We learned that it was opened in 1940 in order to remove from these other labour
colonies those who were unable to work effectively because of TB. The principle concern
was their separation from the other prisoners and there was scant concern for whether they
lived or died. It was suggested to us by colony staff
that the authorities in those days hoped the prisoners would die because they no longer
useful.
Information given to us before the visit indicated that the colony was overcrowded (62% over capacity) and had
insufficient money for food and medicines. The situation we found was even worse. Although
established to hold prisoners from other nearby institutions, it used to serve as the TB colony for 19 regions of Russia. It cannot now cope with
all the TB-infected prisoners from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. A further 1,000 are awaiting
places and currently held in other colonies.
They are indeed very short of food and medicines, and also of medical staff. The food
allowance has been reduced and is well below what is needed for TB patients. The supply of
medicines is wholly inadequate. The medical staff is 40% short. One doctor should deal
with 30 patients, the chef medical officer reported, but at patient they each deal with
120. There are actually 11 doctors in all and 8 lower level physicians. There are also 2
renal specialists and one bacteriologist. The full complement of doctors and physicians
should be 40 instead of the current 22.
The Chief Medical Officer reported that not only are they short of food, medicines and
staff but they do not have the equipment to test the prisoners' health adequately. However
she said that overcrowding was the main problem. Each TB patient should officially have 4
m2 of space; at present they have 1.7 m2. Every 6th or 7th
person in the pre-trial institutions (SIZO) becomes ill
as a result of overcrowding and this inflates the number of new admissions.
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