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Criminal Justice System
legislation; legal, social and economic institutions; bodies
of judicial and executive authority; services and departments protecting
citizens and society from crime, prosecuting and penalizing offenders,
preventing crimes and rehabilitating released prisoners.
CCS
criminal corrections system: legislation; juridical, social
and economic institutions, departments, services, bodies carrying out correction
of offenders.
CE
Council of Europe.
Colony
see PKT.
Correctional
Labor Code of the Russian Federation
a code defining legal status of prisoners in Russia. There
are corresponding codes in countries of the former USSR.
Deviate behavior
behavior which does not conform with norms, rules of
behavior, ideas, stereotypes, expectations, precepts and values common in
society.
Detachment
is a structural division of the colony
that includes between 100 to 200 inmates. There can be two to five brigades in
one detachment. A detachment is divided into squads of 20 to 30 prisoners. The
detachment is normally housed in a local zone.
DIZOs
disciplinary segregation cell, are cells for the detention of
violators of internal rules of educational labor colonies. They differ from ShiZOs
by softer regime of detention. The maximum term of incarceration in a DIZO is
ten days (versus 15 days in ShiZOs).
Disciplinary
battalions
special military detachments for
servicemen who committed military crimes. This is a closed type institution.
EPKT
(the Russian abbreviation for cell-type premises). These
institutions are not stipulated in the legislation. There is only a PKT
there — a structural division in a ITU. EPKT
is under the jurisdiction of the regional Department of Corrections. The first EPKT
was set up in the early 1980s in the Usolsk Administration of Timber
Correctional Labor Colonies in the Northern Urals in the former prisoners
transit transporting center as an experiment. Among prisoners it is known as
“White Swan”. In 1988, at the order of MVD Minister A.V.Vlasova,
these institutions were established in seven more GULITU
administrations.
What is the difference between PKT and EPKT?
When a prisoner is placed in a PKT, he is not transferred
from his PKT, he is supervised by the same head of the detachment,
he contacts only with inmates of his PKT where he serves his
sentence, he has the same mail address etc. If a prisoner is sentenced to EPKT,
he is transported to another town, sometimes to another region, which is, in
fact, almost equal to transferring a prisoner to a prison-type institution.
According to the program developed by the MVD, EPKT
is designed for “isolating prisoners actively opposing ITU’s
administration in maintaining order”. For this purpose the legislation
stipulates prison-type institutions. But only a court can sentence an inmate
“actively opposing ITU’s administration” to the prison
regime, while to send a prisoner to EPKT, which does not
differ much from a prison-type institution, only a decision of the ITU’s
director is necessary.
Thus, one of the aims of the experiment is to create
possibilities for penitentiary workers to act outside laws and without any
control over their activity. There are some more advantages for ITUs’
staff in the existence of EPKT and LPUs.
These institutions help them to manipulate statistics. For example, since
placement in a LPU officially is not considered a
disciplinary punishment, it is possible to vary the number of disciplinary
violations committed in an PKT, changing the proportion of
those places in PKT (and ShiZO) and LPU.
EPKT can provide the same possibilities to vary the number
of convicts “actively opposing ITU’s administration”
for whom the form of punishment was changed.
There are also several more purposes which these half-legal
“experimental”, not even mentioned in the MVD program, institutions
serve. In secret MVD instructions, EPKTs are called
“preventive centers to corrupt negatively minded prisoners”. As far as we
can judge on documents which turned out to be at our disposal, these centers
serve the following purposes:
To recruit informers, agents and instigators for operative
services. Those recruited are then sent to ITUs and work for
operative-searching services on the outside.
To conduct operative activity among prisoners suspected in
unrevealed crimes in order to initiate criminal cases.
To frighten prisoners in common penitentiary institutions. A
threat to be placed to an EPKT is a very effective means to
influence prisoners who are not in favor of the ITU’s
administration.
It is obvious, that in EPKT investigation
is carried out in the violation of any procedural norms established by law for
an ordinary investigation. To recruit agents and reveal a crime “various forms
of psychological and regime influence” are used in EPKT.
