How to apply for parole without a lawyer

What is parole?

What is parole or parole? In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 79 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person serving detention in a disciplinary military unit, forced labor or imprisonment is subject to parole if the court finds that for his correction he does not need to fully serve the assigned sentence.

Convicts, even those sentenced to life imprisonment, have the right to apply for parole. When can I apply for parole?

Firstly, in order to qualify for parole, a convicted person must serve a certain period of time, which depends on the severity of the crime committed. If for crimes of minor and medium gravity - no less than ⅓ of the appointed term, then for serious crimes - this is not less than half of the term appointed by the court.

For especially serious crimes, as well as in cases where the person has previously been released on parole and violated the duties assigned to him in this regard - at least ⅔ of the assigned term.

For crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, for serious and especially serious crimes in the field of drug trafficking and terrorism-related crimes - at least ¾ of the prescribed period.

For crimes against sexual integrity of minors under 14 years of age - no less than ⅘ of the prescribed period. And if a person is serving a life sentence, then to obtain the right to parole it is necessary to serve at least 25 years.

In addition, the term of imprisonment actually served by the convicted person cannot be less than 6 months. That is, regardless of the term prescribed by the sentence, the right to parole will arise no earlier than in six months.

Let's look at an example. The citizen was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - robbery. The sanction of this article provides for a maximum penalty of up to 4 years in prison. According to Art. 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this crime is of medium gravity. The court sentenced him to 2 years and 3 months of imprisonment. To apply for parole, you will have to serve at least ⅓ of this term, that is, 9 months.

Another common situation. The citizen committed several different crimes of different gravity. The punishment is assigned to him based on the totality of these crimes. The period that must be served for parole in this case will be calculated from the finally assigned period. But, according to the rules of the most serious crime included in this set.

For example, for theft from a supermarket - Part 1 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (crime of minor gravity) and for theft causing major damage - Part 3 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (serious crime), the citizen was sentenced to 3 years 6 months in prison.

2 crimes: one - minor, one - serious. Therefore, in order to receive parole, it is necessary to serve the sentence prescribed for a serious crime. That is, at least ½ of the appointed period. In our case, it is 1 year and 9 months.

Thus, once you have served your sentence, you can apply to the court for parole.

Judgment

After an objective and impartial study of all available materials, the court makes a decision. The law does not specify specific reasons for denying parole to a convicted person. So the court, when considering the case, proceeds from an assessment of how necessary and appropriate the release is. One judge will consider it most important to have a good character reference for the prisoner, provided that there are no complaints against him while serving his sentence; another judge will consider it necessary to take into account the fact of compensation for damage in addition to the listed factors. In short, it is difficult to say how much documents will be sufficient for the desired solution.

The Supreme Court, however, officially determines in its clarification that when considering cases on the appointment of parole, the court, when making a decision, must take into account all the characteristics in the aggregate. Thus, everything is important: the term of punishment that the prisoner has already served, and the personal qualities, behavior, and actions of the convicted person, and his attitude to study and work, etc.

A negative court decision can be challenged in accordance with the established procedure after a month. In a new trial, the court will certainly consider the factors that led to the denial of parole and will study the objections of the convicted person. It is also possible to appeal a repeated refusal.

How do you apply for parole?

The submission process is as follows. The first step is to file a petition. The petition must be sent to the court at the location of the colony. The petition must indicate the reasons why the court should release you.

During the proceedings, a reasoned conclusion from the colony administration is attached to the case, which indicates how advisable it is to release the prisoner on parole.

The court is obliged to examine all the evidence presented:

information about your behavior;
documents on incentive measures and penalties during the period of imprisonment.

If the behavior left much to be desired, there were fights or violations of discipline, release will naturally be denied. To apply or not to apply parole is the right of the court, not an obligation. Therefore, everything will depend largely on how the prisoner performed during his time in the correctional facility.

To decide whether to release a prisoner early or not, the court takes into account:

positive characteristics from the management of the correctional institution;
his behavior after the verdict;
attitude to the educational and labor processes that are organized in the colony;
the composition of incentives and penalties received during the period of imprisonment;
attitude towards what was done;
information about repentance;
confirmation of the facts of compensation for harm to the victim or the state.

Materials are submitted to the court in person or through a lawyer. If the court refuses to satisfy the petition, the next time it can be filed only after six months.

How and where can I find out the date of the court hearing?

There are several existing resources that publish information about court decisions relating to both criminal, administrative and civil cases. We recommend using official sources, in which case you will be confident in the veracity of the published information.

Official sources include:

GAS "Justice".
Official website of the RF Armed Forces.
Service "Court decisions".
Internet resource with Judicial and regulatory acts of the Russian Federation.
Internet resources of regional courts.
CAD service "My Arbitrator".

