MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) - Russia's children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov has addressed federal officials requesting an obligatory life-long administrative supervision of convicted pedophiles after they served their sentence, Izvestia reports Wednesday.

Astakhov claims that after release from prison, pedophiles relapse in 98% cases.

Currently, the term of administrative oversight of convicted child molesters cannot exceed the term after which conviction is removed from records as set by the law, Astakhov told Izvestia. “The supervision term of a released criminal convicted for sexual intercourse with a child under 16 is three years. If the child involved was under 12, the supervision term is eight years.” The ombudsman believes that the term is too short in most pedophile cases and the ex-convicts must be supervised throughout the rest of their life.

Earlier, Astakhov already proposed a similar initiative but the government responded that there are no sufficient resources to supervise child abusers for life.

At present, pedophiles can be sentenced to life in Russia if they are repeat offenders, in which case they may also face chemical castration. First-time offenders face a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars, even if their actions led to the death of a child.

In December 2014, Anton Belyakov, a member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, submitted a bill to the State Duma that introduces post-prison supervision for child molesters.

Under the bill, obligatory oversight for child molesters would be introduced after they have served their sentences. They would be obliged to wear ankle monitors so the police could track their whereabouts. The bill also proposes establishing a common database of known child molesters and obliging police to inform people about their neighbors who had served prison sentences for child molestation.

Moreover, this February, Belyakov submitted to the State Duma a bill to cancel parole for people imprisoned for sexual offences against children.

In some countries, pedophiles are released on parole only if they agree to undergo chemical castration. They are also closely watched by parole officers. The United States has a special system for warning people about released sexual offenders in their neighborhood. Their photographs are posted on open-access resources, and in some states information about these people must be placed on their homes or apartments.