This is professional slang of operative workers for various latent methods of
extracting confessions, necessary information or changing behavior of the object
of the operative activity in a certain direction. These methods include not only
”educational conversations”, but press-cells, tortures, and beatings. It
should be pointed out that the number of leaders of “negatively minded
groups” was steadily growing during the EPKT’s
existence. As a result of the “corruptive work” society receives completely
degraded people able to commit any violent crime.
Especially
dangerous repeat offenders (EDR)
The offender can be declared an EDR by the court if he/she
has served a few terms (for serious crimes or those committed while in prison —
for a single sentence served). They are assigned to more restricted and harsh
regimes of detention than that of other prisoners, they wear striped uniforms
and are not subject to be released on parole. Frequently, people who have fallen
under this category are not of much danger to the society (such as pickpockets).
GDP
Gross Domestic Product.
GUIN
the Russian abbreviation for The Main Directorate of
Corrections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is the department that
supervises the majority of Russian penitentiary institutions. GUIN governs penal
institutions through the regional departments of correctional institutions. In
republics they are established under the republican ministries of internal
affairs, in regions and krais — under the corresponding departments of
internal affairs. The regional departments are normally called Service of
Corrections and Social Rehabilitation at the regional Department of Internal
Affairs, sometimes they are called departments of corrections. The number of
penal institutions in different regions range between 10 and 50.
The former names of GUIN:
GULAG, Main Directorate of Camps (1930s —
1950s);
GUITK, Main Directorate of Correctional
Labor Colonies (the end of the 1950s);
GUITU, Main Directorate of Correctional
Labor Institutions (the early 1960s — the mid-1980s);
GUID, Main Department of Corrections
(until the end of the 1980s);
GULAG, 1) The Main Directorate of Labor Camps. This was name
of the soviet system of concentration camps and appeared in the 1930s.
2) A general name for the soviet system of extermination of
people and suppression of any dissent (sometimes — for similar systems in
other totalitarian countries. This name became commonly used by the
international community after the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel
"GULAG Archipelago".
3) The name of the present penitentiary systems in the
countries of the former USSR that is used by journalists and human rights
activists, because the modern system remains much the same as before, despite
some significant changes made since Stalin's period.
GULITU
the Russian abbreviation for the Main Directorate of Timber
Correctional Labor Institutions, is a division of the federal (since 1992,
Russian) MVD supervising timber departments. Unlike the regional
departments, the timber departments are directly subordinate to GULITU
(departments of "central" subordination). There were not these
directorates in republics of the former USSR. Since 1995, directorates of timber
ITUs have been transferred under the supervision of regional
departments of internal affairs. In early 1996 there were 158 timber ITUs.
PKT
(the Russian abbreviation for correctional labor colony)
is a general name for colony type institutions for adult
offenders. ITKs are divided into the following types of
security regimes:
 a
minimum security ("general regime") colony for
male non-violent, first time offenders, and for all female offenders except
those found to be "especially dangerous re-offenders" by the court;
a
medium security ("strengthened regime") colony
for males convicted for the first time for serious crimes;
a
medium to maximum security ("strict regime") colony
for male and female "especially dangerous repeat offenders";
a
maximum security ("special regime") colony for
"especially dangerous male repeat offenders";
open-prison
settlements that are institutions of the half closed type for those convicted
for the first time for non-premeditated crimes and for prisoners, who have been
transferred from minimum, medium and medium to maximum security-colonies by the
decision of the court. ITKs of various security levels differ
according to detention conditions and restrictions.
There are also specialized ITKs for
offenders suffering from tuberculosis and for invalids, Timber ITKs
(see the section on Russia), ITKs for former law enforcement
officers. The administration of ITKs and pre-trial detention
centers decide whether to send a convict to a specialized PKT
or a prison hospital.
