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Only dangerous criminals are put behind bars
CE experts were shocked by a case concerning a woman arrested and accused of
stealing three cucumbers. We have many cases of this kind in our files. They
have very expressive names: “attempt to steal 10,000” (rubles, not dollars),
“three bananas”, “a stick of sausage”, “kitchen rowdy”, “antique
watch”... There is a separate block of cases with “jars”: “four jars of
cucumbers”, “two jars of jam”, “empty jars” (the case of a woman
arrested for stealing amply jars from a neighboring fence) etc. It is obvious
that all these arrestees are rather victims (of social policy, fraudulent banks
and firms, sometimes of a mental disease etc.) than criminals. Obviously, the
cost of their detention, even given the very poor nutrition provided in SIZOs,
in one or two days exceeds the damage these “dangerous criminals” inflicted
to the state or to individuals. They spend, on the average, 10 months behind
bars. Cases concerning cucumbers and jars are rather often closed “in
connection with death of the accused”.
Yet, all these cases are unlikely to persuade skeptics: how typical are they?
Here are some figures. During the first nine months of 1995, out of 340,000
arrestees, 5,000 were released because their cases had been closed or the
accused had been found not guilty; 42,000 were given non-custodial punishments
and 44,000 appeals to be transferred to house arrest were satisfied...
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