State Duma lower house of Parliament has passed the bills called upon to revive the system of medical sobering stations in the country. Police will have the right to pick intoxicated people and to take them to these stations. Now the police will do their own performance during the New Year holidays.
The bills have been initiated by deputes of the State Duma and members of the Federation Council the upper house of Parliament. The first bill proposes to enable the constituent territories of Russia to give assistance to the people who turn up drunk in public places and show inability to move on their own or orient themselves in the space random. The bills presuppose that the government’s uniform approach to the functioning of these institutions will be guaranteed. The mechanisms of public private partnership will also be engaged in the activity of sobering stations. The second bill gives the police the power to take intoxicated people to specialized institutions. Deputy Alexander Khinstein of the United Russia party recalled that the system of sobering stations which had reported to the Interior Ministry was the dismantled in 2011 as part of the interior agencies reform. He indicated that the consequences of the move were quite deplorable. He pointed out in this connection a growth in the number of the so-called drunk crimes. The data from the interior ministry suggests that the number of crimes committed by drunken people had grown 35 percent over the previous years. One crime of three was committed by intoxicated individuals. Khinstein pointed out that a helpless person who lies in the street is a great catch for criminals of any kind. Every year from eight to ten thousand people die as a result of hypothermia. Most of them were in a state of severe intoxication. As a consequence many regions started to create an independent system of sobering stations, which now operate on the basis of health care facilities in 20 regions of the Russian Federation. But their operational principles are completely different: some of them are municipal or regional and some of them are public. Khinstein indicates that today, there are six specialized institutions in the Samara region, in all towns with populations of 100,000 people and more. They work on the basis of state healthcare facilities. For example, last year more than 2,100 people were delivered to them. Khinstein assured his colleagues that there are less alcohol-related crimes in the places where sobering stations operate then in the places without them. Moreover, today the police can deliver a drunken person only to healthcare institutions, Khinstein adds. But according to statistics, 75 percent of intoxicated people delivered from public places to the stations did not need any medical assistance. Alexei Didenko, the chairman of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), has also supported the bill and reminded that leaving outside helpless intoxicated individuals in the cold severe winter may end up with their death or amputation. And limb amputation costs millions of rubles to the Russian budget. At the same time Didenko says that the bill has to be amended in order to give town councils the right of option to establish the sobering stations. The deputies did not object to the idea of reviving the stations. They were very concerned about the additional authorities that the police might receive. The main question was: wouldn't that help the law enforcement agencies to abuse their powers? Maxim Ivanov (United Russia) recalled that such an experience had already taken place in Soviet times when the so-called “police cruisers” had driven around the districts and collected both adequate and inadequate people. Gennady Onishchenko (United Russia) asked to explain the obvious lobbying of the Interior Ministry. Alexey Kurinny (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) had a question about the mechanism of public-private partnership. On what grounds will investors invest money? Khinstein explained that unified rules approved by the government would be adopted. He supposes that these rules may also include prices for such services. In the minds of the bill authors they will cost about 2,000 rubles. Khinstein believes if a private investor takes over this function in a certain region, there is nothing wrong with it. But it is the government that will set the payment. Khinstein also claimed that no right for physical force would be delegated to investors. Such institutions will employ the stuff of private security companies who operate in accordance with the Federal Act on Private Security Services. They will get the right to call the police officers and hand them over hooligans. Besides, there was no lobbying there, Khinstein said. Internal affairs agencies are entrusted with additional responsibilities, which they are not happy about. Khinstein called on the deputies to come to the cities where the system of the sobering stations has been already functioning and to see how it works.