In Russia, they propose removing pregnant women and single fathers raising children under 14 from the list of persons who should be placed in pre-trial detention centers (SIZOs). The newspaper writes about this “News”.
This proposal is included in the amendments to the Supreme Court bill prepared in the Federation Council. However, this recommendation does not apply to persons suspected of particularly serious crimes, terrorism, hostage-taking or rioting, as well as cases where the accused evades investigation.
The proposed changes will be discussed in the relevant State Duma committee after November 22. The Moscow Public Monitoring Commission sees the potential to reduce the burden on pre-trial detention centers when implementing this proposal.
Andrei Kutepov, chairman of the Federation Council Economic Policy Committee, developed amendments to the Supreme Court bill. It proposes removing pregnant women and single fathers raising children under 14 from the list of people sent to pre-trial detention centres. According to the chairman of the committee, detention should not be applied to mothers with children under the age of 14 (not necessarily single). The amendments were sent to the relevant committee of the State Duma on state building and legislation.
“The proposed amendments are aimed at protecting families from unfair and unreasonable separation of children and parents at the stage when the parent has not yet been found guilty of committing a crime,” the senator said in an interview with Izvestia. said.
The explanatory note on the changes states that imprisoning a mother or father (single parent) harms minor children, even if the period of detention is short.
“In addition, the child may be left in the care of others or placed in an appropriate institution, which will certainly affect his psychological state,” Kutepov emphasized.
But the senator suggests making exceptions for situations where pregnant women and single fathers cannot avoid arrest. This applies especially to persons suspected (presumed) of committing serious crimes, crimes against life, health, liberty, sexual integrity and sexual freedom of minors, as well as terrorism (including international), terrorist attacks, calls for justification and propaganda of terrorism. Exceptions also apply for hostage taking, plane or train hijacking, armed insurrection, and attempts on the life of government or public figures.
Other exceptions include cases where the suspect or accused has no permanent place of residence, has fled the preliminary investigation authorities or the court, or has violated a previously taken preventive measure.
In turn, Andrei Kutepov is confident that the proposed changes will not create opportunities to avoid criminal liability and will not complicate the work of preliminary investigation authorities. According to him, limiting the number of times these people are caught will facilitate the use of alternative preventive measures. This would also provide an opportunity to “prepare children for a possible separation from their parents and raise awareness of the inevitability of punishment without the unnecessary stress suffered by those in pre-trial detention centres.”
In addition to detention, Russia also uses preventive measures such as travel bans, personal guarantees, bans on certain actions, bail and house arrest.
Previously at AvtoVAZ accepted the possibility of using prison labor.