Unfortunately, quite often not only adults, but also children are on the crime path. The influence of bad companies, lack of parenting, a great desire to become adults are affected. Sometimes you are struck by the cruelty with which the younger generation commits crimes. Many of the teenagers believe that because of their age, punishment will not follow, and they are deeply mistaken. To correct such juvenile delinquents, there are special institutions - juvenile colonies. How do they differ from prisons, what are the conditions of detention and educational measures in the colonies, we will try to understand our article.
What is a colony?
This is the same correctional institution, only designed to serve sentences by juvenile delinquents. Colonies for minors in Russia occupy a special place in the entire correctional system.
The thing is that the age of the offenders who are serving sentences in such institutions is quite young, so it involves the creation of special conditions for their detention. As a rule, staying in such colonies cannot be compared with prison sentences; moreover, every effort is made to ensure that adolescents not only serve their time, but are re-educated and become better.
Characterization of correctional colonies
In Russia, the Federal Penitentiary Service has 62 juvenile correctional facilities; they are located in 54 subjects. Most of them are colony for keeping boys, and in the Belgorod region there is a colony for minor girls and the same in the Tomsk region.
Here is the statistics on the types of crimes committed by minors:
- 16% are convicted of theft.
- About 15% of convicts are serving sentences for robberies.
- Deliberate bodily harm - 11%.
- Kills - 10%.
- About 8% have been convicted of rape, and the rest is occupied by other crimes.
At what age can I get into the colony?
An educational colony for minors is designed to serve sentences by adolescents aged 14 to 18 years. There are a number of crimes for which responsibility begins already at the age of 14, so many teenagers are mistaken in believing that they will not be anything for malicious offenses, because they are still small.
Each city or region has a juvenile commission. Its employees and parents of each child should carry out educational work in this direction and explain at what age and for what crimes criminal liability occurs.
The sentence depends on the severity of the crime, it often happens when a juvenile delinquent begins to serve him in a juvenile colony, and ends up in prison. This is especially true for those adolescents who do not realize their guilt and do not seek to change, behave disgustingly in the colony.
Why can a teenager go to prison?
Who is facing a juvenile colony? How many years can you find yourself behind its walls? If you study the law, you can see there information that criminal liability has been occurring in our country since the age of 16, but there is a reservation that names the categories of crimes for which you can get into such an institution from the age of 14:
- Kidnapping.
- Committing robberies and thefts.
- Robbery.
- Car theft.
- When intentionally inflicted harm to human health.
- Rape or any other sexual activity.
- Involvement in terrorism.
- Hostage taking.
Quite often, adolescents have recently committed an act of vandalism, damage or destruction of cultural property. For such offenses, the child also ends up in the prison.
There are also some crimes in which adolescents are often seen, but they somehow do not want to be associated with a young age:
- The acquisition and carrying of explosives.
- Manufacture and marketing of explosive devices.
- Theft of weapons.
- Extortion.
- Distribution and theft of narcotic substances.
We can say that quite a lot of juvenile crimes will not go unpunished, only often teenagers do not even suspect that they will have to answer for committed illegal actions.
Features of the crimes that children commit
If we consider all the crimes that are most often committed by juvenile delinquents, then they can be divided into several groups:
- Illegal actions against the human person. This category includes: murders, rape, causing grievous bodily harm. Fortunately, for such crimes, adolescents are less likely to enter the colony.
- Crimes against property. These include: fraud, theft, robbery, damage to other people's property. These crimes are most often committed by minors.
- Offenses against the population and public safety. This is the turnover of drugs, the carrying and storage of weapons, explosives. About 10-12% of adolescents are involved in such crimes.
You can also name some crimes that do not fit into any group, for example, counterfeiting securities, banditry, the murder of their newborn babies.
Among all convicted juveniles, one in five has already committed offenses. And here's what's interesting: the harder and more dangerous the first crime, the greater the likelihood that a teenager will commit it again.
Every year crime is getting younger, new groups of juvenile delinquents are constantly replenished with those who have extensive criminal experience in the past. Such groups are distinguished by their good cohesion, which is quite dangerous for society.
Where are the penal colonies
If you are interested in a colony for minors, addresses can be freely found on the Internet. In Russia there are a lot of them, for example:
- In Altai Territory there are 2 such institutions: in the city of Biysk and Novoaltaysk.
- Colony for minor boys in the Krasnodar Territory.
- In the Krasnoyarsk and Primorsky Territory.
- In the Belgorod region there is a colony for minor girls.
- In the Volgograd and Voronezh regions.
- In the Ryazan, Rostov and Samara regions there are also such institutions.
- In the Moscow region there are two colonies for minors.
- Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Orenburg, Novosibirsk and Oryol regions also have correctional facilities on their territory.
From the list below, almost all the colonies are designed to serve sentences by underage boys, only two throughout Russia are ready to accept girls for correction. For example, in neighboring Ukraine, only the Melitopol correctional colony is female, all the rest are intended for the male population.
Still, girls are much less likely to become members of criminal gangs or commit crimes alone.
Prison conditions
Educational colonies for minors differ from prisons in that they practice several different conditions of detention:
- Preferential.
- Strict.
- Lightweight.
Immediately after the juvenile delinquent crosses the threshold of the colony, he is kept under normal conditions. But this applies only to those who committed the crime for the first time. For three months, the convicted teenager is monitored. If during this time he does not commit any misconduct and behaves well, then he will be transferred to lighter conditions.
Those who already from the first days of their stay in the colony violate the regime, are in conflict, face a completely different attitude. They are placed in strict conditions of detention.
Before release, those held in light conditions are transferred to preferential terms. But sometimes it happens that teenagers, in the joys of coming home soon, begin to break the regime, and in this situation they are threatened with a transfer to strict conditions of detention.
