Press conference of the Prison Portal

A press conference dedicated to the activities of the ‘Prison Portal’ website was held at the press centre of the ‘Ukrainian News’ information agency. As noted in the press release distributed to journalists, “events in institutions of the penal system have always caused, and continue to cause, heightened interest from society and journalists. Reports about events in prisons and problems within the system are appearing more and more frequently in Ukrainian media. Often, such reports lack accuracy and specificity regarding the penal system, knowledge of the system’s realities, or simply statistical data. Questions often arise:
How many people are sitting in prisons in our country?
How many individuals are released each year?
Where can one turn for help if someone ends up behind bars?
How can one appeal to international human rights institutions?
Does the administration of penal institutions violate human rights?”
Answers to these and many other questions can now be found on the ‘Prison Portal’ – http://www.ukrprison.org.ua
This website was created by the public human rights organisation ‘Donetsk Memorial’ with the financial support of the ‘Renaissance’ International Foundation.
The ‘News’ section contains information about recent events, in particular, instances of violations of convicts’ rights. Information for which there is no certainty of accuracy is marked with a special note.
The ‘Legislation of Ukraine’ section contains the texts of laws and codes, knowledge of which is useful not only for those who have ended up behind bars.
The site also contains international documents, even those that are not very widely known, including the texts of the reports of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture based on the results of their visits to Ukraine, as well as Council of Europe recommendations on specific problems of criminal justice.
The site also contains a list of all institutions of the penal system with their addresses and certain statistical information about the system.
The ‘Correspondence’ section contains examples of correspondence between public organisations and government institutions. Their responses are sometimes all too eloquent. Placed here, for example, is a letter to the Minister of Justice, in which the head of the agency sends greetings regarding the rewarding for exemplary service of certain department leaders who had committed gross violations of the Constitution and the law, which is also confirmed by court decisions.
Examples of court decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and national courts may also be of interest to visitors to the site.
The ‘Prison Portal’ has been operating for half a year, and its sections are still being filled. The site’s authors will be sincerely grateful to everyone who visits the portal for their attention to a very specific side of reality – prison life. Unlike any prison, the portal’s doors are always open.