Address by the Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Alexander Reimer, at the board meeting on 25 February 2011
As of 1 January 2011, there were 819,200 people in the penitentiary institutions of the Russian Federation.
The number of prisoners per 100,000 of the country's population is one of the highest in the world; by this indicator, our country is second only to the United States of America.
The chosen path of reforming the penal system, which takes into account the current real state of Russian society, as well as the demographic, criminological and social processes taking place in the state, is not accidental. It is also no coincidence that the start of the reforms occurred precisely during that period of the Russian state's development when the country had finally embarked on the path of sustainable internal economic development and integration into the European and global community.
The measures we are initiating today, some of which have already been implemented, are by no means measures aimed at the liberalisation of the country's penal law.
They are a fundamental measure for the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted in 1955 at the First United Nations Congress, and are ultimately aimed at ensuring the protection of society and preventing crimes that threaten society in the future.
Changing the penitentiary system in our country is not, in itself, something revolutionary.
Penology – the study of the execution of punishment, which develops optimal criminal sanctions on a scientific and practical basis – originated as early as the end of the 18th century and is associated with the research of one of the greatest theorists of political liberalism in English philosophy, Jeremy Bentham.
The basis of the name of this study lies in the Latin word 'poena', meaning 'punishment'.
The fundamental principle of the study, according to Bentham's definition, is the 'principle of utility', according to which measures of influence and responsibility must be evaluated based on the benefit they provide, including taking into account the private interests of a specific individual and society. At the same time, private interests are viewed as the only real ones, while public interests are reduced to an aggregate.
Thus, the implementation of the principle of the inevitability of punishment must mandatorily take into account the need to ensure the return of a citizen who has been held criminally liable to a normal life in society, not only prepared but also capable of complying with the law, as well as providing for their own subsistence.
It is precisely these goals that are pursued by the Concept for the Development of the Penal System of the Russian Federation until 2020, approved by the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of 14 October 2010 No. 1772-r.
The Concept intends to address a whole complex of issues and problems that have accumulated within the system.
The main approach that is proposed to be implemented is the expansion of judicial practice in passing decisions on criminal liability towards alternative measures of punishment not involving isolation from society, as well as a radical change in the conditions of detention for those in places of deprivation of liberty.
The change in conditions of detention in places of deprivation of liberty provides, first of all, for the separation of convicts who have made a mistake for the first time from hardened criminals, for whom violation of the law has become not only a source of existence but also the meaning of life.
Furthermore, the new conditions provide for the mitigation of detention for those who have consciously embarked on the path of correction and for the tightening of conditions for those who pose a real danger to society.
The path to achieving conceptual solutions is neither simple nor short; it is no coincidence that the implementation period of the adopted Concept is calculated until 2020, and its final stage provides for the development of a planning document for the development of the penitentiary system for subsequent years.
Recently, we have already taken certain measures that are genuinely bringing the country's penal system closer to conditions consistent with the modern development of our society.
A great deal of work has been carried out to truly ensure the principle of separate detention for suspects and the accused, and for those convicted of deprivation of liberty for the first time versus those who have been convicted multiple times.
In order to unconditionally implement the requirements of
Article 80 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, in 2010, more than 153,000 convicts were transferred from one correctional colony to another, including 112,000 in high-security institutions and 41,000 convicts in general-security institutions.
An analysis of the results of the work on the separation of convicts, conducted on the basis of 25 correctional colonies in 19 subjects of the Russian Federation, revealed positive changes in indicators characterising the state of discipline, regime, crime, and law and order. On average, the number of malicious violations decreased by 40%, and disobedience to staff by 60%.
A decrease in the level of conflict and tension among convicts is noted. The motivation of convicts for paid labour has increased.
Implementing the requirements of Article 33 of the Federal Law 'On the Detention of Suspects and the Accused in the Commission of Crimes', all remand prisons in the country have ensured the separate detention of first-time accused persons from those previously held in places of deprivation of liberty.
