MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI) – Specialized courts for children and teenagers should be established in Russia, according to Anastasia Kovalyova, head of the working group on prevention of deviant behavior among minors organized by the Public Council for the country’s Children’s Rights Commissioner.

The working group member, lawyer Stalina Gurevich told RAPSI that there is a need for specialized judges with additional education in spheres of teaching and psychology. These judges should be aware of specifics related to children with deviant behavior. She also noted that the Russian Criminal Code prescribes transfer of a child to parents for discipline as the punishment, but this measure was used by courts only once in 13 years of her practice.

“There is a need for personal and individuated approach,” Gurevich said.

It is also necessary to increase age threshold in juvenile prisons from 18 to 21 years, Gurevich said. Young persons, who reached the aged of 21, may serve sentence in penal colonies, while 18-year old individuals are still children, especially if they were in conditions of restriction of liberty until the majority age, the lawyer added.

Moreover, the working group members believe that there is a need to foresee the possibility of transfer from juvenile correctional facility to penal colony settlement by social indications and personal characteristic. If a child mended his/her ways, and wants to grow up to be a productive member of society, there is merit in his/her transfer to penal colony settlement, where he/she will get more freedom, Gurevich stated.

A probation service for minors, who received suspended sentence, is to be established as well, to help such convicts in socialization after committing a crime, she added.