The head of the colony is engaged in the transfer from one condition to another.
What is the difference between the conditions of detention?
If minors are serving their sentences in the colonies on preferential terms, then they live in special dormitories. Each has his own account on which the money lies, and they can use it indefinitely. For these teens, short dates are allowed at any time. During the year, they are allowed to take long visits, during which they are even allowed to live outside the colony.
There are cases when minors on preferential terms are allowed to live outside the institution, but only under the supervision of the administration. Teenagers are then allowed to use cash and wear regular clothes.
If the child is kept in light conditions, then he lives in a hostel, can buy groceries, but the amount is limited to 7 minimum wages. Throughout the year, short dates are allowed every month, and long ones once a quarter.
The usual conditions of detention include living in dormitories, spending up to 5 minimum wages for the purchase of products. There are only 8 short dates during the year, and 4 long ones.
Strict conditions are designed to contain malicious violators of the order or those who enter this institution more than once. Conditions, of course, are fundamentally different from others. Teenagers live in separate rooms, which are closed if the convicts are not busy with work or school. They can spend only 3 minimum wages per month, long dates are not allowed at all, and short-term visits are only 6 per year.
Given the current lack of funding for such institutions, it can be noted that it is not always possible to transfer to preferential conditions of detention before the release of the teenager. And this period is considered quite important, it allows the child to adapt to living conditions at large.
As well as from prison, you can leave the colony ahead of schedule. If a crime committed by a teenager is classified as moderate or not serious at all, then with good behavior and adherence to the regime, the convict can go home after serving a third of the term. In case of serious offenses, they can be released ahead of schedule only after 2/3 of the term.
Children's colony for minors involves the involvement of adolescents to work. The length of the working day depends on the age of the convict. At night, any work is prohibited, as well as on weekends.
Accommodation, food and clothing are provided to convicts at the expense of the state. At least 50% of the earned funds should be transferred to the account of each minor every month.
Under what circumstances translate into strict conditions
All convicted minors, being in a colony, must observe the regime, adhere to a certain order. Malicious violations for which you can get into strict conditions from preferential or lightweight conditions are the following:
- If you have noticed the use of alcoholic beverages, as well as drugs.
- For committing hooligan acts.
- Failure to comply with administration requirements.
- Insulting representatives of the colony administration.
- Storage and manufacture of prohibited items.
- Evasion of compulsory medical treatment, if one was prescribed by the court.
- Participation or organization of various strikes, group riots.
- Refusal of work.
After being transferred to strict conditions of detention, the legal status of the minor changes.
Colony incentive measures
The juvenile area differs from the adult colonies in milder conditions. Allowed more dates, packages or transfers, you can spend money from your accounts. The colony also has special measures to encourage teenagers for good behavior, active participation in the cultural life of the institution, and good academic success:
- A minor gets the right to attend a cultural or sports event outside the colony walls, but only accompanied by the institution's educator.
- It is allowed to leave the colony accompanied by relatives or parents for a certain time.
- You can leave the prison ahead of schedule if you got there for committing an offense.
- Early transfer to lighter conditions.
If the convicted person is allowed to attend sports or cultural events, then this is only possible in the daytime. Teenagers are given regular clothes for a while to prevent others from unwanted attitude towards them.
Juvenile Punishment
Not all adolescents, once in a penal colony, observe the regime, order and try to improve. There are those who remain the same malicious violators as in freedom. There are special penalties for them:
- With minor violations, a reprimand is possible.
- A teenager may be prohibited from watching feature films for a month.
- A fine of 2 minimum wages may apply.
- Placement in a disciplinary isolator.
- Translation to more stringent conditions of detention.
If we compare the number of incentive and punishment measures applied, we can conclude that the former are much larger. This may indicate that most adolescents are aware of their guilt, educational work in the colony gives its results.
Educational work in the colony
In adolescence, there is still the opportunity to influence the child and change his attitude to the outside world and himself. That is why in juvenile colonies they devote a lot of time to educational work.
Work is underway in the following areas:
- Physical education.
- Moral.
- Labor.
- Aesthetic.
Teenagers, being in the walls of the colony, can, if desired, acquire skills in some professions, which after release will help them to assert themselves and feed themselves.
The teachers of the institution regularly conduct interviews and lectures with adolescents on the topic of family and marriage, moral values. Many of the children here are from dysfunctional families, some are born to mothers who were serving their sentences, so most often they have no idea what a normal family should be like.
Most often, difficult teenagers have bad habits in the form of smoking, drinking alcohol, so physical education is of great importance.
In juvenile colonies, as a rule, there are many circles and sections in which adolescents can take part and choose them to their taste.
The organization of the educational process within the walls of the colony pursues some goals:
- Get adolescent fixes.
- To prepare them for independent life outside the walls of the institution.
- To form a law-abiding behavior, a conscientious attitude to work.
- Raise their cultural and educational level.
- Professional training.
It is very important that in the process of educational work, minors have the conviction that they need to achieve their goals.
Some colonies, the list of which was examined earlier, practice the organization of parent committees, which work under the supervision of the head of the institution. A board of trustees may be created from representatives of various institutions, public organizations, and ordinary citizens, who will assist in organizing the educational process and resolving the issues of employment of minors after release.
The Commission on Juvenile Affairs, teachers and parents should work together to ensure that adolescents do not take the criminal path, but grow up as law-abiding citizens of our country.
At present, in Russia we do not have a system that would help convicts return to normal life after their release. Most often, a teenager has to face the same conditions that brought him to the dock. Therefore, the percentage of relapses is high, and the minor is again in the colony.
It is important after the release to provide the teenager with the necessary social and economic support, but much work remains to be done on this issue in our state.