What productions exist in correctional colonies. The case is sewn: What and how women prisoners produce

Soon the whole country will know where do our shops come from rustling black bags with the golden inscription "Rus", plastic tableware, standard school desks, typical office furniture made of chipboard, pasta made from bakery flour, clumping cat litter, cheap local vegetables and other domestic consumer goods, oh the origin of which few people even thought about. Thirty enterprises of the federal penitentiary service will start producing them under the single brand “Made in Prison”. We understand what exactly and under what conditions they produce in women's colonies throughout the country.

Text: Tatiana Simakova

Examples of Technoavia and Vostok-service products: to men's insulated jacket "Security" - 2196 rubles, fur mittens - 279.66 rubles

Modern prisons work according to the good old principle “work sets you free”: the main lever for raising the moral level of convicts is the expedient organization of work, accustoming them to systematic and productive work. According to RBC, about 600,000 prisoners are serving sentences in Russian colonies, about 200,000 of them work and annually produce thousands of different goods worth over 32 billion rubles. The choice of employment in the men's colonies is quite wide, while the women's, of which there are 37 in Russia, compete with Chinese clothing factories and are responsible for the sewing direction. Human rights activist Lyudmila Alpern, who has been visiting women's colonies with inspections for more than twenty years, says that women work more than men and endure any conditions - there has never been a single riot in women's zones.

The world learned about how the “seamstress” works from Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from the Mordovian IK-14. She called the working conditions slave, women are forced to work on antediluvian equipment for 16-17 hours a day, at the threat to life and health, sometimes making it impossible even to go to the toilet. Last year, the 14th Mordovian colony earned more than 70 million rubles on sewing overalls. Here, for example, suits for smiling men commissioned by Technoavia LLC. Cheap labor makes it possible to sell them quite inexpensively even at retail: a pair of navy and a beautiful cornflower blue shade will cost Muscovites only 828 rubles. Vladimir Golovnev, president of the Vostok-Service group of companies, says that his company, which occupies a third of the Russian workwear market, has has been working with the Mordovian zones for twenty years, because there is "serious discipline and excellent quality."

Thanks to Golovnev, unnamed Russian designers, and trouble-free Mordovian prisoners, Russian guards wear camouflage. In addition, it is in Mordovia that they are working on creating uniforms for traffic police officers, firefighters, and road workers. Mordovian women's colonies are considered the most cruel precisely because of the working conditions - and at the same time they receive the most complex and large orders. “Tin is a very mild word. This is HELL!!! Here, in the wild, people don’t even know what happens,” one of the former prisoners of the Mordovian IK-2 writes on the forum.

Her colleague Irina Noskova tells more about this: “... they work there from 7 am to 00 am, because there are constant applications. They leave it for dinner if you don't fuck off.<…>It takes about six months to somehow grasp this operation, to already be able to sew.<…>The brigadier beats. He can<…>grab you by the hair, hit your head against the machine, or take you to the bandezhka, where they kick you with their hands, feet, or remove the belt from the sewing machine and beat you.

Perm IK-28 in Bereznyaki, where the second member of Pussy Riot Maria Alyokhina was serving her sentence, also sews overalls. A month, she produces 3,000 sets of winter suits for the police and 5,500 sets of military uniforms for the Russian army - the very one that Valentin Yudashkin renounced because of cheap fittings and materials unsuitable for military. From 1030 to 1050 people are involved in paid labor in the colony, and the average wage for one worked person-day with accruals for 2012 is about 185 rubles.

From left to right: wadded mattress - 1050 rubles, mittens - 30.99 rubles, plastic forks - wholesale for 24 kopecks

Examples of Technoavia and Vostok-service products: jockey cap "Alliance" - 141.6 rubles, men's shirt "Guard" with short sleeves - 524 rubles

Uniforms are also sewn in Mozhaisk IK-5 and Kozlovka (Chuvashia). Instead of a photo on the site, a detailed description of the product: “A tie for employees of institutions and bodies of the penitentiary system of gray-blue color consists of a main part, a knot and a neck. The wide end of the main part ends in an angle, the sides are inclined. The neck of the tie consists of a top fabric and elastic band, ending with metal fittings for fastening the tie. To the state house - state language. The lion's share of clothing for medical staff in Russia is also sewn by prisoners. In addition to surgical suits and white coats, Chelyabinsk IK-5 produces clothes for FSB officers, the railway, and uniforms for plumbers, welders, workers in chemical and metallurgical industries, and even miner's overalls.

