities, their interests have grown together.

— How can we reduce the number of prisoners?

- Firstly, change criminal law, decriminalize petty crimes. Secondly, separate the institutions of conditional and early release and simplify early release. Thirdly, increase the number of colony-settlements: now, if we follow the letter of the law, 200 thousand people could be in prison-settlements, but only 31 thousand are sitting - due to lack of places. And the colony-settlement is your path to resocialization, it’s the way home: you can go to civilian clothes, go out to the village, get normal money for your work.

From the concept of reform of the penal system:“...The main indicators of the effectiveness of the system should be the quality of life of “convicts” in a given institution, their resocialization after release. The main ones may be: (1) post-penitentiary recidivism (repetition of crimes) by persons held in the institution; (2) providing productive and educational opportunities to those convicted by their administration.”

— Do you think the FSIN system can be reformed? Or should we abolish it entirely and create new structure again - like they did with the police in Georgia?

“I believe that the Federal Penitentiary Service should be rebuilt and that glorious “worker dynasties” should not be taken there, and there are a lot of them in this system. But this is my personal opinion, and here I am again in opposition even to my fellow experts. They talk about the possibility of “radically reforming” the existing department.

— Is it possible to change the very system of social relations in prison: remove caste, ensure the disappearance of the category of “omitted”, and so on?

— It seems to me that if you remove corruption, if you remove economic fundamentals violence, it will be easier. Caste has been in prison for hundreds of years, and of course, we won’t just remove it. But it has already been undermined - unlike the Soviet era, we have colonies for “pioneers”. This gives those entering prison for the first time a chance to avoid becoming victims of the prison system. This division, by the way, is a merit former leader FSIN Reimer - he is now sitting in Lefortovo and is learning first-hand how the penal system works.

I have seen prison systems where violence and negative attitudes towards homosexuals have completely disappeared. For example, in Norway. This is not fantasy. At the same time, the States have all this - but, as I said, they also have a very bad prison system.

HE TO Sverdlovsk region

— You give examples of Scandinavian democracies as countries where they managed to build a good prison system. Are there such examples in the post-Soviet space?

— Georgia, Baltic states. Even Turkmenistan, where every five minutes an amnesty is announced for some reason. The Turkmens are cleaning prisons, and doing the right thing. Return people to their families, let them work, there is no point in idle in prison at the expense of taxpayers. We also announce amnesties, but after the amnesty for economic crimes, 505 people were released from criminal liability. And those already sentenced to real terms Only 58 people were released (another 68 were released from the pre-trial detention center). The State Duma adopted the law, discussed it for a long time - and 130 people. What about forced labor? For many years they built forced labor centers so that people would not be sent to prison for non-violent crimes, billions were spent - and built for 900 people. Out of 650 thousand inmates.

The concept of judicial reform. Short

Concept judicial reform is a ten page document. You can read it in its entirety at this link..

1. Reduce the number of prisoners. To do this, first of all, the legislation needs to be changed. For example, put fewer people in prison who have violated the law for the first time and whose actions did not damage the life or health of the victims, did not lead to major or especially major damage. Especially humane treatment should be shown to those who find themselves in difficult life situations.

2. Introduce the concept of a criminal offense for crimes of minor and medium gravity. For misdeeds, punish lightly, without depriving of freedom or depriving it for a short period of time - up to six months.

3. Separate the institutions of conditional and early release. At early release the person is completely freed from supervision. Simplify the procedure for obtaining parole.

4. Arrest people less and put them in jail. Reduce the period of arrest to two weeks. Bring back the institution of surety, so that there are more reasons to leave defendants free.

5. To speed up the transfer of convicts from pre-trial detention centers to colonies as much as possible.

6. Give the heads of the pre-trial detention center the right not to accept prisoners if the detention center is overcrowded. Punish them for exceeding the limit for more than a day.