The regime of detention (the number of parcels, visits,
telephone calls, etc. allowed by law) increases from minimum to maximum security
colonies. In maximum security colonies inmates are held in locked cells (from 20
to 50 people in each), in other colonies prisoners are housed in dormitories
(convicts call them "barracks"). Sleeping rooms in dormitories are
designed for 20 to 50 inmates, beds are of two to three tiers. Apart from
sleeping rooms in dormitories, every 150 to 200 convicts that make up a "detachment"
are provided with:
room
to store personal belongings;
cloakroom
(for outer garments);
room
to take meals (there is a device for boiling water and cupboards for food);
"red
little corner" (the former name for this room was "Lenin's room")
which is the room to hold political educational and cultural events; there are
tables, bookshelves, radio (not a transistor), television set (if it is
available), sometimes a toilet (it is quite rare that there is a sewage system
in ITKs). The law stipulates a minimum living space of 2 sq.
meters per person. In colonies of all security levels, except those of maximum
security, there is a small fenced yard for walks (the so-called "local
zone") that is designed to take 200 to 600 people. In the daytime, the
prisoner is allowed to spend his/her leisure time there. As to the rest of the
territory of the colony, prisoners can move across it only
in formation with the permission of the administration. The number of prisoners
in one colony ranges from 500 to 3,000 (normally, between
1,500 and 2,000).
ITKs
are divided into industrial and living zones. These zones are
separated by fences and rows of barbed wire and between them there is a corridor
that sometimes is shot through by the guards. The living zone is separated into
a few local zones where dormitories are located. In
the territory of the living zone, there usually is a canteen, club, library,
school, medical unit (sometimes a small hospital for 10 to 30 patients), bathing
house and headquarters with premises for administration officers. Normally,
there are rooms for short-term (from two to four hours) and long-term visits.
Every PKT has separate units for
disciplinary punishment. ShiZOs (the Russian abbreviation)
are punishment cells used for short-term detention periods of up to 15 days and PKTs
(the Russian abbreviation) are the internal prisons of colonies, where inmates
are kept for up to six months. Before 1988 inmates in ShiZOs
and PKTs received reduced rations of food. Other restrictions
included prisoners' daily walks, correspondence, books, smoking, parcels and
bedding. In 1992 some of these restrictions were abolished in Russia.
ITU hospitals
are for convicts who require serious treatment or
examination. Almost all regional and timber ITU directorates
have their own hospitals. These hospitals have separate departments for
prisoners of different security levels and for women and juveniles. Prisoners
are kept in cells in ITU hospitals.
ITUs
(the Russian abbreviation) are correctional labor
institutions, where those who received prison sentences serve their terms. ITUs
include ITUs of various types including VTKs,
LTPs (refer to items below) and prisons.
IVSs
(the Russian abbreviation) are administrative detention
centers for those suspected of committing a crime. The term of detention in
these centers is not supposed to exceed three days, but can be prolonged by up
to 10 days and in some cases by up to 30 days. An arrestee can either be
released or transferred to a pre-trial detention center according to the
procurator's sanction. IVSs used to be called KPZs
(preliminary detention cell). In most Russian regions IVSs
house from 10% to 30% of pre-trial prisoners.
Khimia
(Chemistry) is an unofficial name for one type of criminal
punishment. There are two official names: suspended sentence or conditional
release with obligatory labor. This type of punishment is related to the
transportation to so-called special commandant's headquarters (see the
Glossary), where the prisoner is assigned to live in a special dormitory and to
work at an enterprise that frequently has bad and harmful conditions. Between
1992 and 1993 this punishment was abolished because of the breakdown of the
economy.
Local zones
are sections of the living zone separated by fence; they are
designed for one or two detachments of prisoners to
reduce contacts between inmates and prevent incidents of massive disorder.
LPU
(the Russian abbreviation) is a local preventive zone. This
is a special zone in an ITU, as MVD officers assert,
designed “for persistent violators of the colony’s
internal regulations”. LPUs — they think —
allow “to reduce negative influence of more criminal prisoners on others”.
In many ITUs, LPUs are just cell-type
premises. Establishing an LPU in every institution is “one
of the main directions” of the concept of the CCS
reforming developed by the MVD. By 1995, LPUs were
established in 300 institutions. Both objectively and subjectively, placement in
an LPU is a punishment for a prisoner. Isolation is more
strict there, prisoner’s possibilities to move about the ITU’s
territory and choice of work are limited. Latent means of suppressing prisoners
such as bringing in OMON fighters and mass beatings, and so
called “methods of degrading work with prisoners”, to which we will refer
later, are often used there.
