The State Duma approved a bill on probation, which will save the country from repeat offenders

Now 80% of convicts are people who committed crimes within a year after their release.

On December 6, the State Duma unanimously supported the bill “On probation in the Russian Federation” in the first reading. The long-suffering program of complex rehabilitation and adaptation of convicts, which the Ministry of Justice has been developing for ten years, can finally be implemented in the near future. Parliamentarians called the novella undoubtedly important and capable of minimizing the risks of recurrence of crimes. But white spots still remain.

The main questions of the Duma members to the authors of the bill: will there be enough money and full-time employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the program?

“Nothing is clear, but very interesting” — so far, the draft probation program in Russia can be described as follows. Even the term itself caused deputies to be taken aback. Communist Party member Nikolai Kolomeitsev, for example, doubted that the word “probation” is familiar even to professional lawyers – let alone mere mortals.

Deputy Minister of Justice Andrei Loginov had to explain that the very essence of the program is too broad to call it something more understandable to the Russian ear. Here and social adaptation, and the restoration of ties with the outside world lost over the years in the dungeons. Plus, assistance to convicts in finding employment and education, support for psychologists, lawyers, and even assistance in solving housing problems.

In general, the bill really tries to embrace the immensity and covers any format of criminal reality that a person may find himself in after committing a crime. Depending on the type of punishment imposed by the court, the convict will be entitled to one of three options for probation.

True, the authors of the draft law are still a bit tight with the specifics of the implementation of adaptation measures. It is only known that the convict will not be able to use the charms of the program indefinitely. For example, in the version of post-penitentiary probation (translated from “Russian legal” it means assistance in a difficult life situation to a convicted person who has been released), support will be provided for a maximum of a year. A specific list of activities for each former prisoner of the Federal Penitentiary Service should be developed individually.

Participation in the probation system is a purely voluntary matter; no one will forcibly drag convicts there.

The head of the Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, Anatoly Vyborny, expressed the hope that probation would help reduce the percentage of relapses.

– Novels will make it possible to reduce the influence of places of detention as a criminogenic factor. Probation will increase the safety of the community. We will be able to break the vicious circle from which the condemned cannot get out. More than 80% of convicts are people who have committed a crime for the second or third time within a year after being released from prison. It turns out like in the movies: he stole, drank, went to jail, and so on in a circle.

Prison is not a place of correction, but a school for new crimes. The novels will help make prisons a place for the correction of convicts, both de jure and de facto,” Anatoly Vyborny said.

Nevertheless, questions about the project still remain. Thus, Yana Lantratova, a deputy from the Just Russia – For Truth faction, asked whether there would be enough full-time employees of the penitentiary inspections for such a number of convicts.

So far, the new burden for them can only be calculated approximately, based on the number of citizens in places of deprivation of liberty. As of the beginning of October, this is 453,188 people. Of these, 338,078 convicts are in correctional colonies. The deputies saw a serious risk here:

– It will turn out, as with the precinct officers: the salary was increased, the precinct officers were reduced, and the rest cannot cope. Here, too, there is a risk of artificial refusals to convicts by the employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service. For the probation system to work, new states are needed. And this requires additional money,” said LDPR deputy Sergei Leonov.

Moreover, the parliamentarians doubted that so many convicts, having received freedom, would voluntarily want to re-tie the bonds of control and supervision with the structures of the Federal Penitentiary Service. However, the developers of the bill were quick to reassure: probation is not about registration (although a register of all participants in the program will be kept, and they will be tough to ask the security forces for each yesterday’s prisoner). Deputy Minister of Justice Vsevolod Vukolov emphasized that the new program is exclusively about assistance in adaptation. Anatoly Vyborny even said that the fruits of ten years of work of the Ministry of Justice are truly unique:

— The probation institute is unique. A person will be able to exercise his right to fit comfortably into society, to use his chance to become a law-abiding citizen of society,” said the head of the Duma Committee on Security.

Despite white spots, the deputies unanimously passed the bill in the second reading. 394 parliamentarians voted “for”.