Russia: Stop the prison reform

Human rights position on the reform of the Russian penitentiary system
Memorandum

1. The new leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (FSIN) is trying to take certain steps towards improving the absolutely scandalous situation that had developed by 2009 in the penitentiary system, and is entering into a dialogue with civil society.
However, the situation in FSIN institutions is very complex, often tragic. A new attempt at reforming the penitentiary system, the most important in recent decades, is beginning in Russia. Like all previous attempts, its concept was not publicly discussed in advance, civil society was not involved in its preparation, and no independent expertise was conducted.
The reason for the reform was the clear and comprehensive crisis of the existing penal enforcement agency and the entire complex related to the administration of justice and the resocialisation of convicts. One of the symptoms of this crisis was the rise in collective protest actions by prisoners. A significant part of these actions took place in an exclusively non-violent form – prisoners, sometimes up to several hundred people simultaneously, inflicted wounds upon themselves.
Starting the new penitentiary reform, the leadership of the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Penitentiary Service publicly described the existing penal system as the heir to the Stalinist camp system, and acknowledged the fact that it is prisoners close to the administration (“activists”) who are the basic cause of the dominance of cruelty and arbitrariness.

2. Human rights defenders, while preparing review reports on the situation in places of detention in previous years, noted that despite improvements and the construction of detention facilities, conditions in many are on the verge of being torture-like. Among the places of detention or individual sections within specific institutions, special torture zones (or “press-zones”) were identified, the number of which, judging by the data from monitoring prisoner and relative complaints, is currently around 50. The main task of these “press-zones” is to force prisoners to give the necessary testimony, to self-incriminate and implicate others, and to break them psychologically.
The main cause of the most gross violations of human rights in places of detention was the so-called “activ” – members of the “sections of discipline and order” formally disbanded since the beginning of 2010, the activities of which were overtly unconstitutional in nature and most of all resembled the functions of “kapos” in Nazi camps.
Administrative officials, theoretically called upon to facilitate the resocialisation of convicts, understand their duties as the need to pit groups of prisoners against each other and create networks of informants. The liquidated “sections of discipline and order” were transformed into other “voluntary” associations, for example, “firefighters” – with practically the same opportunities for the “activ” to dominate other prisoners.
Furthermore, it is very important to note that the subordination of medical institutions in places of detention to the penitentiary agency creates conditions for the concealment of prisoners’ illnesses and impunity regarding negligent treatment.

3. In addition to the disenfranchisement of prisoners, it is important to note the social vulnerability of administrative staff, primarily at the lower level, which accordingly affects personnel policy and serves as a pretext for many of them for cruelty and indifference to suffering, and to a huge extent contributes to total corruption, including participation in drug trafficking in places of detention.

4. The fundamental reason for the cultivation of disenfranchisement, institutionalised cruelty, and the complete closed nature of “torture zones” is the state’s war against the so-called criminal subculture. This war has all the hallmarks of the ideological wars of totalitarian regimes, including the widespread and systematic use of torture, including beatings, long-term confinement in punishment cells, and homosexual rape – with the aim of forcing prisoners to commit acts incompatible with their concept of human dignity and social status, for example, to wear the red armband of an “activist”, to wash a latrine out of turn and off-schedule, to wash a toilet bowl with a toothbrush, to wash the floor in the headquarters…
However, ideological warfare cannot in any way be a task of the penitentiary system in a democratic society.
It should be noted that the current version of the prison reform is perceived precisely as a new stage of this war.

5. Formally, the new reform provides for the separation of first-time convicts from repeat offenders.

In practice, these measures have already led to large-scale transfers of prisoners to other colonies. The result has been gross violations of the rights of convicts:
- contrary to the increasingly violated, but nevertheless, as a rule, observed principle of serving a sentence sufficiently close to the place of residence, convicts end up in remote regions, which, among other things, severely complicates visits from relatives and places them in unfamiliar climatic conditions;
- because it is a tradition of the administration of many places of detention to “ritually” beat newly arrived transportees of convicts – for intimidation and psychological breaking, the simultaneous transfer of tens of thousands of prisoners was accompanied by a literal stream of reports about reprisals and abuse.
6. The main result of the initiated reform should be the liquidation of general and strict regime colonies and the transfer of repeat offenders, whom the prison officials consider committed to the criminal subculture, to prisons, where conditions are much worse than in a camp. At the same time, the personality of the convict and his moral qualities will be completely ignored.

7. Despite authorities declaring support for public oversight, attempts to hollow it out are constantly being made. Thus, quite recently, an amendment was proposed to the law defining the rights of visitors, which requires excluding the possibility of confidential communication between prisoners and visitors, which, in essence, would make public oversight a fiction.

8. For the gradual resolution of problems in the penitentiary system and the creation of systemic conditions ensuring the observance of the rights and legitimate interests of prisoners, we, first of all, propose that the initiated reform of the penitentiary system, which is accompanied by gross human rights violations, be suspended.
The following must be guaranteed:
• the mandatory stay of convicts no further than a certain distance from home, with the provision at state expense of partial compensation for travel to visits for close relatives with low incomes;
• confidentiality of communication between prisoners and visitors and the practical implementation of the right of deputies at all levels to visit with the powers of public observers;
• regular communication of prisoners with home, including through the widespread installation of telephones in places of detention;
• social protection of prisoners and the creation of conditions for resocialisation and moral isolation of criminal authorities through the formation of brigades for remunerated labour, with the mandatory conclusion of collective agreements with convicts. Equipping workshops in colonies with equipment, including on a leasing basis;
• social protection of administrative staff through the conclusion of collective agreements and the extension of benefits and guarantees for law enforcement officers to them, including housing provision.

9. Within the framework of a consistent reform of the penitentiary system, which has the goal of humanisation and resocialisation, it will be necessary to take the following fundamental measures:
- significantly lower the threshold of the severity of illnesses and expand the list of those for which prisoners are released from custody, as well as extend these criteria to all suspects and defendants;
- mandatory life and health insurance for prisoners, according to the standards of insurance for military personnel, entering into force at the moment the decision to deprive them of liberty is made for the entire period of imprisonment;
- the transfer of medical personnel of penitentiary institutions to the Ministry of Health and Social Development, with the extension of social benefits for law enforcement officers to them;
- the FSIN of Russia, its regional offices, and the administration of specific places of detention should be tasked with carrying out educational and vocational training for prisoners, including with a view to future employment and continuing education. The administration will be required to collect job offers and bring them to the attention of convicts.

10. The basis of the FSIN reform should be a radical personnel reform, taking into account the experience of the currently initiated police reform – re-certification, checking for psychological fitness, and knowledge of the fundamentals of law. Independent specialists must necessarily participate in the expertise. Based on the results of the examinations, all those employees who are potentially prone to violence and humiliation should be dismissed.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group,
Chair of the Board of the “For Prisoners’ Rights” Foundation

Lev Ponomarev, Executive Director of the All-Russian Public Movement “For Human Rights”,
Deputy Chair of the Board of the “For Prisoners’ Rights” Foundation

Valery Borshchev, Member of the Moscow Helsinki Group
25 May 2010