In order to bring the conditions of detention for suspects and the accused in line with the legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as established European standards, in 2010, 1,915 places were additionally put into operation in remand prisons and premises functioning as remand prisons, 1,448 of which were introduced within the framework of the implementation of the federal target programme.
The result obtained made it possible to ensure an average chamber area per person in the country of 5.4 m², which is 11% higher than the 2009 figure.
The change in judicial practice regarding the choice of preventive measures, through the expansion of the use of measures not involving isolation from society, achieved within the framework of close cooperation between the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and judicial authorities in the subjects of the Russian Federation, has allowed the number of persons placed in remand prisons in 2010 to be reduced by more than 52,500 people, as a result of which the total number of persons held in the country's remand prisons decreased by more than 9% compared to the beginning of 2010.
In general, the creation of conditions that allow for a reduction in the number of persons in places of isolation from society in 2010 was considered by the Federal Penitentiary Service as one of the most important tasks, and not only within the framework of implementing conceptual reform solutions for the system.
In addition to submitting proposals for changes to criminal legislation, regarding the development of new sanctions and the streamlining of existing ones, we have experimentally tested new forms of working with convicts, focused on developing incentives for law-abiding behaviour and active social adaptation in persons placed in correctional institutions, based on the convicts meeting certain criteria of conduct.
The purpose of introducing new forms is to develop a sustainable algorithm, the fulfilment of which would guarantee the convict the possibility of mitigating the measure of punishment, replacing it with a more lenient type, up to and including parole.
The first steps taken within the framework of testing the system I mentioned, the so-called 'social lifts', showed that more than 70% of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty do not yet have incentives for changing their line of conduct, are socially passive, and the educational impact of punishment is significantly reduced as a result.
In 2010, 79,825 convicts went through the 'social lifts' assessment system. The testing showed that the presence of clear evaluation criteria encouraged 76% of those assessed to embark on the path of correction.
Thus, the positive effect of implementing the 'social lifts' institution is evident, and in 2011 this experiment will be extended to all institutions of the penal system.
People who truly want to return to society, of course, should have the opportunity and should be encouraged in their desire to redeem their guilt before society and the state in a shorter time than that determined by a court decision.
And here, the institution of parole has a colossal resource for creating interest among convicts in achieving its application to them.
As of today, the mechanism for parole requires serious changes and clarification, as well as the establishment of strict control by civil society institutions, which will allow for the building of conditions for convicts to obtain the opportunity for parole—if not perfectly, then quite strictly—while simultaneously excluding possible corrupt manifestations.
In the past year, significant steps have been taken towards improving the security system of our institutions.
A programmatic document has been adopted that provides for the abandonment of the numerous perimeters surrounding correctional institutions and a transition to new, modern systems, the basis of which will be technical and software security tools.
Within the framework of implementing the conceptual tasks of reforming the penal system, work has begun on the broad introduction of innovative developments into our activities, the provision of institutions with audiovisual, electronic, and other technical means of security and surveillance, remote control and documentation, which will significantly reduce the possibility of subjectivism in assessing the behaviour of convicts and increase the reliability of control.
An important task that we set for ourselves to implement in 2010 was the preparation for the transition to a new system of providing medical care to those held in places of restriction and deprivation of liberty.
I must say that more than 90% of persons entering our institutions have various diseases.
More than 410,000 suspects, the accused, and convicts suffer from socially significant diseases.
Our institutions concentrate a socially maladjusted stratum of the population, which suffers from socially significant diseases more often than others.
4.7% of the total number of people held in our institutions have tuberculosis,
6.7% are HIV-infected,
7% suffer from drug addiction,
8% suffer from mental disorders,
1,720 people have oncological diseases.
At the same time, the mortality rate in our institutions is less than one per cent of the number of persons registered in medical units; this indicator is 5.3 times lower than the average mortality rate for those registered in various medical institutions across Russia.
However, the current system of medical care cannot satisfy us, nor those to whom it is provided.
