Prisoners in the Volgograd Region Declare a Hunger Strike
A protest against ill-treatment is being held by convicts at Correctional Colony No. 19 in the Volgograd Region. They are on hunger strike, and some have slashed their wrists; however, the FSIN maintains that the prisoners’ actions are nothing more than a provocation.
Prisoners report threats and beatings
A one-minute video titled “Unlawful Actions by the Administration at FKU IK-19 of the Volgograd Region” was published on YouTube today. In it, a group of prisoners, numbering about 15–20 people in total, describes the situation in the colony located in the town of Surovikino.
“None of us are using physical force or attacking the administration; none of us are threatening them,” one of the prisoners says. “However, they have used physical force against us; they have begun to beat us.”
The prisoner reports that he and his comrades have been on a hunger strike for five days.
“We are being threatened that we will be killed or beaten if we do not go to eat,” he reported. “We demand the head of the administration be brought here. A number of convicts have slashed their wrists in protest because they cannot tolerate the psychological and physical abuse. They are hiding from the public what is happening here.”
Following this, the person filming the video walks past the prisoners and shows close-ups of the wounds on the arms of three of them.
As of 21:10, the video had reached 101 views.
Parents: a system of extortion is operating in the colony
In total, there are more than 50 complaints from convicts regarding extortion and incitement to suicide, the mother of one of the prisoners, Elena Strepetova, told a Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) correspondent.
Today, Strepetova published a post about the protest on the Gulagu.net portal. The prisoners’ protest action began on 21 July, she reported.
“This morning, staff began beating the convicts, forcing them to end the hunger strike, as they were expecting a visit to the colony from the new head of the Regional FSIN. In the process, an unknown number of convicts slashed their wrists. Hearing the screams of the convicts in the strict regime unit (SUS), the punishment cell (SHIZO), and the cell-type unit (PKT), the convicts in the barracks went out to the parade ground. At this moment, there is a riot in IK-19! A mass hunger strike has been declared,” her message states.
Another message was circulated today by the mother of another prisoner, Irina Chebaturkina. According to her, on 30 June, her son, Sergey Chebaturkin, committed suicide; he had attempted suicide twice before.
“In IK-19, this is already an established practice—extortion and beatings. Unfortunately, my son hid all this until recently. I learned all the details after his second suicide attempt. After jumping from the barracks on 3 June, he was taken to Medical Correctional Facility No. 15 (LIU-15), where we were granted a visit on 29 June,” the woman wrote.
According to her, during the visit, her son said that starting in April 2015, they demanded money from him for repairs to the barracks, and since he was unable to pay, after the payment deadline had passed, Sergey “was beaten by staff and, under threat, promised to find the required sum.”
“But the amount was increased by the staff by almost double. On 3 June, out of fear of reprisals, since the payment deadline was approaching, he threw himself off the barracks. He survived. In LIU-15, staff from the administration came to him repeatedly, forcing him to retract his testimony. He promised them he would think about it, but he passed on his statements regarding these facts; I have attached them to my application. After the staff left on the evening of 30 June, my son committed suicide. Because of the pressure and threats, and because of the fear of returning to IK-19,” Irina Chebaturkina declares.
One of the convicts participating in the hunger strike, Dmitry Kagaev, informed his parents that his complaints about the actions of the colony staff were not being accepted, Kagaev’s father told a Kavkazsky Uzel correspondent.
“He sent them to me, but they just disappeared. Mainly, my son complains about beatings, saying that they were beaten mostly on the lower parts of the body,” the man noted.
Prisoners serve sentences in a cage under the stairs
Relatives of the convicts call and ask for intervention in the situation at IK-19 almost daily, Larisa Sheremet, a journalist and member of the Public Monitoring Commission (ONK) of the Volgograd Region, told a Kavkazsky Uzel correspondent. According to her, she has been to the colony repeatedly, the last time being a month and a half ago.
