The constitutional right to protection of health and medical service is grossly abused
everywhere; standards of nutrition, clothing and bedding established by the Russian
government in 1992 are not observed. Hunger and contagious diseases are common in many
penitentiary institutions. Sanitary and hygienic need are greatly underserved in ITUs (for more details refer to the documents of section 2).
The situation with providing prisoners with the minimum necessary to survive (let alone
observing standards stipulated by law) is catastrophic. It is not surprising:
in 1995 the daily cost of feeding one prisoner was only 4,555 rubles (a
little more than $1). In 1994 the majority of prisoners would have died but for the help
of relatives, friends, charity organizations and local authorities.
It should be noted that the Law of June 12 provided a legal remedy for
this situation. The number of parcels and amount of money inmates can spend on food and
items of basic necessity was increased for all groups of prisoners. But less than a half
of prisoners (49%) received the maximum number of parcels and 11.6% do not receive parcels
at all.
In 1994, only 46% could exercise their right to buy food and items of
basic necessity, 34.2% could buy nothing because they had no money.
We are not surprised. The census of prisoners showed that 52.3% of
prisoners did not receive their salaries on their accounts; 21% had less than 10,000
rubles (about $4); 8.4% from 10,000 to 20,000 rubles; 8% from 20,000 to 40,000; 4.6% from
40,000 to 60,000; 2.4% from 60,000 to 80,000; 1.3% from 80,000 to 100,000; and 2% over
100,000.
Thus, prisoners' economic demands that were generally satisfied in 1991
and 1992, were rarely met in 1993—95 due to ITUs'
inability to provide prisoners with normal paying jobs and poor financing from the federal
budget.
Two more standards which are essential in the present social and
economic situation:
A 10-day term from when sentence comes in force for transporting a
prisoner from a SIZO to an ITU
(art. 14 of the Correctional Labor Code).
In 1994 and 1995, the term stipulated in this article was almost never observed because
the Internal Ministry cannot cover its expenses on transporting prisoners. Some cases are
recorded when prisoners waited one or two months.
