To freedom with a work book – Newspaper Kommersant No. 210 (7411) dated 11/14/2022

The government submitted to the State Duma a draft law on probation, the so-called system for preparing prisoners for life at large. The project was prepared for several years; in the final version, Kommersant found three types of assistance to prisoners and those released, as well as “individual programs” and a single digital registry. The Federal Penitentiary Service will develop them, as well as control the execution by other departments. Experts consider probation “a boon unreasonably centralized in the hands of the Federal Penitentiary Service” and point out that the main criterion for its effectiveness should be a decrease in the number of relapses of criminal behavior.

The probation project prepared by the Ministry of Justice touches upon the topics of psychological assistance to prisoners, their social adaptation, assistance in education and employment. The first version was prepared for several years and was presented in April 2022. Then it was sent for revision “taking into account the proposals received and the opinions of representatives of the scientific community, human rights activists and interested government agencies,” Kommersant was told in the Department of Legislative Work of the Ministry of Justice. However, the final text “has not undergone conceptual changes.” In November, the government approved the bill and submitted it to the State Duma. “Kommersant” studied the document.

The Ministry of Justice and the government decided to “endow” one of the structures of the Federal Penitentiary Service with “powers in the field of probation” – penitentiary inspections (CII). Now they are dealing with “persons convicted without isolation from society.” It is the PII (and the Federal Penitentiary Service as a whole) that will coordinate the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education and Science on probation issues. The press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia did not answer Kommersant’s question about why the UII would be engaged in adaptation. However, the department reported that 81 PII institutions “and 1348 of their branches” operate in the structure of the Federal Penitentiary Service. They have over 486,000 people registered (including over 25,000 people released on parole).

Back in the spring, the Ministry of Justice proposed three types of adaptation for prisoners – and this part of the initiative has not changed much. So, penitentiary probation applies to convicts sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment. It involves “carrying out social and educational work”, “providing psychological assistance” and “preparing for liberation”. A separate section is devoted to “the restoration and strengthening of social ties”, which are necessary “for the formation of a new system of attitudes, norms and moral values.” To do this, the PII must involve volunteers, relatives and “other persons who have a positive influence” on the convict. If necessary, they will help in finding relatives.

This part of the bill also refers to obtaining a secondary vocational education, employment, opening an individual personal account, providing free travel from the colony and clothing, as well as a one-time cash allowance.

Executive probation “applied to people in a difficult life situation.” These are, for example, convicts “without isolation from society”, released on parole, sentenced to a fine or received a reprieve from serving their sentence. Also, people who have committed a crime against sexual integrity can count on executive probation if they “suffer from disorders of sexual preference”.

Rehabilitation measures have yet to be developed by the Federal Penitentiary Service. The document mentions psychological support, employment and education, as well as the possibility of attracting NGOs, religious and public associations, scientific and medical organizations.

Post-penitentiary probation – this is an adaptation of “those who find themselves in a difficult life situation” after their release from the colony. Here, the Ministry of Justice does not specify the support measures, indicating only that “the period of application cannot be more than one year from the date of commencement of the implementation of measures.” The “measures” of the Federal Penitentiary Service should be developed “individually”.

The bill does not specify how many people in the Russian Federation today need one form or another of probation. According to the Federal Penitentiary Service, as of October 1, 453,188 people were in places of deprivation of liberty, including 338,078 people in correctional colonies. Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC), who participated in the development of the Ministry of Justice project, points out that it is “very difficult” to calculate the number of people who need probation: “It is wrong to make a sample based on how many prisoners have no housing or families. A person can have both, but at the same time he is still not socially adapted, he is in the colony for the third or fourth time. According to Mrs. Merkacheva, one should proceed from the “need for probation for each prisoner.” Especially for those who have committed violent crimes or “crimes of poverty”.

The project of the Ministry of Justice involves not only the Federal Penitentiary Service, but also the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education and Science, draws attention to the head of research programs of the Public Verdict Foundation (included in the register of foreign agents) Hasmik Novikova. So, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is appointed as a “subject of probation” – it will have to help prisoners reintegrate into society. But at the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also maintains administrative supervision over the released. How the department will combine these powers, the law does not explain, Ms. Novikova says. And the interaction of the Ministry of Education and Science with the probation program is limited to general, secondary and vocational education. Probation does not provide for higher education for prisoners – it is available upon application to the penitentiary institution only for those who have served time.

