Improving of Legislation Establishing the Responsibility of Convicted Persons Recognized as Drug Addicts for Evading the Obligation Imposed on Them by the Court to Undergo Drug Treatment and Medical and (or) Social Rehabilitation

Abstract

Fixing norms in the criminal law sentencing a person who has been drug addicts, according to which the court along with certain types of punishments not related to imprisonment, can lay on a sick addiction a duty to undergo treatment for drug and medical and (or) social rehabilitation, and monitoring of specified governmental prisoners has been stipulated in article 72.1 of the criminal code, introduced by Federal law No 313FZ of 25 November 2013. This provision in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation was the result of the state's response to a significantly increased number of people suffering from this disease and the need to counteract these processes. This measure of influence on convicts in the criminal, criminal procedure and criminal enforcement legislation of the Russian Federation for such a short period has become firmly established in judicial and criminal enforcement practice, in this connection, the need to improve the effectiveness of its appointment, execution and detention is being updated. In this regard, a study was conducted on the organization and implementation of control over the execution of convicts' obligations to undergo drug treatment and medical and (or) social rehabilitation, during which a survey was conducted of employees of the FKU UII and their branches in 28 territorial bodies of the Federal penitentiary service of Russia. As a result, research has shown that the majority of employees agree that it is necessary to provide for a provision in the penal enforcement legislation that a convicted person is considered to be evading treatment for drug addiction and medical and (or) social rehabilitation if, without refusing to undergo them, he does not visit or voluntarily left a medical institution and a medical or social rehabilitation institution, or twice failed to comply with the prescriptions of the attending doctor, or continues to use narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances or new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances. It is also important to note that in the case of malicious evasion of a convicted person recognized as a drug addict from the obligation to undergo treatment for drug addiction and medical and (or) social rehabilitation, such a convicted person should be brought to criminal responsibility.