President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Konovalov, improving our country’s judicial system is still very much on the agenda. Everyone needs to do their part, including the Ministry of Justice, as one of the ministries most directly concerned by this work. The State Council Presidium held a recent meeting on the correctional system, that is, on how sentences for crimes committed are actually carried out in practice. Several recommendations were drawn up at that meeting. I would like to hear from you now what has been done so far, and what still has to be done to implement these recommendations.
Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov: The State Council Presidium meeting at the start of the year was completely right in the problems it identified, problems that remain just as relevant now, unfortunately. The state pays too high a price at the moment for crimes committed. Even if criminals are punished fairly and with good reason, the disciplinary practices that are supposed to maintain order within the correctional labour institutions are clearly outdated and do not take into consideration aspects of society today, people’s personal circumstances, and quite simply are a hindrance to getting criminals ready to become a part of society once again. We do not think it necessary to liberalise the criminal laws. I think it is important to stress this point, because in a number of areas our criminal laws should be toughened, for crimes against minors, as you said, for example, and for some other crimes. But at the same time, there should be a greater range of sentencing options at the courts’ disposal. Unfortunately, over the last 15 years at least, the situation is such that the courts either send people to prison for real, or give them a suspended sentence, in which case the accused often does not even notice that he or she has been convicted of a crime at all. We need to place greater trust in the courts. I think that the courts are ready today overall for this and should be given greater choice in the range of sentences they can pass.
Dmitry Medvedev: When you say greater trust should be placed in the courts, you mean that there should be changes to the law making it possible for the courts to choose among a range of sentencing options? In other words, judges will have a number of sentencing options for one and the same crime.
Alexander Konovalov: The courts need to be able to take individual circumstances, the circumstances in which the crime was committed, and the current situation into account when passing the sentence. It is often said that one man commits the crime and another bears the punishment, because in between, many people rethink their attitudes to what they have done and realise their guilt. The courts should have more possibilities for choosing the most suitable sentence, including sentences that do not involve isolating the person from society.
Finally, the penitentiary system, where sentences involving isolation from society are actually carried out, is in need of serious change. As we reported to you earlier, we think that people with good prospects of becoming a normal part of the society once again should not serve their sentences together with hardened criminals. These people should benefit from a less strict regime in the detention centres, and the emphasis should be much more on education and rehabilitation work. As for those who do not want to become a normal part of our society, tougher provisions should apply to them, so as to prevent them from spreading and reproducing the criminal culture. I am talking here about imprisonment, which is used around the world.
Dmitry Medvedev: I see. When will these proposals be ready? We have already met, held special State Council Presidium meetings on this subject, even visited a prison. When will we see the results? When will all of this be on paper?
Alexander Konovalov: A number of the instructions you gave at the State Council Presidium meeting have already been carried out. The documents have been drawn up, as has a programme for developing the correctional system over the coming years. The measures I just spoke about require analysis, including criminology studies on the nature of today’s crimes, and in particular the people who make up the bulk of what we refer to as the special contingent within the prison population.
Regarding the prospects and possibilities for changing the rules and practices within the corrections system, this requires a serious study of the state of the correctional system today, its institutions, their types, location, and prison population rate. This is serious work and we hope it will be completed by the end of the summer, and we will then be able to draft specific proposals for amendments to the law.
Dmitry Medvedev: Good. I have one more question in this respect. In the Soviet Union, there was the concept of ‘especially dangerous recidivist’. Do you think we need this provision in our laws today, in some kind of amended form?
Alexander Konovalov: I think that we certainly need to separate the different groups of people within the prison population. Once people have served their sentences, there needs to be a competent assessment of to what extent they have actually reformed. There is no question of reviving the old system of administrative supervision [of dangerous criminals after their release from prison], but there certainly should be provisions for highly effective and timely work to monitor the behaviour of people who obviously did not reform during their time in prison, or who committed crimes so serious that there is a clear need for the authorities to keep watch on them for quite a long time. In this sense, reviving the status of an ‘especially dangerous recidivist’, whether under this or some other name would be a useful measure.
Dmitry Medvedev: Alright, thank you. I will think about it.