Passportisation of persons convicted and released from places of detention

We invite you to a discussion on the problems associated with the passportisation of persons sentenced to imprisonment and released from places of detention
In accordance with current legislation, for persons for whom a preventive measure has been determined as detention, passports are seized by pre-trial investigation bodies. The seized passports are entered into search or seizure protocols. The protocols indicate the passport data, the surname, name, and patronymic of the person from whom the passport was seized. If a person did not have a passport at the time of detention, the bodies conducting the arrest determine his data (number, series, by whom and when it was issued) through an address-reference bureau or by other means, and also take measures to seize it. Passports of those arrested, along with criminal cases, are sent according to the investigative jurisdiction.
Passports of persons sentenced to imprisonment, restriction of liberty, and arrest, who are held in a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO), are sent by judicial authorities to the SIZO along with notification of the sentence that has entered into legal force regarding these persons. After receiving the passport, SIZO staff attach it to the personal file and store it in a separate envelope on the inside cover of the personal file, a note of which is made in the index of the second part of the file.
Recently, there have been frequent cases where police officers, upon detaining a person suspected of committing a crime, do not seize the passport at all. (When members of our charitable organisation provided legal assistance to convicts, it turned out that in almost one in five cases, the passport is at home).
In cases where passports are seized during detention, it has become a rare phenomenon for them to ultimately be attached to the personal files of the convicts. Upon the requests of our charitable organisation, they were returned to correctional colonies by inquiry bodies, investigation bodies, and sometimes courts.
In accordance with Clause 4 of Article 153 of the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine, in the event of the absence of a passport in the convict's personal file, the administration of the penal institution must take timely measures to obtain it. However, this legal norm is in most cases not fulfilled by the administrations of correctional institutions.
The greatest problem for our organisation when providing practical assistance to yesterday's prisoners who lack a passport is obtaining a duplicate birth certificate (we cannot obtain it in civil registry offices, and a released person without a passport—even less so).
Verifying the citizenship of Ukraine for persons released from places of detention who do not have passports remains a complex and lengthy process. First, it is necessary to establish in a judicial proceeding the fact of residence on the territory of Ukraine at the time of the declaration of Ukraine's independence (on 24 August 1991) or at the time of the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine 'On Citizenship of Ukraine', that is, on 13 November 1991.
Particular difficulty in matters of obtaining a passport is presented by those released who are receiving a passport for the first time and have not previously appealed to the territorial units of the State Migration Service of Ukraine regarding this matter, and who are not documented with passports. It is difficult, virtually impossible, to obtain certified certificates with photographs from the last place of study of such persons; it is difficult to interview their relatives, neighbours, or other persons and obtain properly certified documents.
There are not infrequent cases where one surname is indicated in birth certificates, the passport was issued under another surname, and in the copies of court sentences of a person who has repeatedly served a sentence—a different one. It is virtually impossible for a charitable organisation to establish at what stage and on what grounds the surname was changed. One has to establish in a judicial proceeding that this is one and the same person.
Taking into account that the majority of those released from places of detention lack funds, paying the state duty and for photography, as well as reimbursing the cost of forms and other expenses related to obtaining a passport, remains a problem.
As of today, the charitable organisation 'Chernihiv Women's Human Rights Centre' has managed to establish cooperation with the city council on issues of exemption from paying state duty, with the city department of state registration of civil status acts, with the Main Directorate of Justice in the Chernihiv region, and with officers of internal affairs bodies.
We appeal to public and charitable organisations that deal with the problems of persons released from places of detention with a request to share their experience and best practices of providing assistance to this category of citizens in restoring passports and other documents, which are absolutely necessary for their reintegration into society.
Badyra V.A. – lawyer of the charitable organisation 'Chernihiv Women's Human Rights Centre'