How to apply for parole without a lawyer - detailed instructions from A to Z

Most convicts have a real opportunity and grounds to be released on parole. So why do the courts deny parole? Why are so few requests granted in Russia? One of the reasons is poor preparation of applications for parole.

We wrote this article for a large legal portal. It was not published because it was too harsh. Legal status does not allow one to tell the truth about the judicial system - the informal ban on washing dirty linen in public is reliably covered by “ethics”

The overwhelming majority of petitions in Russia are drawn up by convicts themselves - using outdated templates and advice from experienced prisoners. Many lawyers have not gone particularly far, in most cases thoughtlessly inserting the data of a new client into the petition of the previous one. Formal preparation also predisposes the court to formalism - decisions are prepared by assistant judges and are simply adjusted by them to statistics.

We study each case in detail, develop an independent legal position, prepare a unique, highly personalized petition, supported by documents, facts, references to legislation and judicial practice. Therefore, our requests are granted no less than twice as often as the “average temperature in the hospital.”

Parole is not a trial of a person, but a review of the material. From a procedural point of view, it should take place without much competition between the parties. But in fact, competition is still present - the formalism of judges, the position of the prosecutor’s office, victims (if there are any), sometimes the establishment of the Federal Penitentiary Service and many other factors are against parole. In fact, the only real supporter of parole is the defense petition. A good petition produces results even without a lawyer, and sometimes especially without one, because a bad lawyer is worse than a prosecutor.

What is parole?

What is parole or parole? In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 79 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person serving detention in a disciplinary military unit, forced labor or imprisonment is subject to parole if the court finds that for his correction he does not need to fully serve the assigned sentence.

Convicts, even those sentenced to life imprisonment, have the right to apply for parole. When can I apply for parole?

Firstly, in order to qualify for parole, a convicted person must serve a certain period of time, which depends on the severity of the crime committed. If for crimes of minor and medium gravity - no less than ⅓ of the appointed term, then for serious crimes - this is not less than half of the term appointed by the court.

For especially serious crimes, as well as in cases where the person has previously been released on parole and violated the duties assigned to him in this regard - at least ⅔ of the assigned term.

For crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, for serious and especially serious crimes in the field of drug trafficking and terrorism-related crimes - at least ¾ of the prescribed period.

For crimes against sexual integrity of minors under 14 years of age - no less than ⅘ of the prescribed period. And if a person is serving a life sentence, then to obtain the right to parole it is necessary to serve at least 25 years.

In addition, the term of imprisonment actually served by the convicted person cannot be less than 6 months. That is, regardless of the term prescribed by the sentence, the right to parole will arise no earlier than in six months.

Let's look at an example. The citizen was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - robbery. The sanction of this article provides for a maximum penalty of up to 4 years in prison. According to Art. 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this crime is of medium gravity. The court sentenced him to 2 years and 3 months of imprisonment. To apply for parole, you will have to serve at least ⅓ of this term, that is, 9 months.

Another common situation. The citizen committed several different crimes of different gravity. The punishment is assigned to him based on the totality of these crimes. The period that must be served for parole in this case will be calculated from the finally assigned period. But, according to the rules of the most serious crime included in this set.

For example, for theft from a supermarket - Part 1 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (crime of minor gravity) and for theft causing major damage - Part 3 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (serious crime), the citizen was sentenced to 3 years 6 months in prison.

2 crimes: one - minor, one - serious. Therefore, in order to receive parole, it is necessary to serve the sentence prescribed for a serious crime. That is, at least ½ of the appointed period. In our case, it is 1 year and 9 months.

Thus, once you have served your sentence, you can apply to the court for parole.

The essence of the concept

Conditional early release (PAROL) is the gaining of freedom by a convicted person before the end of his term by a court decision due to good cause. This type of release involves the assignment of a correctional period. A specialist is assigned to the offender who will monitor his compliance with the requirements established by government agencies.

How do you apply for parole?

The submission process is as follows. The first step is to file a petition. The petition must be sent to the court at the location of the colony. The petition must indicate the reasons why the court should release you.

During the proceedings, a reasoned conclusion from the colony administration is attached to the case, which indicates how advisable it is to release the prisoner on parole.

The court is obliged to examine all the evidence presented:

• information about your behavior;
• documents on incentive measures and penalties during the period of imprisonment.

If the behavior left much to be desired, there were fights or violations of discipline, release will naturally be denied. To apply or not to apply parole is the right of the court, not an obligation. Therefore, everything will depend largely on how the prisoner performed during his time in the correctional facility.

To decide whether to release a prisoner early or not, the court takes into account:

• positive characteristics from the management of the correctional institution;
• his behavior after the verdict;
• attitude to the educational and labor processes that are organized in the colony;
• the composition of incentives and penalties received during the period of imprisonment;
• attitude towards what was done;
• information about repentance;
• confirmation of the facts of compensation for harm to the victim or the state.