Human rights activists call the working conditions in the fifth Chelyabinsk colony cruel and derogatory to human dignity. Once in a punishment cell, prisoners are deprived of the opportunity to use shampoo, hand cream, a comb is issued only for half an hour from 5:00 to 5:30 in the morning. In the Chelyabinsk colony, women cannot even use razors. All this, of course, is trifles compared to the fact that human rights activists have revealed that HIV-infected prisoners are denied treatment, and patients with tuberculosis in the last stages are kept in the same room with healthy women. Of course, they all work in the sewing shop to the last. Knowing all this and buying grandma an elegant set of potholders for the kitchen, it's hard not to think about those who sewed it. The goods created in the zone have long and firmly entered the life of every family, but we did not notice.

The Federal Penitentiary Service hopes that the creation of the “Made in Prison” brand will help get rid of unprofitable services of intermediaries and help increase sales. I would like the emergence of a new brand to also change the working conditions of prisoners in Russia.

Last year, the GUFSIN institutions managed to earn 138.3 million rubles of net profit from the work of prisoners. Almost all of this money is spent on the modernization and maintenance of enterprises "behind barbed wire". A well-established system of attracting to work in correctional colonies allows convicts not only to earn money, but also to spend time usefully and master a specialty that can be useful when finding employment in freedom. But the main difficulty for the enterprises of the GUFSIN is the development of the sales market. Where to get orders for prisoners, where to spend the money earned and why to produce chicken eggs - these and other questions of the FederalPress correspondent were answered by Natalya Sherstneva, Deputy Head of the Department for Organizing Employment of the Special Contingent and Head of the Marketing and Sales Department of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Sverdlovsk Region.

“At the end of the year, we expect overfulfillment of the plan”

According to the results of 2016, the volume of output of marketable products by the institutions of the GUFSIN of Russia in the Sverdlovsk Region amounted to 1,277.5 million rubles, or 106.5% of the target. What numbers do you expect to receive by the end of 2017?

According to the results of ten months, the issue volume has already amounted to 1 billion 300 million rubles. This is our plan for 2017. By the end of the year, we expect overfulfillment of the plan by 150-170%. We will definitely earn 1 billion 600 million, and maybe more.

What is the net profit distributed to, and how do you prioritize?

The government has set our priorities. By law, we must invest at least 55% of net profit in the development of production: this is the purchase of new equipment, its modernization and the creation of new jobs. Also, no more than 20% of profits should be spent on social protection and improvement of working conditions for employees of the penitentiary system, no more than 20% as an additional source of financing budgetary needs and at least 5% to strengthen the development of the energy sector of institutions.

How often is inventory and production facilities updated?

It all depends on the leadership of a particular colony. If the leadership is deployed facing production, then production will develop. This is a safety cushion for any institution: one article is funded today, not tomorrow. The state cannot always fully support the needs of prisons.

"There must be confidence that all the eggs will be ours"

What industries exist in correctional colonies of the Sverdlovsk region? And how is the direction of labor activity determined under this or that IC?

All sectors of the national economy exist in our system: mechanical engineering, metalworking, woodworking, clothing production, production of consumer goods, furniture production (office, children's, home furniture), agricultural production for intrasystem purposes. The orientation of the institution is determined primarily by its location: if the institution is located in the forest zone, then, naturally, the timber industry complex is developed there. (Such industries exist in the colonies in Ivdel, Sosva and Tavda).

If, for example, in Nizhny Tagil, some enterprises on the territory of the colony were originally created at Uralvagonzavod, then we naturally continue metalworking and interaction with UVZ there. If the women's colony, which was established in Soviet times and was sent to a garment factory, naturally, we continue to produce garments. Sometimes we are engaged in the expansion of production: we open new sites. Because we need to create additional jobs in order to employ the special contingent. Our main task is still employment, and not making a profit.

What productions do you plan to establish yet, and what is needed for this?

We will focus on agriculture. We already have institutions that deal with purely agriculture. For example, in Kamyshlov. They have their own fields, cowsheds, pigsties, where they produce agricultural products. But now we have been tasked with switching to self-sufficiency in nutrition, so we plan to develop this type of activity.