7. Facilitate the transfer of convicts to colony settlements.

8. Particularly improve detention conditions individual categories, for example - women. Create women's colonies in every subject of the Russian Federation and prohibit sending women to serve their sentences more than 300 km from home. If it is not possible to create women's colonies, allocate separate areas for women in men's colonies.

10. Transform the FSIN system into a non-military agency headed by a civilian employee. Make civil servants the heads of the colonies and leave only the security and regime unit to the paramilitary units. Each colony chief must have three deputies: for operational work (“in uniform”), “for social affairs” and “for production” (these are civilian).

11. Subordinate the “social zone” of the colony to a “social manager”. He'll take care of it medical care, education, legal services, social workers and psychologists. Prisoners must be taught by teachers “from the outside.”

12. Subordinate the “production zone” to a business manager who will interact with local businesses and companies.

13. Make the main criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the FSIN the level of recidivism and opportunities for resocialization of prisoners.

14. Tighten the requirements for FSIN employees, including psychological ones. At the same time, increase their social status.

15. Make the system more open: oblige institutions to disclose basic information on websites, give prisoners the opportunity to communicate with relatives and lawyers via Skype, give access to correctional institutions representatives of registered human rights NGOs.

16. To solve organizational, economic and labor problems in the criminal correctional system, it is possible to create a state corporation that will not be part of the FSIN. She will have to work on optimizing the prison economy.

The following took part in the preparation of the reform concept: Maria Shklyaruk (Center for Strategic Research Foundation, head of the “Institutions and Society” direction), Olga Shepeleva (Center for Strategic Research Foundation, expert in the “Institutions and Society” direction), Valentin Gefter (Director of the Institute human rights), Olga Romanova (executive director of Sitting Rus'), Alexey Kozlov (co-founder of Sitting Rus', entrepreneur), Anton Tabakh (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University), Ekaterina Korosteleva (specialist of the Presidential Council for Human Rights), Kirill Titaev (leading researcher at the Institute of Law Enforcement Problems of the European University in St. Petersburg).

I former officer Ministry of Internal Affairs and Federal Penitentiary Service.

I want to tell you a little about the Russian colonies. Currently, the Russian penitentiary system cannot ensure not only the correction of the convicted person, but also his safety and health. The zones breed diseases, primarily drug addiction, AIDS and tuberculosis. They produce socially unadapted people, criminals; these are unique universities of thieves. A normal person comes, a criminal comes out.

There are two types of zones: red and black. Red, in which the will of the administration dominates, black - in which the leader criminal community. Moreover, it makes no difference to an ordinary convict. They mock him this way and that. Both those swindlers and these ones.

I worked in IK-15 in Nizhnevartovsk, in the so-called “ black zone", the head of the detachment. About a quarter of the detachment of 100 people were so-called “offended”; there is probably no need to explain what they are. I won’t shock you with the details of how and why these “outcasts” become, I will only note that the list of reasons is quite long. The rest were “reds” (supposedly assistants to the administration), informers, foremen and other petty management who lost at cards and managed to “repaint” to save their own ass.

Average convict: 18-25 years old, fatherless, never served in the army, no wife or children, no profession, convicted of theft ( Cell Phones-hit) or drugs. When they leave the colony, they do not remain free for long. I remember an interesting case, one of the convicts of the colony-settlement at IK-15, having been released, did not go anywhere and remained to live there, and every time, when I went on daily duty, I tried to drive him out of there (no strangers should be in the detachment), but not very persistently, because I felt sorry for the old man... So he lived there as long as I remember...

There was no supervisor in the red detachment, but there was a caretaker who was imprisoned for seducing minors and murder and felt great in the colony. All convicts have cell phones (and good brands), including the caste of the offended and regime violators in the punishment cell. Miraculously, these cell phones are not found during the detachment’s scheduled inspections (“shmonas”).