Current Correctional Labor Code stipulates ShiZOs
and PKTs for the same purposes that are “for isolation
persistent violators of the colony’s internal
regulations. There is no need to establish them — they are in each ITU.
Why to invent a bicycle again, to create something illegal while it is already
stipulated by law.?
It will be easier to find an answer to this question if to
take into account that placement in a ShiZO or a PKT
is a punishment for a certain disciplinary violation or violations which entail
procedural actions (drawing up a statement and a document about committed
violation, inquiring the accused prisoners etc. This punishment can be appealed
in accordance with the order established by law. Besides, the time spent in ShiZOs
and PKTs is strictly restricted (15 days at a time and two
months within a year in ShiZO, and six months in PKT).
It requires neither offense nor any procedures to place an inmate in a LPU
since it is not stipulated by the law. It is not limited in time and cannot be
appealed by a prisoner. Probably, this is the reason why establishing LPUs
is considered “one of the main directions” in the MVD program.
MCPR
Moscow Center for Prison Reform.
Military
detention centers (gauptvakhty)
facilities at military units, which hold both penalized
military service men and those suspected of committing military crimes.
OID
(the Russian abbreviation) is department of corrections.
OMON
special purpose detachments of the
militia, are the units of the Russian militia, organized to carry out especially
difficult assignments, such as fighting against organized crime, prevention of
mass disorders, arresting armed criminals, etc.). The prisoners often call
"OMON" the special purpose detachments
established by regional departments of penal institutions to suppress mass
riots, release hostages etc. Since 1991, these detachments
have been used for preventive purposes to threaten prisoners in those colonies
where there is an alarming situation.
Operative-searching
activity
activity of militia bodies conducting preliminary work with
the offense:
coming
to a place of crime;
drawing
up documents about the offense;
revealing
offenders (searching);
processing
documents in order to pass them to investigation.
Operative
service
an MVD structural division conducting investigation
and preventing crimes. It widely uses agents in its work. In every ITU
and SIZO there is an operative unit which should control
the atmosphere in the institution, prevent crimes and conflicts, reveal crimes
committed earlier and collect information about criminal world authorities. An
operative unit has a great number of agents among prisoners (according to some
sources from 2% to 5% of all prison population: informers and instigators;
widely uses latent methods of suppressing prisoners (setting people against each
other, press-cells etc.).
Penology
1. A science on criminal punishment; 2. A science on methods
and technology of administering penitentiary institutions.
PKT
internal colony prison for persistent
violators of internal colony rules. PKTs
are situated in the same building with ShiZO and separated
by fence from the other sections of the colony. Prisoners
who are placed in PKTs are restricted in some rights. By the
1992 law, the maximum term in a PKT is limited to six months.
PVR
(the Russian abbreviation) — internal prison
regulations — is an MVD document defining prison conditions in ITUs.
This very document and 300 MVD instructions rather than Correctional
Labor Code regulate life in penitentiary institutions and establish numerous
norms and limitations not even mentioned in the legislation.
PRI
Penal Reform International
Prisons
are penitentiary institutions for people convicted of serious
crimes or who are sent to prison by the court from ITKs for
persistent violations of the colony's internal regulations. Convicts
serving time in different security levels (minimum, medium, medium to maximum)
are kept in separate blocks of the prison. There used to be special prisons for
those who received prison sentence for serious offenses and for persistent
violators of internal ITU regulations. There is a special
block for disciplinary punishment in every prison.
ShiZO
is a punishment cell or a colony
section where punishment cells are located. The rights of those placed in ShiZO
are significantly restricted. Before 1988 prisoners were given reduced ration of
food (torture of hunger). Apart from that, all the clothes were taken away from
prisoners and instead they were given only thin cotton uniform; they were denied
daily walks, sheets and mattresses, letters, parcels. The harsh conditions in ShiZOs
(cold — in winter and stuffiness — in summer) are often
deliberately created by the administration and contributes to the spread of
tuberculosis. By the 1992 law, many limitations were abolished. Maximum terms
were introduced of not more than 15 days at a time and summary duration of terms
allowed for one year is not more than two months. However, being placed in a
ShiZO is still one of the severest punishments.
