Who will stop the ‘State Department of Torture’?!

On the morning of 20 April 2009, convict Viktor Gurin committed suicide in the Bila Tserkva Penal Colony No. 35.

No phones – yet phones exist

Journalists and public figures learn a great deal of information about various ‘mishaps’ in the Kherson penal institutions via calls from colonies or pre-trial detention centres. But, unfortunately, it is not the staff who call first, but the convicts and those under arrest.

Round table: ‘Human rights protection in conditions of serving a sentence’

The All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation ‘Legal Initiative’ held a round table, ‘Human rights protection in conditions of serving a sentence’, with the participation of non-governmental organisations working with prisoners in the penal institutions of the Kyiv region.

Escape from the colony

On the afternoon of 2 April, a convict escaped from the Belozerska Penal Colony No. 105. He was apprehended in Simferopol a day later.

The state of human rights observance in Ukraine in 2008

The observance of all types of rights in 2008 only deteriorated. This is evidenced both by responses to the direct question about how the situation regarding the observance of rights has changed, and by direct assessments of rights observance.

Renaissance Foundation competitions

Competitions for projects on ‘Human Rights in Penal Institutions’, ‘Realisation of the Right to Access Information about Government Activities’ and others are announced in 2009 by the International Renaissance Foundation under the ‘Rule of Law’ programme.

Public control over prisons: an apparent reality

Those who have experienced for themselves what deprivation of liberty in Russian conditions is like, would hardly have perceived as a joke the Law ‘On public control over the provision of human rights in places of detention and on assistance to persons in places of detention’ signed by President Medvedev last summer. Now the law has begun to operate, and public monitoring commissions are being created in the regions on its basis.

In Volyn, consultations are being provided to persons serving sentences in the Kovel Juvenile Colony

The Association for the Protection of Youth Rights of Volyn is continuing to provide consultations throughout February-April 2009 to persons serving sentences in the Kovel Juvenile Colony.

April Fools' Day in the Perevalsk Juvenile Colony

Specialists of the Leninsky district of Luhansk Centre for Social Services for Family, Children and Youth congratulated the children serving sentences and the staff of the Perevalsk Colony on April Fools' Day and wished that everything in their lives would turn out as well as possible.

Another church to be built

The head of the Kryukivska Penal Colony No. 29 had an idea to build a church in the village where the colony-settlement is located, so as to satisfy not only the religious needs of the released settlers but also those of the residents of the village and several surrounding villages.

Human rights activists for humane transportation of prisoners

The Komi Human Rights Commission (KPC) “Memorial” has appealed to the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office with a demand to ban the operation of the new prisoner transport vehicle based on the UAZ-3741 (“bukhanka”) in the convoy unit of the Internal Affairs Department (OVD) of the city of Sosnogorsk.

Why is prison better than freedom?

Despite the announced amnesty, some prisoners do not wish to be released. What reasons could prompt a person to refuse freedom? Such reasons exist and are quite understandable.