A more preferable option is the State Automated System “Justice”, where you can find the decision of any court existing on the territory of the Russian Federation. In addition, the resource has a clear interface, a well-thought-out system of use and quick response. On the site you can filter cases by name of the court, specific court and other parameters.

What data will be needed

The more information you have, the easier it will be to know when your case is scheduled to be heard. Court workers moved their work to electronic format many years ago. Now the system has been worked out and adjusted, the date of the hearing will be entered into the register immediately after the appointment.

If you know the case number, go to the section with judicial records management and simply read the current schedule on the State Automated System “Justice”.

In addition, you can search if you have the following information:

the names of one of the participants in the proceedings;
approximate or exact date of receipt;
commencement of proceedings in court;
case category;
surname, given name of the judge;
order number;
decision on the case;
dates of the case.

How to apply for parole without a lawyer?

Parole is an opportunity to be released before the end of the term set by the court upon sentencing. Perhaps the most important thing on which the possibility of obtaining parole depends is the prisoner’s history of rewards and penalties.

Incentives are actions approved by the administration. The Criminal Executive Code states that incentives can be received for:

good behavior;
conscientious attitude to work and training;
active participation in educational activities.

Penalties are, accordingly, actions condemned by the administration. The law vaguely calls them violations of the established procedure for serving a sentence.

In addition to incentives and penalties, the following are important:

psychological portrait of the convicted person;
characteristics from the place of work;
the prisoner’s attitude towards the crime committed;
opinion of the prosecutor and representative of the colony.

The period after which a convicted person can apply for parole depends on the severity of the article and varies from ⅓ to ⅘ of the assigned period. However, all this is only on paper. In fact, often, in order to be released on parole, you need to work until exhaustion, or cooperate with the administration, or pay yourself or with the help of a lawyer. And often everything taken together.

Parole has become a mechanism for corrupting courts, administrations and prosecutors. Moreover, parole is not freedom. This is not the abolition of punishment, but a change in the measure of punishment. The punishment itself continues, the person can simply return to his family, get a job and stop spending budget money on his maintenance in the zone or prison.

So, let's look at the main real ways to obtain parole without lawyers.

Stay in jail

The first step for parole, which the administration proposes, is to remain a “house bull” or “informer” in the pre-trial detention center. A convict who is ready to cooperate, if he receives no more than 5 years at trial, may not be transferred to the prison zone.

There are several options here. Unidentified informers will continue to pose as defendants, informing their cellmates that another criminal case has been opened against them. Or they will simply be transferred to the housekeeping staff of the pre-trial detention center.

The same can be offered not to informers, but to normal convicts with short sentences. At the same time, employees will tell you that chaos is happening in the zones. Well, they don’t have any thieves or violent ones. And all prisoners earn early release through their own labor.

They lay beautifully, but in practice everything is not so smooth. The fact is that in correctional colonies, to put it mildly, they do not like those who were housekeepers in detention centers. Because there everyone starts from the bottom. First, they work hard as garbage collectors, make morning rounds, open the cells, and ask about complaints.

At this time, garbage is taken out of the house in a bucket. On the “gallery” there are convicts from the servants with a huge barrel. By and large, they are already “offended”, because in the zone the “roosters” deal with the dirt.

After the household workers are almost thrown into the pre-trial detention center, the guards begin to treat them like slaves. Knowing that they are afraid to get into the zone for violations. In detention centers, prison workers are forced to constantly work hard, carry garbage, distribute gruel, and clean the courtyard, offices and corridors.

Even at night they are not always allowed to sleep and are sent on duty in the courtyard. Make sure that horses are not “raced” between cameras. At the same time, the servants are constantly insulted by both the guards and the inmates from the cells. They also beat me for being slow.

In addition, if the economic bull did not knock before staying at work in the isolation ward, then after that he will have to knock. They will simply call the opera and say: “If you don’t work for us, you will go to a colony!”

Often, the economic bulls who are closed to the zone begin to be beaten at the stage. If they are locked up in a colony, they are extremely uncomfortable. But those who remain in the economic band are 100% released early.

Become an informer in the zone

Those who received more than 5 years in court or those with shorter sentences who did not want to become “balanders” are sent to a correctional colony. There are more opportunities to earn parole. Let's talk about the most accessible ones.

In the zone you can also become an informer, but not everyone will be hired as an informer. Why do they need stupid roosters or morons. But if the prisoner is smart or, better yet, a criminal, then he is a valuable agent. Only in a correctional institution does the convict run an even greater risk if he secretly serves the operas.

