Vladimir Putin received Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko in the Kremlin. We discussed how to make our correctional system truly correctional. And then, according to statistics, 44% of prisoners after prison go on a new crime.
“These people are not prepared for life in freedom, they cannot get a job, they do not have the money they need to start a new life, and, of course, they need help,” Chuichenko explained to the president where such a large percentage of relapses
A new service in the Federal Penitentiary Service should solve the problem. She will prepare the prisoners for release. The minister said that the prisoners will be helped with education, access to social services, and medicine. There will also be psychological help.
– Assistance will be provided in establishing socially useful ties, – added the head of the Ministry of Justice.
Under this case, the president was asked to allow the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service to hire a new deputy in charge of probation (as preparations for release were called).
– Good. The register, probably, needs to be kept by these people? Putin agreed.
Chuichenko’s second suggestion: to develop forced labor. The minister explained that a working person is much cheaper for the state. Plus, people get paid, “they live in normal conditions, communicate with relatives and have the right to go out into the city.”
“About 100,000 people deserve to have their imprisonment replaced with forced labor,” the minister specified.
Fighting relapse won’t come cheap. The Ministry of Justice considered that it was necessary to hire 50,000 people to prepare prisoners for life outside the prison. For forced labor, new premises will have to be built (500 thousand rubles per person) – ordinary colonies are not suitable.
But even so, it should turn out cheaper than guarding the prisoners the old fashioned way.
“In fact, they themselves pay the costs associated with their maintenance,” Chuichenko said about places with forced labor.
They also told Putin how the number of prisoners has changed over more than 100 years. In 1913, 194 thousand people were imprisoned.
“The population was small,” the president remarked.
– The population was 134 million. I would not say that it differs significantly, – the minister retorted.
– Yes. There were more under the Soviet Union, Putin agreed, adding that now the number of prisoners is declining.
– In 2000 – 1.06 million, in 2021 – 483 thousand. And not all of them are directly in places of deprivation of liberty, there is still a part that is in a pre-trial detention center,” Putin said.