The powers of the Ministry of Labor are also limited: employment services can connect to the employment of a prisoner no earlier than nine months before his release. Ms. Novikova calls this section “outdated.” In her opinion, prisoners could already work remotely, for example, filling out databases, creating websites, translating texts. In this case, the Federal Penitentiary Service could help them look for work and open personal accounts for salaries. “But the Federal Penitentiary Service instead concludes an agreement with some enterprise where it supplies labor. Or create your own production. As a result, the convicts work at this enterprise at below-market prices, and the products are sold at market prices – that’s super profit for you, – explains Hasmik Novikova. – This is a very profitable story. Perhaps that is why the employment services are relegated to the stage of post-penitentiary probation and therefore they are not available at the stage of regular probation, while the prisoner is in the colony. Apparently, sewing mittens or mating rabbits is a faster path to successful reintegration than the ability of a prisoner to independently look for work, conclude a contract, and meet obligations. Ms. Novikova also notes that according to the bill, the individual probation program will last a maximum of a year. This approach seems strange to her: “And if nothing changes in a year, what will happen to the person next?”

The bill separately establishes “guarantees for protecting the health of citizens”, including medical care, which, according to Ms. Novikova, is “an absolute plus.” Another such plus is “guarantees to appeal against the actions and inactions” of state bodies that will refuse to help a prisoner or provide it insufficiently. The expert separately notes the declarative nature of the program: a person can receive assistance in probation only at his own request, after filling out an application. But if he does not comply with the conditions of the program, then after the second warning he will be expelled. “In other countries, such non-compliance can be fined. Since the state spent resources on the prisoner that he did not use,” says Ms. Novikova. “In this sense, the Russian bill is quite humane.”

The human rights activist emphasizes that the initiative is aimed at solving “typical problems” faced by prisoners after their release. Therefore, “in theory, it should become a public good.” “But the same project unreasonably closes everything to the Federal Penitentiary Service and gives the prison service a tool for manipulation,” she believes. “To get help, you first need to justify in a statement that you really have a difficult life situation. And the Federal Penitentiary Service will assess “individual need” (the criteria for which are not spelled out in the draft.— “b”) according to their own method. It is easy to imagine how in this or that colony they will say to a person: “If you behave like this, you will not get access to the probation program, to its benefits.”

In general, Ms. Novikova doubts that the FSIN system is ready to develop individual programs for the social rehabilitation of prisoners. However, a Kommersant source familiar with the development of the bill assures that the probation system specialists “will have to have completely new competencies.” “It is planned to develop special training programs for them,” the interlocutor of Kommersant is sure.

The expert said that pilot probation centers were opened in a number of regions back in the mid-2000s. According to her, the experiment revealed the main problem – the lack of communication between the penitentiary inspections, the administration of colonies and social assistance or employment services. The explanatory note to the draft actually mentions several subjects of the Russian Federation. Thus, it is alleged that in Bashkiria, since 2009, the law “On the social adaptation of persons released from institutions of the penitentiary system” has been in force. However, the chairman of the Republican Public Monitoring Commission (ONC), Oleg Galin, told Kommersant that the law “is carried out formally and does not achieve its goal.” According to the POC, in Bashkiria, about 70% of former prisoners aged 30 to 50 relapse and end up again in places of detention, “where they are familiar with everything and have a roof over their heads.”

Now five social adaptation centers have been opened in Bashkiria: two in Ufa, as well as in Salavat, Oktyabrsky and Sterlitamak. However, according to Oleg Galin, they work on the principle of “bedrooms”, providing a bed for a day. “Under such conditions, what kind of adaptation can there be? At best, a seconded psychologist works there,” notes Mr. Galin. “Therefore, people often deliberately commit crimes: it is easier to return to their familiar environment than to stay on the street.”

The opening of the Republican Probation Center, which is mentioned in the explanatory note, was postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, says Mr. Galin. However, the model of such an institution is already ready: according to him, the regional Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance are calculating the necessary funding. A prisoner will be able to get a place in the center if he submits an application six months before release. The application will be approved. If a person “lost his home, lost his documents or served a long time.” At the same time, it will be possible to stay in the center for only a month. It is assumed that during this time, specialists will restore the person’s documents, find a job and help in finding housing.

The ex-head of the POC in St. Petersburg, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Alexander Kholodov, told Kommersant that now the Federal Penitentiary Service is seriously preparing for full-fledged work in the field of probation, increasing the staff and developing its own instructions. However, past experience, according to him, shows that “the activities of organizations, centers, services that deal with probation issues should be assessed by the number of recidivist prisoners.” Mr. Kholodov rated the percentage of relapses in Russia as “large”.

Maria Starikova, correspondent network “Kommersant”