SID&SR
Service of Corrections and Social Rehabilitation (until the
beginning of 1992). In many former republics of the USSR these agencies are
called SID&SR of the MVD or UID (MVD Department of
Corrections).
SIZOs
(the Russian abbreviation) are institutions for confining
those awaiting sentencing. As a rule, SIZOs include
separate departments for women, juveniles, first offenders, re-offenders, sick
inmates, those who have received the death sentences and inmates supposed to be
transferred to ITUs. There are also separate cells for
disciplinary punishment in SIZOs.
SPBs
(the Russian abbreviation) are special psychiatric hospitals
for convicts declared insane and those who are seriously mentally disturbed as
well as for those who became mentally ill while serving their sentence terms.
Violent offenders and re-offenders are usually allocated to SPBs by the court.
Non-violent first offenders can be sent to a general psychiatric hospital. In
1988 SPBs were transferred from the jurisdiction of the MVD under the
Ministry of health.
Special
commandant's headquarters
are penitentiary institutions for offenders given a
conditional sentence with the obligation to work and offenders conditionally
released with the obligation to work (i.e. convicts of ITKs
of minimum, medium and medium to maximum levels of security, whose sentences
were mitigated by the court). Convicts at these institutions must live in
special dormitories and work at specified enterprises (often with harmful and
hard working conditions). Offenders, sentenced to this type of punishment are
most often sent to regions far away from their permanent places of residence.
Special
intake institutions
are institutions for "individuals without a permanent
place of residence" or who are suspected of committing a crime and whose
identity should be established.
Special
secondary schools and special vocational schools
are half-open institutions for juvenile offenders. Teenagers
between 11 to 14 years of age are confined in special secondary schools. These
institutions are also for juveniles between 14 and 18 years of age, who have
committed crimes or offenses which entail punishment only for teenagers and
children. Offenses of this type include missing classes, bad conduct at school
or at home, appearing drunk in public places or running away from home. In the
recent past, the majority of juvenile offenders (almost 90%) have been sent to
special secondary schools and special vocational schools by decision of
commissions on juvenile delinquents at the executive commissions of local
soviets. In these cases the majority of juveniles were found guilty without the
representation of lawyers or the usual court proceedings, they did not have the
right to appeal their sentences. The length of the term in these institutions is
arbitrary and can be prolonged by up to three years or even more. Rather often
juveniles serve their terms far from home and this hampers their contacts with
families and relatives. A new order is presently being introduced in Russia
according to which a court will make the decision on whether to send a juvenile
to a special secondary or a special vocational school. These institutions
resemble educational labor colonies by their detention conditions, level of
isolation, social micro climate and compulsory labor.
TPPs
(the Russian abbreviation) are transportation centers for
convicts who are on their way to timber ITUs. Every timber ITU
directorate has a TPP. In those directorates, which have EPKTs,
TPPs and EPKTs are situated in the same building.
UID
department of corrections. See GUIN in
section I of the Glossary.
ULITU
Directorate of timber ITUs, regional
department of the GULITU.
UVD
department of internal affairs, regional division of the MVD.
VTK
is the Russian abbreviation for "educational labor colony".
These are correctional labor institutions resembling camps for juvenile
offenders between 14 to 20 years of age who are sentenced to prison. These
facilities usually hold between 300 and 700 juveniles. Conditions there are much
better than in their counterparts for adults. However, cells for minors in
pre-trial prisons and VTKs are the most vulnerable in terms
of basic human rights. The life, health and personal dignity of juveniles are
not properly protected. Beatings, torture and rape are the daily routine in VTKs.
In VTKs the largest portion of sexually abused persons and
those permanently used as a sexual object is observed: in the 1970s and 1980s
the number of sexually abused reached 30% in some regions.
In VTKs the same zones and functional
premises exist as in those of adult colonies (see "PKT"),
there are also disciplinary punishment cells called DIZOs.
Zone
is a section of correctional labor institutions, separated by
fence from the rest territory. There is, for example, living zone, industrial
zone, local zone and others.
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