Government backs tougher penalties for handing phones over to prisoners

The Government Commission for Legislative Activities has approved amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses that provide for increased liability for the transfer or attempted transfer to persons held in institutions of the penitentiary system or temporary detention centers of prohibited items, including mobile communications and components that ensure their work. This was reported to Vedomosti by two participants in the commission’s meeting held on May 22.

The author of the bill was the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein (United Russia). The project has not yet been submitted to the lower house of parliament. The proposed amendments are made to Art. 19.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. According to the current wording of the article, a fine of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles is imposed for transferring or attempting to transfer prohibited substances or foodstuffs to places of detention.

The deputy proposes to clarify that the punishment will follow, among other things, for the transfer of mobile communications, and to increase the upper limit of the fine to 50,000 rubles.

Khinshtein explained that this bill will be introduced along with an initiative to introduce criminal liability for the re-transfer of such devices to prisoners. The MP proposed to deprive him of freedom for up to 2 years. The project has also not been submitted to the State Duma yet. Earlier, the government also supported it, but indicated that appropriate changes were needed in the Code of Administrative Offenses.

“If a person was detained for the first time, he will bear administrative responsibility. And if he is caught a second time within a year, he will be held criminally liable,” Khinshtein explained to Vedomosti.

In his Telegram channel, he said that “in the very near future, a package of these long overdue initiatives” will be submitted to the State Duma for consideration.

In accordance with the Criminal Executive Code in Russia, the use of mobile phones in places of detention is illegal. The ban applies not only to prisoners, but also to everyone who is on the territory of the correctional institution, i.e. employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service, lawyers, visitors, and so on.

In 2022, as Vedomosti previously reported, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, 2,600 citizens were detained for transferring or attempting to transfer mobile phones to suspects, defendants and convicts, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service. In 2021, significantly fewer such offenders were detained – only 1,600. But the number of mobile phones seized in pre-trial detention centers has halved over the year – from 48,000 to 24,000.

Most often, they try to transfer phones to a protected area through the main fence, the representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service explained, for this, offenders use various means: quadrocopters, crossbows, catapults, home-made air guns and other devices.