To carry out special measures of influence against persons guilty of committing criminal acts, appropriate institutions must be provided in the system of the Federal Penitentiary System (hereinafter referred to as the FSIN). Specific measures to correct the personality of a criminal include the combination of his treatment and correctional influence, as well as arrest as a form of isolation from society.
The specialized institutions for the detention of persons sentenced to such punishments will be a medical correctional institution and an arrest house, respectively.
What is house arrest
The measure in question is regulated by Article 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. It represents a set of obligations that fall on a person suspected or accused of a criminal act:
- At the prescribed time, stay in a residential area determined by the court (this is usually an apartment or house in which the accused is registered or of which he is the owner);
- Observe certain prohibitions and restrictions that are personally established by the court (for example, do not communicate with a specific person or group of people, both in person and by telephone or correspondence).
In some cases, a medical institution may be recognized as a place of house arrest. The need to stay there must be confirmed by a doctor's certificate.
Tasks
The house of arrest isolates from society citizens who have committed crimes of medium and light gravity. According to experts, imprisonment in such an institution, based on the gradation of severity of punishment, is more loyal than placement in ordinary places of deprivation of liberty (MPL). Through total alienation from the familiar outside world and maximum restriction of freedoms, a kind of shock effect is exerted on the individual. As a result, his psychological appearance is adjusted in a short time.
The difference between ordinary arrest and house arrest
These two concepts are often confused. At the same time, house arrest is a preventive measure; it is assigned to a person against whom an investigation or trial is underway. Subsequently, he may be acquitted in a criminal case or he will be given a punishment provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Arrest is directly a punishment and is assigned to a person who, by a court verdict, is found guilty of committing a crime. The place where this sentence is served is the state prison. The convicted person can no longer move anywhere while serving his sentence, with the exception of transfer from one arrest house to another.
The concepts of detention and arrest should not be confused either. If detention is a short-term deprivation of liberty associated with suspicion of committing a specific crime, then arrest applies to those whose guilt has been proven and who have been given the status of an accused. Read more in this article https://lexconsult.online/6837-perechen-osnovanii-dlya-zaderzhaniya-grazhdanina-sotrudnikami-politsii
Problems of the procedure for executing criminal punishment in the form of arrest
annotation
. The article analyzes the current problems of execution of arrest as one of the types of criminal penalties. The theoretical features of arrest, enshrined in legislation, as well as the difficulties of its practical implementation are considered.
Keywords
: arrest, convicts, arrest house, execution of punishment, serving a sentence.
Russian criminal legislation provides for various types of punishment, among which the most problematic punishment associated with deprivation of liberty is arrest. In the Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation, arrest as a type of punishment is placed between imprisonment and punishments not related to isolation from society. This type of punishment is regulated by Art. 68–72 PEC. The legislator did not choose this arrangement by chance, trying to show the “average in severity” nature of this type of punishment, however, this is far from the case, and in practice it turned out that arrest was among the more severe punishments, even in comparison with imprisonment .
Initially, the idea of this type of punishment was to “bring the offender to his senses”, to make him understand his mistake - this worked well for those who found themselves in the dock for the first time. It is this circumstance that determines the rather strict conditions for serving arrest.
In the Criminal Law, this type of punishment is enshrined in Art. 54 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation [1]. Arrest means that the convicted person is kept in strict isolation from society. The period of such isolation is significantly less than the minimum terms of imprisonment: it can range from 1 to 6 months as the main type of punishment, and as a replacement for compulsory or correctional labor, arrest is set for the minimum term - less than 1 month.
The court cannot order arrest for all categories of convicts: it cannot be applied to persons under 16 years of age, as well as to pregnant women and women whose children have not reached the age of 8 years. [6]
What are the features of this type of punishment? If we turn to the norms of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, then the first thing that deserves attention is the specialized institutions in which this punishment is carried out: according to Part 8 of Art. 16 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, these institutions are arrest houses. As a rule, the convicted person serves the term of arrest in one such institution.
