Concerns about the Russian penal system: 2011, March
- Relationship between prison staff and prisoners.
- The latter call the staff “militia” which sends a very bad message – having communicated with, and been supervised by, the militia for years the convicts acquire a hostile attitude which inhibits their rehabilitation.
- Staff, for their part, treat the prisoners as enemies, seeing themselves as being at the frontline of the fight against crime. It is the same in the colonies for women and juveniles.
- The plans for reform are not realistic. Because of the faraway location of many penal colonies it will be difficult, if not impossible, to recruit a new generation of specialists and prison staff within the next ten years.
- No rehabilitation and training programs for prisoners:
- The prisoners are just doing time: there are no programs to meet their needs, to develop their personality; the work they do is petty and virtually unpaid ($5 to $30 USD per month); at best prisoners are obliged to listen to lectures for few hours a day during the whole time that they are in prison.
- Inhumane living conditions:
- MCPR is working closely with two female colonies and in both of those we had women prisoners who were released after a year or two having suffered a 20 per cent loss of weight.
- Cold: some dormitories in one colony are dilapidated barracks not heated properly. Prisoners have to sleep dressed; in another female colony women are not allowed to put on their own clothes to keep warm (the nightgown issued as a part of the female uniform is the same for all geographical regions and climates); roll calls in some colonies in the northern regions are held outdoors even at 40 degrees below zero, sometimes for 30 min and longer.
- Communication with the outside world: in one of the aforementioned female colonies the shortage of censors means that prisoners’ letters cannot be mailed.
- Geography as additional punishment – prisoners are serving sentences thousands kilometers away from home.
- No effective social work:
- With very few social workers and badly overcrowded penal colonies (there may be one, two, or three social workers for every 1,500-2,000 prisoners), prisoners have virtually nobaccess to social workers; the latter have the lowest status and salaries among prison staff.
- “Units of social adaptation” where prisoners are sent for a time before their release, are a profanation of the idea – prisoners are not involved in any activities except work for beautification of the colony.
- The early release system does not work properly:
- The system is very corrupt, but even corruption “does not work” in some colonies and prisoners are simply not released early on parole.
- Because early release is very much dependent on whether or not the prisoner has accumulated any penalties, he becomes a slave of the prison administration, which can manipulate him as it wishes.That was recognized by the Prison Service Director as well, and a Task group has been setup to develop proposals on its reform.
- The complaints procedure does not work:
- Prisoners often complain that their letters to the controlling authorities are not let out of the colony by its administration
- Complaints to prosecutors charged with supervising observance of the law in prisons are not effective because local prosecutors (as well as judges and prison authorities) are very much part of the local/regional elite and therefore will not act against the interests of that elite.
- If a prisoner complains to the outside authorities, he or she can be penalized.
- Public oversight commissions:
- These also are too dependent upon the local elite in the regions, GoNGOs and law enforcement authorities – the latter have infiltrated the commissions via veterans’ pseudo-NGOs, as opposed to genuine human rights NGOs.
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