THE SOLUTION OF ISSUES DEALING WITH SENDING MINORS TO SPECIAL CLOSED EDUCATIONAL AND REHABILITATIVE INSTITUTIONS BY COURT: CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL, ORGANIZATIONAL AND LEGAL PROBLEMS

The aim of the article is to establish the issues that hinder the Russian judicial practice from the application of the measure of sending minors to special educational and training institutions, as well as to figure out a way to solve these issues. The article emphasizes the special purposes of criminal justice concerning minors and substantiates the necessity of stepping away from criminal repression in favor of social rehabilitation and reintegration of a minor. This approach will help keep the juvenile from any further illegal activities, and will also be in line with the overall worldwide practice and Russian historical traditions in particular. The first special educational and training institutions for juvenile offenders appeared in the 19th century and only kept evolving and developing throughout the 20th century. While the current Russian law does allow releasing minors from criminal liability, applying educational measures and sending them to special educational and training institutions, the application procedure itself is still highly flawed, and the judges rarely apply these measures. The reasons for the application of these measures being as problematic as it currently is are the imperfections of the law itself and the low efficiency of special educational and training institutions. The article criticizes the current legal algorithm for dealing with cases of minors leaving special educational and training institutions by their own will, as well as the algorithm for sending minors to such institutions. More often than not, the decisions made by the court do not actually solve a large part of issues connected with the protection of the rights of minors; they do not always undergo the necessary procedure of a medical checkup. This critique is based on the analysis of international law and case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The authors suggest ways to improve these algorithms and to set up proper judicial control over minors sent to the said institutions. This part of the article also substantiates the necessity of replacing this educational measure with confinement in case the minor escapes from the special educational and training institution several times. The authors conclude the article by stating that solving issues that concern sending minors to special educational and training institutions requires organized reformation of judges' powers and specialties, as well as creating a probation service. The latter is seen as one of the most important goals in Russian criminal policy.