Behind seven seals

What happens behind the high steel fences of correctional facilities will forever remain a secret behind seven seals for ordinary mortals. However, according to human rights activists, discipline in Kazakhstani prisons is far from ideal, and facts of violations of inmates' rights are not uncommon.
In recent years, Kazakhstan has set a course for the consistent humanisation of criminal and penal policy, the modernisation of legislation in the field of fighting crime, and the introduction of new models and technologies of re-socialising preventive influence on convicts. Thus, in honour of the 20th anniversary of independence, the republic announced the seventh amnesty of convicts. As of 11 June, 2,511 people had left places of deprivation of liberty. By court order, 665 more inmates had their sentences reduced, and for various reasons, the court refused 60 convicts. As for persons sentenced to punishments not related to deprivation of liberty, as of 1 June, the courts had made almost 8 thousand positive decisions on their release from further serving of sentences, including 1,156 women and 160 minors.
However, human rights activists believe that an amnesty should imply not only the release of inmates but also their further adaptation, be it material, domestic, or employment-related. ‘Only when this complex of difficult issues is solved will the institution of amnesty for convicts correspond to its purpose, and the socio-legal protection of convicts after release from penitentiary institutions will become an important deterrent to the recurrence of crimes on their part,’ believes the author of an Expert Review dedicated to the rights of convicts, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Director of the branch of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kuat Rakhimberdin.
Despite the decrease in the ‘prison population’ in Kazakhstan (from 67,937 convicts in 2000 to 50,840 in 2010), punishment in the form of isolation from society retains its leading position in the system of criminal-legal influence measures (over 70 percent). Therefore, further measures should be taken to humanise criminal and penal policy. However, the ‘Programme for the Development of the Penal System for 2012-2015’, approved by the government decree, practically consolidates the priority of developing punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty and the transition to cell-based detention of convicts, providing significant volumes of funding for these purposes. ‘This circumstance creates a certain probability of attitudes towards punishments and measures without isolation from society as something secondary and less important, which is completely unacceptable,’ believes Kuat Rakhimberdin.
In world practice, prison staff undergo special training where wardens are taught ‘humane’ treatment of inmates. Representatives of human rights organisations believe that such courses should also be introduced in our country, especially considering that the Penal System Committee, after ten years of reform and orientation towards complying with international standards of convicts’ rights, has been transferred from a civilian agency — the Ministry of Justice — to a security one — the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Trained penal system (UIS) staff must not only ensure the safety of convicts and the inviolability of their human dignity but also apply psycho-pedagogical technologies for their correction and means of conflict resolution.
One cannot fail to note the issue of involving convicts in work in places of deprivation of liberty. Traditionally, in the Kazakhstani criminal-legal doctrine, since the Soviet era, work has been viewed as the most important means of ensuring the execution of sentences and one of the means of correcting inmates. However, human rights activists say: ‘It is unacceptable to use the labour of convicts for the purpose of profit.’ If there is no other way, then the work should take into account not only age and state of health but also the level of education, qualifications, abilities for certain types of work, and the creative component of that work.
The actions of officials aimed at closing prayer rooms and places for religious rites in penitentiary institutions have been condemned by human rights activists. This decision by the leadership of the Penal System Committee is considered by advocates of rights to be illogical and a violation of the convicts' right to perform religious rites. Representatives of Kazakhstan's traditional religious confessions provided spiritual assistance to inmates, and there were obvious achievements. This contributed not only to the correction of inmates but also to the prevention of religious extremism, which has currently penetrated the environment of convicts.
Human rights activists have once again spoken out about the creation of independent public oversight in the country. Today’s Public Monitoring Commissions (ONK) are dependent on UIS officials, and this does not allow for an objective assessment of the situation behind the ‘barbed wire’. First and foremost, it is necessary to provide for the right to sudden visits by ONK representatives to penitentiary institutions. Only in this case is it possible to find out what is actually happening ‘behind the barbed wire’.

Astana