All Jailed Mothers to Be Pardoned

[Redallnite]

I can't understand why the children were housed in the prision along with the mothers???

Now they will be on the streets, I bet YA!!!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Russian mothers are to be freed regardless of their crimes under a proposed amnesty approved by President Vladimir Putin Thursday, the Kremlin press service said.

The proposal put forward by the former head of the government's disbanded pardons commission, Anatoly Pristavkin, would free thousands of women by extending an amnesty approved in November by the State Duma lower house of parliament.

That pardon freed roughly 23,000 women and children under 16, but included only women who were pregnant, disabled, over 50 or single mothers.

The new measure would extend to women who had committed serious crimes -- left out of the November amnesty -- with each case being examined individually.

Russia has one of the world's biggest prison populations, with roughly a million inmates, and regularly uses amnesties to control numbers in its bulging prisons.

"In theory, this is a humane act, but it is an artificial way of lowering the population of our prisons," said Viktoria Sergeyeva of Penal Reform International, a non-governmental organization lobbying for human rights and prison reform.

"It is not a way of regulating the prison population."

Human rights campaigners have repeatedly condemned the squalid, disease-ridden conditions in which most prisoners live.

According to Justice Ministry figures published last November and quoted by Interfax news agency, 493 children under the age of three live in Russian prisons.

[Diva]

What I want to know is... If a pregnant woman committed a crime and was sentenced to prison, does this mean once she gives birth she is freed? We have this long standing joke about files in cakes being given to prisoners to break out of prison with.

I wouldn't touch what food goes in ther now.

"But officer, it's 'sperm-pie' (http://www.exile.ru/113/lead.php)."

http://www.nochicktrix.com/fun/oth/vb/me/box.jpg

[Jake]

Diva, where the hell did you find that article? Man, I'd hate to be that guy. I'm still stying to figure out who this Michael Wines is. Or what he did. I wouldn't lick my lips for weeks.

[Amaurote]

It's a healthy sign, and greatly to Vladimir Putin's credit - with one million in prison the total is close to the USA's; Russia's population doesn't match its old sparring partner's, so it can hardly cite demographics as a reason for its vast prison network. Most of those women will be drugs mules anyway, but I'd agree that the motivation for the amnesty is more likely financial than humanitarian: Putin is a master strategist, and he's succeeded in not only stabilizing the economy, but in normalizing relations with the West.

Still, realpolitik or no realpolitik, the man certainly deserves some credit - he's the first Russian politician ever to successfully guide the nation towards a stable, multi-centred democratic republic, and away from semi-Asiatic Oriental Despotism. He's pretty much what Kerensky would have been like, had Lenin never succeeded in October 1917.

[Diva]

It's funny [not haha] how the people usually benifit the most when it is NOT for humanitarian reasons. Moving forward, even at a snails pace, is still moving forward.

Seeing as how you compared Vladimir Putin to Alex Kerensky, do you think that Russia can ultimately regain it's strength and stability?

What do you mean by drug mules? I am still stying to find what will become of these 'families It's hard to find something on what their welfare system is like. Where are they placed, or is it on the streets?

[Amaurote]

Drug mules, Diva - generally just poor, exploited women who are bribed or pressured into smuggling narcotics through customs, usually by swallowing bags of them; and, of course, risking imprisonment (or death, if the bag splits, or capital sentences apply to narcotics traffic) on the far side. Female prisoners are generally in there for drugs-related crime; it's a tragic waste of time and money.

I'm not sure how the social security system in Russia works, but Putin is doing a fine job. He's retained his popularity, regained the people's trust, stabilized interest rates, countered inflationary pressure and, bar one blip when a nuclear submarine sank, is well worthy of the international respect he inspires.

I'd be hard-pressed to compare anyone to Alexander Kerensky, such is my bias - I don't think anyone could have saved the Russian Revolution for democracy in 1917, and the middle of a war is hardly a great time for a political moderate. AFK would no doubt have been elected with a crushing majority in a normal, democratic Russia, in happier times; whereas Putin, with his relative lack of charisma, would probably never have attained the revolutionary kudos that Kerensky enjoyed. Then again, there's a time and a place for drama, and charisma is a subjective commodity; and Putin's relative obscurity is a positive virtue when you consider the misery Russia's been through in the last 10 years. The last thing they want is more excitement.