This circumstance is due, first of all, to the short period of arrest: in practice, it is quite inexpedient from an economic point of view to spend the budget on transferring a convicted person from one place of serving a sentence to another. Moreover, this may lead to disruption of the socially useful connections of the convicted person. However, this does not mean that the convicted person cannot categorically be transferred to another arrest house. Taking into account the provisions of Part 3 of Art. 68 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation [2], such a transfer is possible for good reasons: if the convicted person is sick, as well as in order to ensure his personal safety, other circumstances that prevent the further stay of the convicted person in a certain place of serving arrest. Such circumstances may include, for example, participation in mass riots, acts of disobedience or hooliganism, as well as natural disasters that made it impossible for convicts to remain in the premises of the arrest house.
The most pressing problem, in our opinion, is the financial problem associated with the procedure for executing the punishment of arrest. In order to effectively implement the serving of this sentence by convicts at their place of residence (region), it is necessary to allocate colossal funds from the budget for the construction of an arrest house in each subject of the Russian Federation (and in some regions, for example, in federal cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg, many more may be required). According to preliminary estimates, this event will cost about 10 billion rubles. [4] This leads to the fact that courts often choose imprisonment as punishment, or, if the convicted person has committed a crime of minor gravity, correctional labor. Due to the fact that the majority of convicts will be sentenced to imprisonment, correctional institutions will become overcrowded. This circumstance will significantly increase the burden on the staff of these institutions, making their work more difficult, but will also have extremely unfavorable consequences for the convicts themselves: the level of ensuring their rights and freedoms will be significantly reduced.
As mentioned above, the execution of punishment in the form of arrest is carried out at the place of residence of the convicted person in the arrest house. The legislation, however, does not provide a definition of “place of residence,” but it is obvious that it cannot be strictly limited to only the locality that is the place of residence of the convicted person. But since at present there are no arrest houses in the regions of Russia, and even if they are built, they will be built within one subject of the Russian Federation. Based on this, the place of residence of the convicted person will go beyond the boundaries of his locality - it will be considered the territory of the entire subject of the Russian Federation where the convicted person lives. This is quite understandable from the standpoint of the feasibility and actual impossibility of creating a detention center in every city, town, village, etc.
What are arrest houses as a specialized type of institution? There is a significant similarity here with correctional institutions intended for serving a sentence of imprisonment: these are prison-type premises with all their attributes, but they do not have working cells. Based on the principles of economy and expediency, it would be fashionable to use pre-trial detention centers and prisons to house arrest houses, but there are also difficulties associated with the actual lack of free premises in them.
In order to eliminate the possibility of prisoners escaping, detention houses should be properly equipped. As for the transfer of a convicted person from one arrest house to another, then, as previously mentioned, such a transfer is, in principle, possible for good reasons, for example, due to illness. However, here it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the punishment itself: the arrest is quite short-term, and therefore, in practice, it is extremely difficult to transfer the convicted person closer to home, even due to illness. To do this, you must first select a detention house suitable for the conditions, coordinating all issues with its administration, and only after that move the convict there. But in view of the inexpediency of such an approach, in our opinion, it would be best to resolve this issue legislatively, establishing the procedure for placing convicts with health problems in medical correctional institutions. Moreover, the regime of detention in such institutions must correspond to the conditions of the general prison regime. This approach is advisable for two reasons: firstly, persons suffering from serious illnesses will be provided with qualified medical care, and secondly, there will be no need to transport such convicts over significant distances.
Despite the existing provision of the penal legislation of the Russian Federation (Part 2 of Article 69 of the Penal Code) that the conditions for serving a sentence in arrest houses are equal to the conditions of the general regime in prisons, in fact they are more stringent.
For example, for minors (from 16 to 18 years old), short-term visits with parents (persons replacing them) can be granted once a month. The duration of such meetings does not exceed 3 hours.