In accordance with the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation, we are conducting a complex of additional measures aimed at improving the system of providing medical assistance to convicts and persons in custody.
Within the framework of solving the problem, we have developed a draft law, which has already been adopted, 'On Amendments to Article 117 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation', which introduces the mandatory nature of conducting a medical examination of convicts and issuing a medical report when they are placed in punitive (disciplinary) rooms.
Another Federal Law, adopted at our initiative (No. 434-FZ of 29.12.10) — 'On Amendments to Article 110 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and Article 24 of the Federal Law "On the Detention of Suspects and the Accused in the Commission of Crimes"' — has enshrined the possibility of changing a preventive measure in the form of detention if a serious illness is detected in a suspect or the accused that prevents their detention.
A model of intra-systemic improvement of the organisational and structural construction of the penal system's medical service has been developed, which assumes the centralisation of management for medical and sanitary support, with the removal of medical institutions and units from the subordination of territorial bodies, remand prisons, and institutions executing punishments, as well as single-channel funding for medical institutions.
The experimental testing of the new organisational model of the medical service is being carried out in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, as well as in the Tver Region, where multidisciplinary treatment and prophylactic institutions — medical-sanitary units — have been created. These units are directly subordinate to the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and have an extensive network of branches serving convicts, persons in custody, and employees of the penal system, while also carrying out sanitary-epidemiological supervision at the facilities of the penal system.
In addition, in pursuance of the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation to eliminate existing shortcomings in matters of medical provision for convicts, suspects, and the accused, an interdepartmental working group has been created under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
The aforementioned interdepartmental working group is studying the possibility of developing a completely new mechanism for the medical provision of convicts, suspects, and the accused, which provides for the provision of medical care by healthcare institutions not included in penitentiary medicine, including private ones, using outsourcing procedures.
Last year, we continued work on updating and forming the personnel core of the service.
By Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, 15 heads have been appointed to positions of high command in the central office.
26 heads of territorial bodies and educational institutions have been dismissed,
59 deputy heads have been relieved of their positions,
35 heads have been appointed, including 15 by Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation,
and 65 deputy heads of territorial bodies and educational institutions.
24 heads of territorial bodies have been appointed from other regions by way of rotation.
However, the main task facing the Federal Penitentiary Service in 2010 was still the task of preparing the regulatory and legal framework for the transition to new forms and methods of work, and improving the legislation regulating the activities of the institutions and bodies of the penal system.
During 2010, 10 federal laws affecting the activities of the penal system were adopted, and 3 Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and 4 Resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation were signed, aimed at implementing measures for the further reform of the country's penitentiary system.
In accordance with established procedure, jointly with the Ministry of Justice of Russia, proposals for 11 draft laws were submitted. 14 draft laws are under consideration by the relevant specialised committees of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
An important event in the life of the Federal Penitentiary Service was the signing, in June of last year, by the President of the Russian Federation of Decree No. 728 'On the Establishment of the Banner of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Banners of its Territorial Bodies and Educational Institutions of Professional Education'.
On 13 January of this year, in the St George Hall of the Kremlin, the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, presented the banner to our Service.
This event, against the backdrop of the initiated reform, additionally underscores the importance and significance of our Service and determines that, today, the country's penitentiary system has finally ceased to be an appendage or instrument of investigative bodies. The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia represents an independent institution of the law enforcement system, endowed with its own state functions, inherent only to it.
We did not manage to complete everything we started in 2010.
In four subjects of the Russian Federation, the sanitary area in remand prisons does not meet the requirements.
The situation with providing convicts with the guaranteed opportunity to work does not look simple.
The realisation of the human right to work, enshrined in Article 37 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, has a special meaning for the penal system.
Production activity has been reoriented, first of all, to resolving issues of resocialisation of the individual, restoring and consolidating the work skills necessary for the convicts' adaptation in society.
However, in 2010, we only managed to employ 209,500 convicts in paid jobs (+5% compared to the same period of the previous year), which is less than a quarter (24%) of the total number of those able to work.
