Some aspects of legal status of the people held at detention facilities

The topic of my report is some aspects of legal status of the people held at detention facilities. I think that this issue is very significant because it is inadmissible that the citizens' rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the RF are violated. Moreover, it's an especially important issue for the Republic of Karelia as there are 3 correctional facilities, one healthcare facility, one medical correctional facility, 2 pre-trial detention facilities and one penal enforcement inspection. The basis and the main sources of my study are two official documents. The first is the annual report of the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation and the second is the annual report of the Ombudsman of The Republic of Karelia which was issued 2012.

According to the 21 Article of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, «Human dignity shall be protected by the State. Nothing may serve as a basis for its derogation». However, we often come across resonant cases when people held at detention facilities are subjected to tortures. The Ombudsman of the Russian Federation suggested one of the solutions, he said that evidence obtained through violence should be held invalid and such cases should be heard in civil proceedings.

The second problem is the living environment in correctional institutions. The people held at detention facilities complain about unsanitary conditions, over-crowded cells, insufficient dieting and working conditions harmful for their health. The possible way out is the public monitoring committee control over the rights observation.

The third problem concerns health services in the correctional institutions. The Ombudsman of the Russian Federation said that there is a problem of application of the Article 20.25 of the Code of Administrative Violations of the Russian Federation. The ombudsman of the Russian Federation receives complaints about the cases when the courts qualify health care institutions as the place of serving a sentence. But the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation explained to the justice of peace that the health care institutions aren't correctional facilities.

The next problem is the denial of discharge the prisoners due to disease. According to The Ombudsman of the Russian Federation in most cases the reason for such denials is that the list of diseases approved by the Russian Government in 2004 doesn't include the diseases in question. The Federal penal service of the Russian Federation and the federal Ombudsman applied to the Ministry of healthcare of the Russian Federation to expand the list of diseases discharging the prisoners from punishment. However the Ministry hasn't responded yet. And the problem remains unsolved.

Part 3 of the Article 55 of the Constitution of the RF states that 'the rights and freedoms of men and citizens maybe limited, only to the extent necessary for the protection of the fundamental principle of constitutional system'. One of the aims of punishment is correctional education which means to form respect to the human rights and constitutional system. That is why the state should provide all the necessary living conditions in the correctional institutions think that these problems can be solved in the following ways: the first is passing additional federal and regional programs, the second is stimulating employees of the correctional institutions by awarding them with certificates of honour, bonuses, the next solution is to maintain permanent cooperation of the government authorities, the Ombudsmen and the public monitoring committees with heads of the correctional institutions and people held at detention facilities as well as conducting polls and monitoring.

Д. А. Вяхирева