Strict rules in arrest houses also apply to telephone conversations: they can be provided only in exceptional cases: death or serious illness of a close relative; a natural disaster resulting in serious material damage to the convicted person or his family, etc. [3]
There is also a system of rewards and penalties applied to the convicted person in the arrest house. Thus, among the incentives, the most common are the announcement of gratitude, the removal of a previously imposed penalty, and permission to talk by telephone.[5]
Based on the results of consideration of the problem of the procedure for executing the punishment of arrest in Russia, we came to the conclusion that today there is a rather unfavorable picture with the fact that the punishment of arrest exists only “on paper”: i.e., from the list The legislator did not exclude it from punishment in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but in practice it is not applied. This, in turn, cannot but affect the state of the fight against crime and the normal functioning of correctional institutions. The current situation can be resolved, in our opinion, only by creating a stable and reliable financial base and improving the current legislation in order to be able to successfully apply the punishment of arrest in practice.
Bibliography
1. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation dated June 13, 1996 N 63-FZ (as amended on June 17, 2019) (as amended and supplemented, entered into force on July 1, 2019).
2. Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation" dated 01/08/1997 N 1-FZ (as amended on 12/27/2018) (as amended and supplemented, entered into force on 01/08/2019).
3. Polivtsev A.V. Legal regulation of the use of arrest as a type of criminal punishment: diss.... Ph.D. legal Sci. Rostov n/d, 2001. P. 122.
4. Criminal executive law of Russia: theory, legislation, international standards, domestic practice of the late XIX - early XXI centuries: textbook for universities / ed. A. I. Zubkova. 2nd ed., revised, and add. M.: Norma, 2002. P. 68.
5. Criminal law in the 21st century: materials of the International, scientific. conf. in Law, Faculty of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosova May 31 – June 1, 2001 M.: LskEst, 2002. P. 212.
6. Yakovlev V.V. Criminal legal characteristics of arrest: theoretical aspect. P. 114.
House arrest decision
Only a court can place a person under house arrest. Such a preventive measure may be assigned to a person in the event that the court finds it impossible to assign another, more lenient measure.
In his decision, the judge states:
- The exact address of the place of residence where the accused will stay during the period of arrest;
- Term of arrest;
- Time intervals when a person can leave home and when he should only be at the place of house arrest;
- Prohibitions imposed on a person in connection with the chosen preventive measure;
- Institutions and places to visit.
About the terms of detention
A convicted patient can remain in this institution until his term of imprisonment expires. On average, the period of stay within the walls of the arrest house varies from 1 to 6 months.
If, according to the established sentence, a person is serving a life sentence, then he is assigned to a correctional labor colony or prison only after final recovery. Before this, the individual is thoroughly examined by an expert medical commission. In addition, transfer to other prisoners is possible if the disease is in a latent stage and no longer poses a threat to both the carrier and the other prisoners.
There are exceptions for pregnant women and women with babies. The administration of the arrest house begins to prepare documents for transfer to MLS after the child reaches 3 years of age. It would be good if the criminal’s sentence had expired by this time. Then she is released from the arrest house.
House arrest period
As a general rule, the period of house arrest cannot exceed 2 months, but in certain cases it can be extended. The extension takes place in the same manner as a similar procedure involving detention (Article 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).
If the investigation lasts more than 2 months or the court hearing does not end within the prescribed period, then the period of house arrest may be increased by the judge to six months. If house arrest was assigned to the accused after he had been in custody, the time of imprisonment is also included in the period of house arrest and is taken into account when calculating the time limit of the preventive measure.
In the future, extension of this period is possible only for serious and especially serious crimes, if the investigator confirms that additional time is needed for an objective investigation of the case (for example, in complex cases of major fraud, documents from another state were requested that require detailed study).
Working for food
New camps appeared at factories, because by that time the idea had arisen that it was not enough to isolate prisoners, prisoners and hostages. They also need to be kept busy with work so that there is something to feed them.
The prisoners were taken off their pay in the camp, and they had to be fed in the places where they were sent to work. Part of the money earned was supposed to go to the Department of Forced Labor, but this idea remained an abstraction: from the correspondence of the department with the heads of the camps it is clear that they could not collect any money from the production facilities.