Because all the prisoners visiting the headquarters are suspicious. They are being followed, they are being given “stuff”, providing false or real information about hiding places or serious violations of the regime. Yes, and it’s easy to get pierced. In zones, “nepotism” is detected very often.

Nothing good awaits them after exposure. Especially where the move is thieves. It’s even worse for the informers if, after exposing the hen, Blatota does not deal with him, but offers to become a double agent. It is impossible for a sex worker to find out the secrets of employees.

But such moles are quite capable of carrying misinformation to criminal prisoners. Plus, good informers have some influence on the operatives and can turn to them with requests. In general, there are also many options here. But thieves are still not geniuses. They cannot fully compete with trained professionals.

Sooner or later, the godfathers will figure out the double agent and severely punish him, locking him in a cell for a long time. And they will never be released early.

Become an activist (“goat”, “red”)

Another opportunity to get out early is to become an official “goat.” Do not knock secretly, but join an amateur organization or take the position of orderly, foreman or commandant.

But here, too, not everything is so simple, because in the black zones, where the beholders really have power, “red” or “goats” are a despised color. Not everyone can withstand many years of moral or even physical oppression.

Just like not everyone will be able to hold on to a goat position, given the fierce competition and meanness of their comrades who dream of taking a warm place. Often, such comrades give the librarians, the chairmen of the colony staff council, and the table staff - drugs and sharpening agents.

Not to mention the fact that goats that are in a good position are constantly being knocked on by other goats. But if you stay on the “Red Olympus”, then parole is guaranteed.

In the red zones, it is more difficult to become an activist. Because there are correctional institutions where 100% of convicts are assholes. While still in quarantine, they wrote an application to join the asset. They all went through the lowering ceremony by mopping the toilet.

In such institutions it is quite difficult to become useful to the administration. There, a gray mass sits on stools and doesn’t talk for hours. Or marches in formation and sings. Those prisoners who have been trusted must exercise supervisory functions and monitor discipline, which they do not particularly violate.

But you can’t just be listed as trusted. They are required to write 10 denunciations against their comrades per day. If they don’t write, they will first be beaten, and then removed from the asset. Which means “Hello, stool!” and “Goodbye, parole!”

As a result of this state of affairs, real activists simply write denunciations against prisoners they don’t like. The guards don’t know whether it’s true or not. They severely punish everyone who receives signals. Physically or in punishment cells.

Violators of the regime cannot leave early. That’s why everyone in such zones strives to become real activists.

Work in the zone

Another option for not completing the allotted term is to become a hard worker and, as it were, prove your correction through honest work. But there are also many nuances here. Unlike communist times, under the democrats there are not jobs in all zones. In some regions, getting a job in an industrial zone can be quite difficult.

How to stay there. And in some work detachments, discipline is stricter than in a concentration camp. Prisoners who work in brigades can be fed better. They are paid very little money, but they have enough for supplies and extra food.

And most importantly, they are released on parole. But if a worker does not fulfill the plan or commits the slightest violation of discipline, he is beaten by the foremen and orderlies of the detachment. No one is forced by force. Either obey, or go to the quitters. Almost all hard workers hold on to their jobs and endure executions and humiliation.

The other extreme is when a prisoner becomes a valuable specialist - he sharpens cool weapons for his superiors on a machine, makes highly artistic souvenirs, or perfectly repairs cars in Zonov’s garage.

Although he brings great benefits to the guards, he risks serving his entire sentence. Because it is valuable and almost irreplaceable. The employees will not openly quarrel with him, but they will whisper to the judge and he will not approve of an early exit. At the same time, the same employees will tell the specialist that the judge is a bastard and that they will try to persuade him in six months or a year.

Buy parole

Any prisoner knows the price list for parole in the region where he is imprisoned. The price can be anything, but it is always surprisingly divided by 3. For example, 210,000 rubles. To an outsider, these 10,000 rubles seem like some kind of markup.

But no. Simply 210 is 70 x 3. To the administration of the institution, the court and the prosecutor's office. There is no region in Russia where they do not take money for parole. And it often happens that money will have to be paid, even if the prisoner has no violations and is entitled to parole on all counts.

However, bosses also need to be able to give bribes. For example, in one of the Russian colonies there was a bandit who had rich friends at large. When his benefits came up, his friends drove up to the deputy for educational work of the institution and asked him to help their friend leave early.

The lieutenant colonel did not refuse the petitioners. Moreover, they should have generously thanked him for this. Friends told the prisoner-bandit that the matter was going well. And out of joy he told about this in a narrow circle of thieves.

In the midst of the blotty, naturally, there was an informer who reported this to the police unit. The opera was on good terms with the deputy for educational work. They warned him. The lieutenant colonel got scared, called and returned the bribe.