Materials are submitted to the court in person or through a lawyer. If the court refuses to satisfy the petition, the next time it can be filed only after six months.

Conclusion

Almost all criminals who have received a criminal sentence have the privilege of counting on early release. This chance is given to the guilty citizens of our state so that those who really deserve it and do not want to reform remain in prison. Based on information from judicial practice, positive decisions on official requests from convicts are made quite often. Perhaps the legal body, having studied the case, really considers the sentence unjustifiably high, or maybe the criminals still decide to rethink their way of life.

How to apply for parole without a lawyer?

Parole is an opportunity to be released before the end of the term set by the court upon sentencing. Perhaps the most important thing on which the possibility of obtaining parole depends is the prisoner’s history of rewards and penalties.

Incentives are actions approved by the administration. The Criminal Executive Code states that incentives can be received for:

• good behavior;
• conscientious attitude to work and training;
• active participation in educational activities.

Penalties are, accordingly, actions condemned by the administration. The law vaguely calls them violations of the established procedure for serving a sentence.

In addition to incentives and penalties, the following are important:

• psychological portrait of the convicted person;
• characteristics from the place of work;
• the prisoner’s attitude towards the crime committed;
• opinion of the prosecutor and representative of the colony.

The period after which a convicted person can apply for parole depends on the severity of the article and varies from ⅓ to ⅘ of the assigned period. However, all this is only on paper. In fact, often, in order to be released on parole, you need to work until exhaustion, or cooperate with the administration, or pay yourself or with the help of a lawyer. And often everything taken together.

Parole has become a mechanism for corrupting courts, administrations and prosecutors. Moreover, parole is not freedom. This is not the abolition of punishment, but a change in the measure of punishment. The punishment itself continues, the person can simply return to his family, get a job and stop spending budget money on his maintenance in the zone or prison.

So, let's look at the main real ways to obtain parole without lawyers.

Stay in jail

The first step for parole, which the administration proposes, is to remain a “house bull” or “informer” in the pre-trial detention center. A convict who is ready to cooperate, if he receives no more than 5 years at trial, may not be transferred to the prison zone.

There are several options here. Unidentified informers will continue to pose as defendants, informing their cellmates that another criminal case has been opened against them. Or they will simply be transferred to the housekeeping staff of the pre-trial detention center.

The same can be offered not to informers, but to normal convicts with short sentences. At the same time, employees will tell you that chaos is happening in the zones. Well, they don’t have any thieves or violent ones. And all prisoners earn early release through their own labor.

They lay beautifully, but in practice everything is not so smooth. The fact is that in correctional colonies, to put it mildly, they do not like those who were housekeepers in detention centers. Because there everyone starts from the bottom. First, they work hard as garbage collectors, make morning rounds, open the cells, and ask about complaints.

At this time, garbage is taken out of the house in a bucket. On the “gallery” there are convicts from the servants with a huge barrel. By and large, they are already “offended”, because in the zone the “roosters” deal with the dirt.

After the household workers are almost thrown into the pre-trial detention center, the guards begin to treat them like slaves. Knowing that they are afraid to get into the zone for violations. In detention centers, prison workers are forced to constantly work hard, carry garbage, distribute gruel, and clean the courtyard, offices and corridors.

Even at night they are not always allowed to sleep and are sent on duty in the courtyard. Make sure that horses are not “raced” between cameras. At the same time, the servants are constantly insulted by both the guards and the inmates from the cells. They also beat me for being slow.

In addition, if the economic bull did not knock before staying at work in the isolation ward, then after that he will have to knock. They will simply call the opera and say: “If you don’t work for us, you will go to a colony!”

Often, the economic bulls who are closed to the zone begin to be beaten at the stage. If they are locked up in a colony, they are extremely uncomfortable. But those who remain in the economic band are 100% released early.

Become an informer in the zone

Those who received more than 5 years in court or those with shorter sentences who did not want to become “balanders” are sent to a correctional colony. There are more opportunities to earn parole. Let's talk about the most accessible ones.

In the zone you can also become an informer, but not everyone will be hired as an informer. Why do they need stupid roosters or morons. But if the prisoner is smart or, better yet, a criminal, then he is a valuable agent. Only in a correctional institution does the convict run an even greater risk if he secretly serves the operas.

Because all the prisoners visiting the headquarters are suspicious. They are being followed, they are being given “stuff”, providing false or real information about hiding places or serious violations of the regime. Yes, and it’s easy to get pierced. In zones, “nepotism” is detected very often.

Nothing good awaits them after exposure. Especially where the move is thieves. It’s even worse for the informers if, after exposing the hen, Blatota does not deal with him, but offers to become a double agent. It is impossible for a sex worker to find out the secrets of employees.

