Ten years of supporting initiatives in the field of prison reform

A meeting of NGOs that received financial support from the International Renaissance Foundation this year under the “Human Rights in Penal Institutions” programme took place at the Foundation.

The first initiative supported by the Renaissance Foundation in the sphere of cooperation between NGOs and penal institutions was the holding of an international conference in Donetsk in November 1998, in which NGOs and heads of prison systems from 17 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Asia took part. Following this successful event, the Foundation began annual support for NGOs from 1999, and for a certain period, for penal institutions as well, which were developing cooperation and were concerned with improving conditions for prisoners.
In 2009, within the framework of the “Human Rights in Penal Institutions” competition, the Foundation supported seven organisations that plan to contribute to the efficiency of penal institutions by carrying out their projects, to improve the mechanism of public oversight of institutional activities, and to provide free legal aid to prisoners, in particular, by organising mobile reception offices. The participants of the meeting also discussed urgent issues of developing interaction between penal institutions and bodies and NGOs. Certain hopes for an improvement in this sphere are linked to the change in the department's leadership. The recently appointed head of the department, O. Galinsky, has declared his support for public initiatives.
“Prison Portal” hopes that the progress of these projects will also be covered on the portal.