The deputy Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service spoke about the testing of new communication blocking devices in the Moscow pre-trial detention center

Employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) of Russia have begun testing the means of intelligent blocking of mobile communications in pre-trial detention centers (SIZOs). This was announced on March 21 by Sergey Shcherbakov, Deputy Director of the service.

The first experiments were successfully conducted in two pre-trial detention centers in Moscow and this area of activity will continue to develop.

"This is a solution to the problem of blocking mobile communications on the premises of institutions. This task is already more difficult, because we must localize the blocking zone only by the territory of the institution, so that the blocking does not extend beyond its borders, for example, to citizens," RIA Novosti quoted Shcherbakov as saying.

As explained by the deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, intelligent blocking tools are not cheap in cost, but they are the ones that make it possible to achieve proper protection in modern conditions.

"The experiment in SIZO-1 and SIZO-4 in Moscow, where we tested different approaches and achieved almost 100 percent success, is now almost complete," he said.

In December 2023, the Federation Council approved two laws to tighten responsibility in Russia for the transfer of mobile phones to prisoners in penal colonies. Amendments are being made to Article 19.12 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the transfer of mobile devices to prisoners and detainees is allocated to a separate category and involves fines of 25-50 thousand rubles. The second Law supplements the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with rules on liability for persons who have already been subjected to administrative punishment under the specified article of the Administrative Code. They are fined from 100,000 to 300,000 rubles, as well as forced labor or imprisonment for up to two years.