It’s no mystery where prisoners get vodka and heroin. In any colony, operational workers are a special caste of all-powerful people; they can inspect any employee or convict, open a criminal case against anyone, but no one can do so against them. So they bargain... Torture and violence are commonplace in the colony. As well as indefinite placement in solitary confinement, there was one such convict, every 15 days, through my head, his boss signed a new arrest. I was never able to find out from either the authorities or the convict why he displeased the administration so much. Beatings at the stage are a custom, one might even say a ritual. The FSIN guards are some of the most cruel and soulless people I have ever met.

Any convicted person in our country, as well as a free person, actually does not have what is given to him by nature human rights, because the authorities themselves do not respect them. Police, FSIN, FSB and others law enforcement agencies- these are 100% repressive bodies that resolve issues of transforming human life in d...mo. Over several years of service, I have not heard a single intellectual debate between officers about the guilt or innocence of the defendant, as they like to show in films. It's a conveyor belt! There is a person, an article is given, a case is filed in court, and then to the camps, which have changed little since Stalin’s times. The law is what the drawbar is.

On Saturday evening, four armed robbers broke into the home of a businessman, where his wife and five children were. They started beating family members. The owner of the house managed to get a knife. He killed three criminals, the fourth ran away. It would seem that everything is clear, even to a mechanic, let alone a lawyer. But the investigators, having received a piston from their superiors, “just in case”, opened a criminal case for abuse of power and “just in case” would have put him in prison if there had not been a public outcry. To be honest, I'm tired of being surprised...

Once I witnessed the beating of a convict tied up and lying on the floor; his deputy chief for security and operational work (nickname is Vicha, as far as I know, he now works in a pre-trial detention center) and other smaller jackals were beaten. Seeing me, he handed me a stick and said: hit me! I refused.

What, do you want to wear shoulder straps and remain in white gloves? - he grinned...

I will never forget this vile face of a sadistic pervert. I will immediately answer those fierce forum members who will scream with foam at the mouth, why I was silent before, why I didn’t fight the system... I was afraid! For life, health, career...

What can I offer to change the situation? There is an idea to assign duty to check the work of the colony by employees of the investigative committee, the prosecutor's office, perhaps the police, the city administration, human rights organizations (public observers), the media, parties, the committee of mothers of convicts, etc. So that officials and human rights activists are in the colonies day and night. This is necessary so that convicted persons have the opportunity to complain. The person must be present at the “baptism” procedure (when the chief signs decisions on the punishment of convicts). prosecutor's officer and preferably a public observer proposed by me.

Keep a log of inspections, a book of complaints and suggestions. Official document, stitched and printed. This book should be placed on the table for writing applications and a webcam should be installed so that access to it is free. When a whole detachment comes to write a statement to the prosecutor’s office, it will be difficult for the administration to prevent this.

Cancel and prohibit censorship of letters! To communicate with criminals, convicts have reliable channels - corrupt employees and mobile phones. But written statements to the prosecutor’s office from convicts must arrive safely.

Excuse the pun, the prosecutor must be in prison. In any colony there are at least thousands of inhabitants, these are living people, the population of an entire village. A prosecutor must be on duty there every day, around the clock! Psychologists are very important for improving the situation, and, given the specifics of the department, they must be civilians, without shoulder straps, but receive a good salary and report not to the head of the colony, but to the headquarters. Psychologists should be different for employees and prisoners.

It may be worth disbanding or reassigning operational employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service, for example, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. They have too many authority for ordinary jailers... Two competing structures in one zone plus round-the-clock supervision by the prosecutor's office are fertile ground for starting to enforce the laws. It's time to make colonies open to human rights activists and the media. The colony is not mysterious closed organization, in which they are stored state secrets, there live, albeit not the best, but living people, there is nothing to hide there!

IT is our everything! Video dating, booking appointments and broadcasts over the Internet, and online conferences for employee training will be of great benefit.

In general, there is only one recipe - compliance with the laws. Ours are good, but no one does it...

Starting a cleansing and paradigm shift in the development of the penal system is no less important than the police. There is someone to look up to. The USA, Europe for example, here you can and should take an example from them, without fear of looking unpatriotic.