Roundtable on parole

"Problems of observance of the rights of citizens to early release from places of detention" human rights activists discussed at a "round table"

The format of the event was chosen as unusual - a roundtable meeting of human rights defenders and experts took place in the main television studio of the region. On the air of the Samara State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, a conversation on acute social issues took place, which will allow a wide audience to learn about the work carried out by state services to implement the right of convicts to early release, as well as the problems arising in this case. During the discussion by telephone and video communication, people who are waiting for the release of their loved ones asked important questions for themselves and immediately received detailed answers, thanks to the maximum coverage of specialists on whom the solution of difficult situations depends.

This is not a TV interview, and not a conference in the usual sense. And the topic of discussion is ordinary and everyday difficult to name. Behind the problematic considered in a multi-format space, there are the fates of thousands of our fellow citizens across the country, and certainly hundreds in the Samara region.

At the initiative of Olga Dmitrievna Galtsova, Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Samara Region, all those who receive daily appeals from convicts in the hope of gaining a chance for early release, letters from their loved ones met at a round table.

The meeting was attended by Vladimir Vladimirovich Inkin, Chairman of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Samara Regional Court; Alexey Borisovich Pavlov, Deputy Prosecutor of the Samara Region; Igor Evgenievich Tretyakov, Deputy Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Samara Region; Tatyana Dmitrievna Butovchenko, President of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region; Tatyana Vladimirovna Klenova, Head of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Samara National Research University named after academician S.P. Queen; Vladimir Kuzmich Smorodinov, Honorary Worker of the Prosecutor's Office, member of the Public Council on Rights and Freedoms under the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Samara Region, member of the Public Council under the Department of Public Security of the Samara Region; Dmitry Viktorovich Shtokov, chairman of the public oversight commission for public monitoring of human rights in places of detention in the Samara region, Alexei Valerievich Kokin, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Samara region of the Association of Russian Lawyers and others.

In her opening remarks, Olga Dmitrievna Galtsova emphasized that during visits to correctional institutions, at receptions on personal matters, convicts often complain about the courts' refusals of early release. As the statistics for 2020 and the first half of 2021 show, out of the number of parole applications considered by the regional courts, less than half were satisfied. At the same time, it should be understood that this opportunity is actually the only motivation for law-abiding behavior and an incentive to work, and, consequently, to pay off claims, as well as active participation in the social life of the colony, to maintain social ties.

The participants of the "round table" considered three issues: "Legislative consolidation and practical application of the rule of law when the courts consider petitions of convicts for early release from places of imprisonment"; "Problems of realization of the rights of convicts to early release from places of detention" and "Release from punishment due to illness as the implementation of the principle of humanism in relation to a seriously ill person."

The opinions of the relatives of the citizens serving sentences were also heard in the studio, telephone and video communication was established with them.

The stories of human destinies, in which there are many not only legal aspects, but also moral, and sometimes extremely emotional, will soon be on the air of the Samara State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. The program will also be posted on the official website of the Ombudsman in the Samara region.

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