But such moles are quite capable of carrying misinformation to criminal prisoners. Plus, good informers have some influence on the operatives and can turn to them with requests. In general, there are also many options here. But thieves are still not geniuses. They cannot fully compete with trained professionals.

Sooner or later, the godfathers will figure out the double agent and severely punish him, locking him in a cell for a long time. And they will never be released early.

Become an activist (“goat”, “red”)

Another opportunity to get out early is to become an official “goat.” Do not knock secretly, but join an amateur organization or take the position of orderly, foreman or commandant.

But here, too, not everything is so simple, because in the black zones, where the beholders really have power, “red” or “goats” are a despised color. Not everyone can withstand many years of moral or even physical oppression.

Just like not everyone will be able to hold on to a goat position, given the fierce competition and meanness of their comrades who dream of taking a warm place. Often, such comrades give the librarians, the chairmen of the colony staff council, and the table staff - drugs and sharpening agents.

Not to mention the fact that goats that are in a good position are constantly being knocked on by other goats. But if you stay on the “Red Olympus”, then parole is guaranteed.

In the red zones, it is more difficult to become an activist. Because there are correctional institutions where 100% of convicts are assholes. While still in quarantine, they wrote an application to join the asset. They all went through the lowering ceremony by mopping the toilet.

In such institutions it is quite difficult to become useful to the administration. There, a gray mass sits on stools and doesn’t talk for hours. Or marches in formation and sings. Those prisoners who have been trusted must exercise supervisory functions and monitor discipline, which they do not particularly violate.

But you can’t just be listed as trusted. They are required to write 10 denunciations against their comrades per day. If they don’t write, they will first be beaten, and then removed from the asset. Which means “Hello, stool!” and “Goodbye, parole!”

As a result of this state of affairs, real activists simply write denunciations against prisoners they don’t like. The guards don’t know whether it’s true or not. They severely punish everyone who receives signals. Physically or in punishment cells.

Violators of the regime cannot leave early. That’s why everyone in such zones strives to become real activists.

Work in the zone

Another option for not completing the allotted term is to become a hard worker and, as it were, prove your correction through honest work. But there are also many nuances here. Unlike communist times, under the democrats there are not jobs in all zones. In some regions, getting a job in an industrial zone can be quite difficult.

How to stay there. And in some work detachments, discipline is stricter than in a concentration camp. Prisoners who work in brigades can be fed better. They are paid very little money, but they have enough for supplies and extra food.

And most importantly, they are released on parole. But if a worker does not fulfill the plan or commits the slightest violation of discipline, he is beaten by the foremen and orderlies of the detachment. No one is forced by force. Either obey, or go to the quitters. Almost all hard workers hold on to their jobs and endure executions and humiliation.

The other extreme is when a prisoner becomes a valuable specialist - he sharpens cool weapons for his superiors on a machine, makes highly artistic souvenirs, or perfectly repairs cars in Zonov’s garage.

Although he brings great benefits to the guards, he risks serving his entire sentence. Because it is valuable and almost irreplaceable. The employees will not openly quarrel with him, but they will whisper to the judge and he will not approve of an early exit. At the same time, the same employees will tell the specialist that the judge is a bastard and that they will try to persuade him in six months or a year.

Buy parole

Any prisoner knows the price list for parole in the region where he is imprisoned. The price can be anything, but it is always surprisingly divided by 3. For example, 210,000 rubles. To an outsider, these 10,000 rubles seem like some kind of markup.

But no. Simply 210 is 70 x 3. To the administration of the institution, the court and the prosecutor's office. There is no region in Russia where they do not take money for parole. And it often happens that money will have to be paid, even if the prisoner has no violations and is entitled to parole on all counts.

However, bosses also need to be able to give bribes. For example, in one of the Russian colonies there was a bandit who had rich friends at large. When his benefits came up, his friends drove up to the deputy for educational work of the institution and asked him to help their friend leave early.

The lieutenant colonel did not refuse the petitioners. Moreover, they should have generously thanked him for this. Friends told the prisoner-bandit that the matter was going well. And out of joy he told about this in a narrow circle of thieves.

In the midst of the blotty, naturally, there was an informer who reported this to the police unit. The opera was on good terms with the deputy for educational work. They warned him. The lieutenant colonel got scared, called and returned the bribe.

After this, the bandit was not released early on principle. Not for money, not for good behavior. So that no one would think that he bought the bosses.

Do you need a lawyer to get parole?

We have already said that it will not be physically possible for a convicted person to collect a set of documents to go to court, all that is required of a convicted person is positive behavior, compliance with the regime of detention, and the desire to return home, the lawyer will do the rest and will achieve a positive decision by convincing the court is that this citizen regrets what happened and keeping him in custody is pointless, he is ready to return to normal life and no longer commit crimes, forget this period in his life and start with a clean slate.

We will be happy to help him with this!