“A year ago, the first mass self-mutilation occurred there—several people slashed their wrists. That was the first time we were there. The prisoners named two people as the main culprits behind the abuse and humiliation. These are not the top officials—not the head of the colony and his deputy, but those who stay with them in the evenings and feel completely unpunished. The convicts continue to complain about these two people. Moreover, we voiced these names to the head of the colony,” she said.
Some of the prisoners’ complaints concern the conditions of detention directly. For example, they complain that they are given only 20 minutes to wash in the bathhouse, despite there being only four taps for 30 people.
“In the colony, there are facilities specifically equipped according to all standards for regime violators. These are the cell-type unit (PKT) and the isolation cell. Apparently, this is not enough in the colony. They welded a grate over the space under the stairs, which runs at an angle, and they put people there. It is like an animal cage. The prisoners perceive this as a humiliation. According to the convicts, they put five people in there. We went there the last time because one of the convicts, while sitting in this hovel, slashed his own neck—it was a suicide attempt,” Sheremet related.
Larisa Sheremet confirmed the information about the suicide of prisoner Sergey Chebaturkin.
“We came to see him, we talked, we obtained a promise from the head of the colony that this boy would not be touched by those two colony employees. The day after we left, the head went on vacation, and the boy threw himself headfirst from the second floor of his barracks after a conversation with one of the colony staff. I talked to him later—he ended up with a traumatic brain injury in LIU-15. He said that after we left, those two started putting even more pressure on the convicts. I was told that someone from the FSIN came to visit him,” the journalist reported.
According to her, Chebaturkin was 25 years old; he ended up in prison “on drug charges.”
“He was hunted down and intimidated. Later, his mother called and said she had received a telegram that her son had passed away. They say he left a suicide note, but I never saw it. I think his decision was spontaneous,” Sheremet said.
After visiting the colony, members of the ONK write in the “visitor log” what the administration needs to pay attention to, however, the number of complaints from the colony does not decrease, she concluded.
After the protest began, a brigade from the Volgograd FSIN administration left for the colony, Vladimir Kozlovych, chairman of the ONK for the Volgograd Region, told a Kavkazsky Uzel correspondent.
“I do not have full information because my representatives were not there. This morning, I received information from the media that a number of convicts allegedly declared a hunger strike there, and there were suicide attempts. Possibly, tomorrow or the day after, if necessary, I will go there,” he stated.
Kozlovych claims that ONK members “worked a lot” with the deceased Sergey Chebaturkin.
“Despite our persuasion, he still took his own life; he made three attempts,” said Vladimir Kozlovych.
In his opinion, the violations at IK-19 are mainly of a domestic nature.
“The lack of proper facilities in terms of an insufficient number of washbasins, bathrooms, and bathing causes questions,” he listed. “Domestic conditions cause dissatisfaction.”
FSIN data does not match the video recording of the prisoners’ appeal
There is no riot at IK-19; the situation is “under the control of the correctional facility administration,” the Volgograd Region FSIN press office declared today in response to the relatives’ messages.
“On 21 July 2015, five convicts, who were being held under strict conditions for violating the rules of serving their sentences, refused to comply with the lawful requirements of the colony administration, in connection with which they were moved to the punishment cell. Physical force was not used against these convicts,” the press office statement said.
It also asserts that only two convicts “inflicted minor superficial wounds on their forearms with a razor blade from a disposable shaver,” although at least three prisoners with wounds on their arms are captured in the video.
“They were provided with the necessary medical assistance; they did not need hospitalization. The facts of the mutilations were registered in accordance with the procedure established by law, and the materials, along with video footage of what occurred, have been sent to investigative bodies for a procedural decision,” the statement notes.
The FSIN press office confirms that “about forty convicts refused to attend the institution’s canteen,” but claims that they did so to provoke and that all this time they “were eating their own food successfully.” The administration possesses a video confirming this data, the message says.
Today, IK-19 was visited by the prosecutor and the assistant head of the administration for the observance of prisoners’ rights, Alexander Makarov.
“Thus, all actions by the convicts are provocative in nature, aimed at discrediting the activities of the correctional facility and the employees of the penal enforcement system,” concludes the message on the Volgograd Region FSIN website.