Initial measures to search for the convicts without isolation from society

In accordance with the penal legislation the criminal executive inspection shall take initial measures to search for those sentenced to correctional labor, imprisonment, people with suspended sentences and on probation, hiding from punishment or control. It does not concern those sentenced to compulsory work and deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or be engaged in certain activities. The article defines the need for securing this obligation of the correctional inspection in Part 3 Articles 25 and 37 of the Penal Enforcement Code. If the legislator defines the only goal of the initial investigative measures as establishing the whereabouts of the convicted person, this has a negative impact on the practice. If during the initial investigative measures it is established that the convict is hiding (has disappeared) and (or) evades the control of the correctional inspection, the criminal executive inspection is required to determine the goals of such evasion. For example, with the compulsory work, the criminal executive inspection is required to establish the fact that the convict has fled to evade the punishment (Part 1, Article 30 of the RF Penal Enforcement Code). Taking the specified target into account, it should be noted that the current Penal Enforcement Code does not require that the initial investigative activities should be aimed at determining whether it is "justifiable" or "unjustifiable" that the convict has escaped from the place of residence or is evading the control of the correctional inspection. If the criminal executive inspection establishes that the convicted person has gone beyond the Russian Federation and is living in another country, thus it establishes their whereabouts. This fact prevents the inspection from applying to the court for the abolition of (replacement), even if the fact of evasion from the execution of the sentence has been established. However, the established fact of the convict's departure from the Russian Federation does not hinder such treatment by the criminal executive inspection, for their particular location is not specified, because the result of the initial search activities is only the assumption that the convict can be on the territory of another CIS member. In accordance with the CIS Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Justice, the competent institution of the State in which the convict may be, shall take steps to establish their whereabouts and detain them only when it receives a request for extradition or order on the implementation of the search, except when the extradition cannot take place. Article 89 of the CIS Convention prohibits the extradition of people who are nationals of the requested State. Thus, the search for the convicts is not performed. In this regard, it is urgent for the Russian Federation and other CIS member states to ratify the European Convention on the Supervision of Conditionally Sentenced or Conditionally Released Offenders (Strasbourg, 30th November 1964).

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