After this, the bandit was not released early on principle. Not for money, not for good behavior. So that no one would think that he bought the bosses.

Instructions for searching for information

The general algorithm of actions when searching for a date for setting a court hearing via the Internet is to complete the following steps:

Go to the State Automated System “Justice” resource and find a link to the official website of a particular court (or type the name of the court in the search bar of your browser).
Go to the “Judicial Proceedings” section.
Find the number of the case you are interested in in the schedule.
Click on the item “Search information on cases.”
Indicate available information on the case.
Click on the “Find” button.
Write down the date.

In this case, the time of the beginning of the meeting, its end, and the announcement of a break will be known.

Thus, regardless of whether the proceeding is administrative, civil, arbitration or criminal, information on hearings can be obtained easily. Internet users do not need to waste time visiting the court or trying to get through by phone to find out the information they need. All data can be quickly found out and checked via the Internet. A similar virtual resource is available in such a neighboring state as Ukraine.

The behavior of the released

Release is called early, since the person is released before the end of the sentence, and conditional, since mandatory conditions and rules of conduct in freedom are imposed on the person. Therefore, the court has the right to revoke parole if it learns that the released person has violated the terms of the probationary period.

In connection with parole, the actions of the released person and his behavior in society are taken under control in order to give him the motivation for lawful and equally dignified behavior after the end of his sentence. Pursuing the same goal, the court imposes a number of obligations on the former prisoner. For example, do not visit certain institutions, do not move or change your place of work or study without reporting to the supervisory authority, etc. It is worth noting that the court has the right to impose these restrictions, but is not obliged to do so.

Illegal as well as immoral behavior of a person, his frivolous attitude towards conditions and obligations and even ignoring them are the reasons why the court can revoke parole. The fact is that the circumstances indicated above clearly indicate the need for the person to subsequently serve the full sentence. Finally, the unconditional and absolute reason for revoking parole is the commission of a serious or especially serious crime.

Why do you need a lawyer?

It has already been said above that the person serving his sentence has the right to submit an application for parole. However, the likelihood of success increases significantly when a lawyer takes on the case. Why does this happen?

First reason.

A criminal lawyer goes to court without unnecessary intermediaries - this opportunity is available only to lawyers. It is simply beyond the capabilities of a convicted person to carry out such an appeal on his own. He will be forced to apply for parole through an intermediary, namely with the help of the penal colony administration. And with the participation of a lawyer, it is not he himself who requests a reference for the convicted person, but the court.

How is the absence of unnecessary intermediaries useful?

It's simple. The corruption component of the case is reduced, namely, the dependence of the convicted person on the administration is weakened. It is not surprising that she does not always want the prisoner to be released early.

The second reason.

The time required to prepare documents is rapidly decreasing. A person will not be “slowed down” for months. The situation when there are days left before your real release, and you are finally given parole, is excluded. An attorney can prepare your employment. Your relatives and other close people can help him. Also, your representative will take upon himself the collection of certificates about place of residence, family composition and family ties, etc. And the fairness and legality of the court’s decision significantly depends on this and other evidence presented. But the convicted person himself will hardly be able to provide these documents and certificates. And there is a logical explanation for this - he is in prison.

Why a lawyer and not another legal representative?

Of course, your family and friends will be able to provide you with all possible assistance in this matter, but a parole lawyer who has experience and focuses exclusively on your problem will act much more accurately and will be able to achieve results faster. Well, time in matters relating to parole is a valuable resource.

Third reason.

Features of the process of considering the case of early release. The fact is that at the time of the hearing, the prisoner’s hands are essentially tied. He is helpless and deprived of an effective opportunity to defend himself and his interests.

What is the helplessness of the convicted person?

Most likely, your participation in the court hearing will take place via video conference, in other words, you will be nothing more than a face on the monitor, and only if the technology allows this.

Just imagine this situation. The court and the participants in the trial sit in one place; and you are in a completely different place. It is absolutely clear that for a real defense at such a meeting you must be able to effectively interact with the case materials. Online is impossible! Unlike you, a lawyer can familiarize yourself with the documents submitted by the administration of the institution where you are serving your sentence long before the start of the trial. The law does not provide for other ways to find out the contents of, for example, the personal file of a convicted person. And re-examination is possible only after a month, which means that most certificates will have to be updated.

However, your right to demand that any document be read is not taken away. The court cannot deny you this pleasure. True, the likelihood that you simply will not be able to comprehend the composition of the documents and their content so quickly, in an emergency mode, is very high. What does this mean? The only thing is that you vitally need the presence of a representative at the court hearing, who could familiarize himself with all the materials in advance. The lawyer will not improvise; he will have a completely clear idea of what each document contains. And also what is simply necessary at a court hearing is a work plan.