Need I say that a most powerful factor in motivating convicts today is the possibility of employment after being released from places of deprivation of liberty?
Professional training, retraining, re-qualification, and creating opportunities for finding a job in advance — these are all the most important elements of creating a psychologically normal environment in places of deprivation of liberty and a guarantee of reducing the risk of committing a repeat crime after release.
At the same time, in the past year, despite a general positive dynamic in the increase in the number of general education institutions, general and vocational-technical education is still not organised in 61 correctional institutions. In a number of institutions, there is a shortage of teaching staff. For these reasons, in the 2010/2011 academic year, we were unable to provide 7,500 convicts who do not have an education with the opportunity to study.
On 10 January 2010, the Federal Law on the implementation of a new alternative punishment in the form of restriction of freedom entered into force.
(7,235 convicts have been registered with the penal enforcement inspections since the beginning of the year; as of 1 January, 6,100 people are registered)
In May of last year, the Federal Law 'On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation' regarding the imposition of punishment in the form of compulsory works was adopted. By this law, punishment in the form of compulsory works was included in the sanctions of more than 40 articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (about 60 components of crimes), which in individual cases allows for avoiding the application of deprivation of liberty to persons to whom, for any reason, corrective labour cannot be assigned.
(74,653 convicts have been registered with the penal enforcement inspections since the beginning of the year (+23%); as of 1 January, 19,352 people were registered (+21%))
(for corrective labour, 40,979 convicts have been registered with the penal enforcement inspections since the beginning of the year (-2.3%); as of 1 January, 19,352 people were registered (-4.6%))
At present, by instruction of the President of the Russian Federation, within the framework of the interdepartmental working group for developing proposals aimed at the further humanisation of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, a draft law has been prepared that provides for:
the introduction of a new type of criminal punishment — forced labour;
the possibility of serving a sentence in the form of corrective labour at the convict's primary place of work;
an increase in the maximum possible number of hours of punishment in the form of compulsory works from 240 to 480;
a deferral of serving the sentence for convicts recognised in the established manner as suffering from drug addiction, and other proposals.
Last year, a draft law was submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation, which entrusts our service's penal enforcement inspections with a new function: carrying out control over persons released on parole from places of deprivation of liberty.
It is obvious that the transition to new types of criminal punishment will objectively entail an increase in the burden on the units of our Service that provide control over the execution of punishments not involving deprivation of liberty.
I am speaking about the penal enforcement inspections.
In 2010, we launched serious work on introducing the achievements of modern science and technology into the work of these units.
The implementation of measures for using a positioning system as a means of control over the execution of restrictions imposed on convicts by the court allows us to forecast the possibility of optimising the structure of penal enforcement inspections and, thus, compensate for the increasing burden.
However, work in this direction has only just begun, and we are at the very beginning of the path of its implementation.
Concluding my address, I want to touch upon the most important directions of our work, on which it is necessary to concentrate the efforts of the heads of all territorial bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and all institutions included in the Federal Penitentiary Service in 2011, as well as for subsequent periods of the implementation of the reform of our service.
First.
We are at the beginning of a significant historical stage in the development of our country's penitentiary system.
As you know, the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, has set large-scale tasks for the penal system aimed at improving the existing criminal-judicial policy and reforming the system of executing punishments.
In the current year, we need to implement a complex of measures for making changes and additions to existing legislation regulating not only penal law but also criminal and criminal procedure law; to eliminate existing gaps; and to expand the types of criminal punishments and preventive measures that are alternatives to deprivation of liberty.
The projected number of persons convicted to types of punishment alternative to deprivation of liberty in the current year may reach 150,000 people, and in the future approach half a million.
In this regard, it is necessary to continue work on creating conditions for the execution of these types of punishments.
Measures should be taken to improve interaction with internal affairs bodies, primarily with the services of district police commissioners, to initiate and take personal part in the consideration of interaction issues at the level of heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs/Internal Affairs Directorates of the subject of the Federation.
