The Conference of Prison Personnel and Human Rights Champions
Perm, 10-12/10/2000
A conference of prison personnel and human rights champions
will be held from October 10 to 12, 2000 in the city of Perm (North Urals) The
full name of the conference is “Reform of Criminal Justice and Penal System
– a Joint Field of Activities for the Penal Services and the NGOs”
The situation as it has developed in the Russian penal system
causes alarm and anxiety among Russsia’s NGOs and the authorities. At present
there are about a million prisoners is Russia, some 100 thousand of them
afflicted with an open form of tuberculosis, with more that 10 thousand dying
annualy (2.5 thousand of them – before trial). Four million Russian citizens
have passed through pre-trial detention facilities and penal institutions in the
past ten years. A considerable part of them have become invalids, have been
released mentally damaged, with considerable loss of health. Russian penal
institutions have turned into a source of danger on a planetary scale, where a
new formidable disease has made its appearance, to spread and spill over into
free society – a multi-drug resistant form of tuberculosis (MDR TB). The World
Health Organisation has pronounced MDR TB to be the chief infectious disease of
the 21st century, and Russia – the main source of the rise and spread of this
deathly sickness. The scope of the steadily mounting tuberculous epidemic in the
Russian penal system is such that procrastination with the adoption of urgent
and effective measures may lead to consequences comparable with those of the
Chernobyl catastrophy.
The main cause of the situation as developed in the criminal
justice and penal system is the state’s ineffective and ruinous criminal
policy. It has led to an unjustified growth of the number of prisoners. One
eighth of the Earth’s entire prison population is behind bars in Russian
prisons and camps (colonies), while the Russians make up a mere fortieth part of
mankind.
Following the transfer of the penal system from the Interior
Ministry to the Ministry of Justice of the RF (1998), the leadership of this
ministry came out with the initiative of cardinally changing the criminal policy
of the Russian state. It elaborated a program of measures towards reducing the
number of prisoners. Concrete steps taken by the Justice Ministry’s Chief
Penal Board (CPB) have already produced the first positive results: in the
summer of this year Russia’s prison population diminished by 117 thousand. For
the first time since the Stalinist GULAG Russia has ceded prison leadership to
the USA. At present Russia has 655 prisoners per 100,000 population, while the
USA has more than 700. May this year saw the approval in the first reading of a
CPB draft bill, which is being supported by Russia’s NGOs. Given its passage
(which is expected before the year is out) the number of Russia’s prisoners by
the year 2001 will drop to about 650,000 (400 per 100,000 population).
Russian penal institutions are becoming increasingly
permeable and open to human rights activists and journalists. The CPB’s
leadership is well aware that the implementation of the planned reforms requires
not only changes in the legislation, but a social reform as well. Yet the latter
is impossible without the involvement in the process of institutions of civilian
society.
The CPB position meets with increasing understanding on the
part of the NGOs. Actions conducted since 1998 by the MCPR and other NGOs are
aimed at launching a broad campaign of political and public support of reformer
forces. Together with other NGOs, the Center is conducting since the end of last
year a public campaign in support of a Justice Ministry bill which envisages a
considerable curtailment of the number of prisoners. It is called “Halt the
Prison Chernobyl”. More than six thousand people from different regions of
Russia have already taken part in it, sending post-cards to State Duma deputies.
The Perm conference will be another event in the support campaign to reformers
in the Justice Ministry.
The conference will give much attention to the prospects for
setting up state-run and public services of pre-prison and post-prison aid and
relief. It is understood that reduction of the prison population on account of
relaxing the criminal policy alone, can hardly be a lasting and stable
proposition. Slowing the flow at the entrance to the penal system and speeding
up the outflow (especially during the first years) is bound to raise the number
of people whose plight will drive them to law-breaking again, hence to a growth
of crime. It is not difficult to predict in this case the response of the
population, followed by that of the politicians, to relaxation of criminal
policy. This is why the Russian state and society should take urgent measures
already now to create a network of services capable of rendering effective aid
to those sentenced to non-custodial punishments, and those released from
custody.
An important item on the conference’s agenda will be a
discussion on developing penal institution-NGO cooperation. The conference will
begin with a round-table debate “Penal Services and the NGOs: from
Confrontation to Cooperation”. The round-table is to be held in one of the
colonies situated in Perm, and convicts of the Perm region are expected to take
part in the debate.
On October 7 the opening ceremony of an exhibition “Human
Being and Prison” will take place. The first display of this exhibition took
place in December 1998, on the eve of the half-centenery of the General
Declaration of Human Rights. In the past two years the travelling version of the
exhibition has visited five Russian cities where it was attended by some 60,000
people. The exhibition has twice been displayed in the Lower House of Parliament
(Duma), and, by expert assessement, it made a deep impression on deputies, and
played no little role in the fact that they voted unanimously for adopting the
Resolution on Amnesty 2000, and passed at first reading the Justice Ministry
bill aimed at considerably slashing the number of prisoners.
The main sections of the exhibition are as follows:
- Russian Prisons Seen from Within.
- Criminal and Prison Statistics.
- Letters by prisoners and Their Relatives.
- Unique Photographs, Exhibits, Books Related to the Prison. World of Russia
and the Fates of Inmates, and Perhaps the Fate of Russia Herself.
During the exhibition books and booklets issued by the Center
about Russia’s prisons and colonies, about human rights, etc., will be
disseminated.
The Perm conference and exhibition are being held in the
framework of the Center’s “The Human Being and Prison” Project. Other
initiators of the events to be held are: the Perm Regional Human-Rights Center;
the CPB, RF Ministry of Justice; the Regional Administration of Perm. Taking
part in the opening ceremony will be the Vice-Governor of Perm Region and other
high-ranking officials. “The Human Being and Prison” Project enjoys the
financial support of the Ford Foundation (USA), the IOO (Soros Foundation), the
ACER-RUSSIE (France).
The results of the conference will be further promoted in
November during discussions to be held in the framework of the permanent version
of the “Man and Prison” exhibition which is going to be launched at the
Polytechnical Museum (in the centre of Moscow) from November 1 to December 1.
Abbreviations:
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WHO – World Health Organisation.
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MDR TB – multi-drug resistant tuberculosis
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MCPR – Moscow Center for Prison Reform (Center)
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CPB – Chief Penal Board, RF Ministry of Justice
-
NGO – Non-Governmental Organisation