At first, the prisoners' meals were largely organized through donations from relatives: some went to the administration, and the prisoners shared what they received with their comrades. The memoirs of lawyer Khesin, a survivor of the Novopeskovsky camp, note: those who did not receive parcels died quite quickly. We find confirmation of this in the certificates of the special department of the Cheka. By the way, Khesin, who became famous for seizing the mansion of the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya from the Bolsheviks, seems to have accepted a bribe. At that time, it cost about 200 thousand rubles to arrange a “business trip”, from which a person most often did not return.
Conditions of house arrest in a criminal case
Restrictions are determined by the court for each criminal separately, depending on the crime committed and the identity of the accused.
Did you know
House arrest is used as a preventive measure in almost all countries. The restrictions that can be imposed on a person vary in each country. For example, in southwestern Asian countries, the court may set limits on food intake and hours of sleep.
In Russia, restrictions that can be imposed on a person under house arrest are listed in Part 7 of Article 107. So a person can be prohibited or limited:
- The ability to leave the living space (restrictions, as a rule, apply to night and evening hours).
- Communication with individuals (for example, witnesses, eyewitnesses or accomplices in the crime). In some cases, the court may completely prohibit the accused from communicating with strangers. In such a situation, he can meet at the place of serving house arrest only with his defense attorney or a notary to certify the power of attorney (Part 10 of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).
- Ability to send and receive mail.
- The right to use the Internet and other means of communication.
The judge may assign all or only some of the restrictions to the defendant. If the accused is deprived of the right to use a telephone, the citizen can make calls using it only to an ambulance, the police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, or to the investigator or interrogator leading his case. After each such call, the person must report to the supervisory authority responsible for the execution of the preventive measure.
Accused persons assigned to house arrest are monitored by authorized bodies, as are those serving their sentences in arrest houses in Russia, where convicts are kept.
Arrest houses in the Russian Federation
A situation cannot be ruled out when considering a criminal case when the psychological profile of the convicted person allows him to be charged with a short period of isolation, but with more stringent restrictions, implying an almost complete cessation of communication with the outside world.
A similar measure of retribution for a crime is provided for in the criminal and administrative codes, it is called arrest and requires placement in a special prison-type institution located at the place of residence of the convicted person or in the nearest administrative center. The specificity of the Russian penitentiary system in this matter is that the penalty is provided, but the possibility of its practical execution is absent, since there is not a single operating arrest house on the territory of the Russian Federation.
For whom are they intended?
The possibility of placement in a house of arrest is provided for by a number of articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and, according to the gradation, is considered more loyal than the usual deprivation of liberty, due to its short duration. Arrest should be understood as total alienation from the outside world and maximum restriction of freedoms, for a kind of shock effect and correction of the psychological appearance in a short time.
Arrest, as a form of influence on a person convicted of committing criminal acts, is found in the text of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation quite often and is prescribed mainly for crimes with moderate or light consequences. Age or gender restrictions for arrest are standard and exclude the following categories of citizens from the list of persons subject to placement in a house of arrest:
- teenagers under 18 years of age;
- women carrying a child or who are the mother of at least one child under the age of 14.
What are the terms and position of prisoners in arrest houses - read about this below.
Terms of detention and conditions
The specific duration of the correction interval in the form of total isolation from the outside world is determined by the justice authority, but it cannot exceed six months in any case. Conditions of detention are much more severe than in any colony and can be compared to being in a punishment cell, since arrest excludes:
- Possibility of living in dormitory-type premises.
- Packages and parcels, not counting essential items according to the list and clothing for the season.
- Visits other than a lawyer, and for teenagers, contact with parents or guardians is allowed once a month.
- Training and work processes.
- Purchase of household items and food products worth more than 20% of the minimum wage.
- Telephone communication with relatives, with the exception of serious cases, including the death of loved ones, natural disasters and cataclysms.
- Work to maintain a prisoner for more than 4 hours weekly.
- Possibility of traveling without an escort.
The only outlet for prisoners is a walk, taken daily and lasting at least one hour.
