Events at Colony No. 100

On 27 March 2008, the Kharkiv Human Rights Group received several reports about a sharp complication of the situation in penal colony No. 100, which is located in the village of Temnivka, Kharkiv region.

Continuation of events at Colony No. 77

On 31 March, the KHRG appealed to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights with a request to verify reports about the beating of inmates of Penal Institution No. 77 in Berdyansk by special forces and the transfer of inmates to the Zaporizhzhia SIZO. The KHRG reported this on 31 March.

Will prisoners soon be released en masse from prisons?

The Presidential Secretariat informs about the intentions and methods of reforming the criminal justice system and law enforcement agencies. The President signed the concept.

What is happening in the penal system?

A “round table” on this topic took place at the Kharkiv “Maidan Svobody” press centre on 2 April.

Changes await the Department of Corrections and its charges.

The State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Punishments will soon be disbanded and reorganised in accordance with the concept for reforming the State Penal Service developed by the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine.

New staff reshuffles await Lviv police

Following the results of the work of law enforcement agencies in the first quarter of this year, staff changes may occur in the structural subdivisions of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Lviv region.

Emergency in Penal Colony No. 100

On 28 March, the Vinnytsia Human Rights Group distributed a statement that about 40 convicts at Temnivska Penal Colony No. 100 had mutilated themselves in protest against the conditions of detention and the cruelty of the administration. Representatives of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group visited the colony. A commission is working. The ombudsman has also sent her representatives to the colony.

Emergency in penal institution No. 77

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, convict Andrii Kryvonis, the senior duty orderly of the quarantine, was brutally beaten. He died from the beatings. In the afternoon, 15 special forces soldiers in masks and with full combat gear were brought into the colony.

SOS from those detained in the Chernihiv SIZO

On 29 March 2008, three minors were brutally beaten in Chernihiv SIZO No. 31

Once again, “masks-show”?

The Kharkiv Human Rights Group received a report that on 18 March, special forces in masks and full combat gear, approximately 10 men, were brought into penal institution No. 55 (Sofiivka, Vilniansk district, Zaporizhzhia region).

Prisons from Lviv and Sokal will be moved to Mykolaiv district even before Euro-2012

Penal colonies from Lviv and Sokal are planned to be transferred to the territory of the Mykolaiv district, where a whole prison complex will be built.

A criminal case has been opened against officials of Colony No. 30

The Lviv prosecutor for supervising the observance of laws during the execution of court decisions in criminal cases has opened a criminal case based on the fact of abuse of official position by officials of the Lychakivska Penal Colony No. 30.