Press Release, 26.07.2018

Emilia Slabunova, Chair of the Yabloko party and MP of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, sent an appeal to Gennady Kornienko, Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, demanding to check the facts of human rights violations in the penitentiary institutions of Karelia. The reason for the appeal were the materials from the visiting session of the Presidential Human Rights Council. The widely discussed cases of torture in the Yaroslavl and Bryansk colonies are no exception, it is a systemic phenomenon in the Russian penitentiary system, Emilia Slabunova believes.

After it became known about the torture of political prisoner Ildar Dadin in penal colony No 7 in Segezha (Karelia), the Human Rights Council held an on-site meeting in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, in February 2017, during which the Council revealed a number of glaring violations in the penal colonies in Karelia. The issues examined by the Council were, in particular, use of torture against prisoners, cruel and degrading treatment of them, exploitation of low-wage labour of convicts, sadistic tendencies of some employees of the colonies, and so on.

At that time, members of the Council were not able to personally communicate with the prisoners – the Karelian Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service denied human rights activists a visit to the colonies, citing an epidemic of flu. It is noteworthy that the representatives of the republican department of the Federal Penitentiary Service neglected the meeting of the round table of the Council  chaired by its head Mikhail Fedotov. The perpetrators of torture and other violations of human rights went unpunished.

Emilia Slabunova explained that she decided to appeal to the Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service and other instances – the Public Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigation Committee of Russia, the Interior Ministry, as well as the Karelian Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Karelian Department of Federal Penitentiary Service and the Governor of Karelia – in connection with the rising wave of public outrage after the published facts of torture in the colonies.

“Now, when the events in Yaroslavl and Bryansk [when prisoners died because of torture] cause the system of execution of punishments to simulate at least some actions, I want to draw attention to the situation in Karelia, which then remained without consideration, and the guilty went unpunished,”  Emilia Slabunova said.

Yabloko Chair also noted that the Russian penitentiary system does not cope with its main task – it does not allow prisoners to take the path of correction: according to data for 2016, more than 60 per cent of the convicts repeatedly committed crimes.

In addition, Emilia Slabunova drew attention to the inefficient use of budget funds allocated for the Federal Penitentiary Service. The public report of the Institute of Problems of Modern Society particularly stated this.

Over the past 15 years, the cost of maintaining the correctional system has increased six-fold. The Federal Penitentiary Service received more money than, for example, the Ministry of Healthcare, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Thus, the federal budget for 2018 alllots 264.5 billion roubles for the Federal Penitentiary Service, while on the Ministry of Emergency Situations will get only 168 billion, the Russian Federal Space Agency  – 128 billion, and the Academy of Sciences and the Agency of Scientific Organisations together will get only about 105 billion.

Emilia Slabunova noted that the creation of one place in a penal colony is worth 3 – 5 million roubles, which is comparable to the cost of 1 – 2 bedroom apartments in the cities with a million population. The annual maintenance of one prisoner costs the budget 400,000 roubles, which is comparable to the size of the maternity capital [in Russia women who give birth to at least two children are entitled to “maternity capital” allowance].

Yabloko Chair believes that cardinal changes in the penal correction system require maximum openness, public and political control. Public monitoring commissions should be formed not on the principle of loyalty to the authorities, as it is now, but on the condition that people who can exercise control on the principles of humanism, maximum openness and maximum saving of budget funds are included there.

On 20 July, oppositional Novaya Gazeta newspaper published a video of the torture of Yevgeny Makarov, prisoner in the Yaroslavl colony. The video was filmed in the summer of 2017. On 22 July,  another prisoner died because of torture in prison No 6 in the Bryansk region. On 24 July, the Federal Penitentiary Service stated that it would establish commissions to examine the cases of unjustified use of force against prisoners.