The Society was established in 1995 in Serpukhov, a city near Moscow. The range of its
activities includes legal and humanitarian aid to prisoners, protecting human rights in
custody, co-operating with local SIZO administration to
improve prison conditions.
SOPPU is a small organization with very limited resources. Its activities, however, are
renown far beyond Serpukhov. SOPPU gets letters from prisons and camps from all over
Russia. In 1997, SOPPU received a total of 10,000 letters. The reason the Society is so
popular is that its members try to help everyone who asks for help.
The Society's short-term experience in legal matters was set down in the book “How a
Prisoner Can Protect His Rights”. Its first edition was released in 1996. The book
became very popular among prisoners. It gives detail on how a prisoner can defend his own
rights. What is most valuable, the book offers detailed advice on how a prisoner can file
a civil suit. Until recent times, people regarded courts as punitive agencies, and
prisoners would only appeal to courts for review of their sentences. The book contains
sample complaints, and addresses of NGO’s that deal with prisoners' problems.
Says co-author Irina Kotova: “We don't expect prisoners to tell us only about abuse
in penal institutions. We want them to realise that they can protect their rights
themselves, perhaps with some help and support from us.” Besides mailing the book to
prisoners free of charge, the Society, on behalf of prisoners, brings to the court cases
of prisoners' rights abuse. It succeeded in establishing a number of precedents when court
annulled illegal resolutions and decisions of colony
administration.
In 1997, a new Criminal Code and Criminal Executive Code came into force in Russia. MCPR co-operated in compiling and publishing a new edition of
the book, which allows for the legal innovations.
The establishment and activities of the Society have been propelled by people who know
exactly how penitentiary institutions look like. Society leader Irina Kotova has spent
eight long years in custody on a questionable charge of “economic offense”. At present
her case wouldn't even make for an administrative penalty for improper trade. Since 1990,
Irina Kotova has been a human rights activist. She publishes articles on human rights
abuse in the press.
Another active Society member is former prisoner Vyacheslav Zhuravsky, who spent a
total of 24 years in prison. As a teenager, he was sent to a correctional colony for a petty offence. What followed was something
that prisoners call “getting caught in the works”: where there is one sentence, there
are two. After that judges take no heed of the person or of the charge. Previous offences
are enough. In 1994, Vyacheslav Zhuravsky was pardoned after pleads by MCPR and a number of human rights organisations. Since then,
he has engaged in human rights activities.
In one of her publications, Irina Kotova wrote: “We have both learned from experience
what the dark and horrible sides of our prisons and camps are like. We have breathed the
foul stuffy air of prison cells. We know how little it takes to connote a criminal charge
or sentence. We have suffered abuse at the hands of prison wardens. We know how our
“correction” system can destroy everything that is human in a prisoner... Prison has
ruined our health, both of body and mind. It was thus only natural for both of us to join
the struggle against the injustice and inhumanity of today's GULAG...”
Now Irina Kotova and Vyacheslav Zhuravsky are most respectable citizens. Executive and
legislation authorities are only glad to enlist their services in dealing with the
situation in our penitentiary system. Both are active
correspondents with “OBLAKA” radio broadcast for prisoners.
They take part in very prestigious TV programs and talk-shows.
It makes one wonder just how meaningless, absurd, inhumane can justice be in Russia. By
expert estimates, as many as 20 to 30 percent of sentences passed on serious charges are
unjustified. Human lives are ruined. Ordinary people, not true criminals, get sentence
after sentence. Let's take a closer look: whom do they send to prison in our country? Just
to think how many meaningful and helpful things, how much good to society could have been
done by many of those who are labelled “jailbirds”.
| SOPPU address: 14-3 Bolshaya Katoninnaya Str.,
Serpukhov,
Moscow Oblast, Russia 142201
Fax (27)354470 |
|
