Bila Tserkva Correctional Colony (No. 35)
Bila Tserkva Correctional Colony (No. 35) is a medium-security correctional institution for men sentenced for the first time to a fixed term of imprisonment.
The institution is located in the city of Bila Tserkva, Kyiv region, and is part of the structure of the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine. The history of the institution began in 1945, when a land plot was allocated by the executive committee of the Bila Tserkva City Council for the construction of a prison and residential buildings for personnel.
In the 1950s, a juvenile labour colony functioned on its premises, where professional training of minors was carried out alongside the execution of sentences. In 1960, the institution was re-profiled into a correctional labour colony for adult convicts, and after the reform of the criminal-executive system of Ukraine, it received its current name and status.
Today, the colony performs tasks related to ensuring the execution of criminal sentences, the re-socialisation of convicts, the organisation of social and educational work, vocational training, and engagement in paid labour in accordance with the requirements of the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine.
The institution includes residential quarters, a medical unit, production facilities, disciplinary premises, and other objects of penitentiary infrastructure. Bila Tserkva Correctional Colony has repeatedly been the subject of monitoring visits by the National Preventive Mechanism, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, and representatives of human rights organisations.
During such visits, the conditions of detention of convicts, the provision of the right to work, medical assistance, access to education, social and educational work, disciplinary practices, and other aspects of human rights compliance were assessed. Based on the results of the latest monitoring visits, alongside positive changes, attention was drawn to a number of issues requiring further resolution.
In particular, recommendations concerned the conditions of detention in the quarantine, diagnostic and distribution ward, as well as disciplinary premises; ensuring privacy while using sanitary facilities; improving certain aspects of medical provision; access to information; and specific issues regarding the realisation of the convicts’ right to work.
Human rights organisations have emphasised the need for further bringing the institution’s activities into compliance with the requirements of national legislation and international standards for the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.
Contact information: State Institution “Bila Tserkva Correctional Colony (No. 35)”. Address: 09109, Kyiv region, Bila Tserkva, Vasyl Symonenko Street, 16.
Head: Yevhenii Volodymyrovych Ponochovnyi
Telephone: (04563) 5-12-05
Email: [email protected]