Taking into account the planned growth in the number of this type of convict, determine the possibility and take measures for introducing new forms and methods of work for penal enforcement inspections.
Second.
Last year, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the Concept for the Development of the Penal System.
If, for the central office of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, the implementation of its first stage mainly lies in the plane of solving the tasks of improving the legislative framework regulating the activities of the penitentiary system, as well as creating a legislative framework aimed at implementing the Concept for the Development of our system, then for the territorial bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the main task from today must be the unconditional fulfilment of the requirements of the concept, namely:
- the implementation of measures aimed at reducing the recidivism of crimes committed by persons who have served their sentences;
- the unconditional ensuring of separate detention of convicts, taking into account their criminological characteristics; people who have not just broken the law but have done so consciously and cynically, individuals who continue to pose a most serious danger to society, must be deprived of the possibility of free and uncontrolled existence in society.
- the modernisation of the security system, taking into account the adopted concept;
- the use of modern forms of educational work with convicts.
It is necessary to re-examine in detail the entire system of construction and work of self-governing organisations, and the abolition of informal associations that have not justified themselves.
A year has passed since we officially parted with such an odious institution of our activity as the notorious 'sections of legality, discipline, and law and order'; there must be no return to it.
The next task:
- the organisation of the educational process and employment of convicts;
- preparation for the transition to new types of institutions.
These are the main directions of work that should occupy all of your attention.
Since the Government of the Russian Federation has set a course for the formation of the budgets of executive authorities exclusively through federal and departmental target programmes, this year we will have to develop our own departmental programmes aimed at implementing conceptual tasks, make changes and additions to existing federal target programmes, and prepare proposals for participation in newly formed state programmes.
In this regard, I ask you, upon arriving at your locations, to study the provisions of the concept in detail and see what can be implemented today. I await your concrete, well-developed, and reasoned proposals.
The next direction —
I consider it expedient and necessary to completely change the system of applying measures of parole from serving a sentence, which excludes subjectivity in assessing the degree of correction, both on the part of the institution's administration and on the part of the court. I must say that the current system, from my point of view, is corruption-prone.
The ongoing reform brings to the number of most important tasks the task of explanatory work among the personnel of institutions and bodies of the penal system.
Serious changes in the structure of correctional and educational institutions, a change in regimes, and a reduction in the number of special contingents should not cause a feeling of uncertainty in the future among employees.
At the same time, in connection with the upcoming fundamental changes in legislation, some categories of employees will need to undergo retraining in relation to the new conditions of service and new official duties.
Therefore, I place serious responsibility on the heads of educational institutions for organising work on making changes to educational and methodological materials, taking into account the specifics of executing punishments under new conditions.
I draw your attention once again to the fact that the work on reforming the penitentiary system cannot be carried out in isolation from the situation existing in the penal system; it should not overshadow the fulfilment of state tasks, or the fulfilment of daily functions assigned to each specific manager and employee of the system.
The most important direction remains ensuring legality and law and order, increasing the efficiency of crime prevention, preventing grave and especially grave crimes, including escapes, especially from settlement colonies, and ensuring reliable isolation of convicts and persons held in remand prisons.
Along with increasing the efficiency of work on preventing unlawful actions by convicts, it is necessary to exclude cases of violations of legality by employees of the penal system when using special means and physical force.
It is necessary to ensure the fulfilment of anti-crisis measures for ensuring the stable functioning of the institutions and bodies of the penal system, taking into account the saving of financial resources and the optimisation of the management structure.
Among the priority directions of our work remains close cooperation with all law enforcement agencies in matters of fighting crime and preventing attempts by leaders of the criminal environment to destabilise the situation in the bodies and institutions of the penal system.
It is extremely important to continue a constructive dialogue with civil society institutions and to maintain the course towards the openness of the system.
The heads of territorial bodies of the penal system must continue work aimed at the real provision of social guarantees and benefits established by legislation for employees, and use every opportunity to support the personnel of the system, who, on the whole, worthily perform their duty in difficult conditions.