Now at the production facilities of the GUFSIN they are investing in the development of poultry farming: we buy eggs from third-party organizations, although we are ready to produce them ourselves. But we need the support of specialists in this industry. You see, it is not easy to organize poultry farming in our conditions: all sanitary regulations and sanitary zones must be observed. We are even considering such an option: we are ready to transport a special contingent to a poultry farm. For example, they would give us one hangar, and we would work there. Only there must be confidence that all the eggs from this hangar will be ours. While negotiations are underway.

How many enterprises aimed at the production of agricultural products already exist in the correctional colonies of the GUFSIN? What do they produce and how much?

In 27 institutions of the GUFSIN of Russia in the Sverdlovsk region, agricultural products of animal husbandry and crop production are produced. As part of the annual self-sufficiency program, vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and beets are grown. In total, according to the results of the harvesting campaign in 2017, more than 900 tons of vegetables were harvested, including more than 100 tons of pickled tomatoes and cucumbers.

“We can supply products without competition and bidding”

How willing or reluctant are the enterprises of the Sverdlovsk region to cooperate with the GUFSIN? What types of cooperation exist?

The management of the GUFSIN regularly holds presentation meetings with representatives of enterprises. We offer such types of cooperation as participation on a common basis in auctions held by state and municipal organizations, and as the sole supplier .

How is the product marketed? Are there any difficulties or, on the contrary, advantages when participating in tenders?

We have an advantage when interacting with municipal government entities on a specific list of products, where we can act as the only supplier (provided by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation) . In this case, we can supply products without competition and bidding.

We participate in tenders on a common basis with commercial organizations. Basically, we create either joint production or conclude one-time contracts. But the main share, of course, is intrasystem sales. We provide for ourselves in many ways: we make furniture, produce hygiene kits and agricultural products. We produce a lot by order of government agencies: this year only furniture was produced for 150 million rubles.

There are 23,000 prisoners in the Sverdlovsk region. Why is it not possible to employ everyone, and what is needed to create additional jobs?

The number of convicts involved in paid work for ten months of 2017 amounted to 4069 people. There are institutions where 80-85% of convicts are employed. It should be borne in mind that in each institution people who have a retirement age, health restrictions, disabilities or who do not have a working specialty are serving their sentences. In accordance with the current legislation, the involvement of pensioners and disabled people in work can be carried out only with their written desire and on a part-time basis.

To increase production volumes and create additional jobs, we work with state and municipal entities (we send out letters, presentations). Thanks to such actions, the units of the GUFSIN managed to place orders for state and municipal needs for a total amount of more than 100 million rubles, to employ more than 300 convicts.

Also, for ten months of 2017, the institutions of the GUFSIN participated in 43 exhibitions-fairs, as a result of which contracts for the supply of products (services) were concluded and products were sold in the amount of more than 30.0 million rubles.

“We prepare them not only to work for us”

How is a newcomer to a penal colony "introduced" into production? Do convicts receive special training in professions?

When a person enters our institutions, he fills out certain forms, where he indicates whether he has a specialty, education ... First, an educator works with him, then an employee from production. It happens that a person has no education, but there is a desire to work. Then we offer to enter the school at the penal colony.

How is it determined which specialties should be taught in your schools?

The specialties that are needed in an educational institution are determined by two factors: the basics of production, which are organized in the institution itself, and the labor market in the external market. We take statistics, study in which area there is a shortage of working specialties today. If you need welders, we train welders. This should also be useful for the future of prisoners: we are preparing them not only to work with us, but also to find a job after leaving the penal colony.

“School in the morning, then school, then work”

On the territory of the Sverdlovsk region there is a colony for minors in Kirovograd. Who do the children work there, and how long do they work?

They work, as required by law, four hours a day. Three types of production have been mastered on the territory of the institution: crop production, clothing production (according to the latest state order, they sewed sheets and pillowcases), and the manufacture of panicles. They are also employed in the dining room as assistant cooks: they cook dinners. They have little free time: in the morning - school, then - school, then - work. Children in the colony have time not only to work, earning money, but also to spend their leisure time interestingly.

GOST or TU

What are the quality standards of products manufactured in GUFSIN? How competitive is it?

All our products are, if not according to GOST, then according to TU. In order to launch a new type of product, we first develop this product: we have technical services in institutions, we also have a technical department in the management. They define the specifications, develop the control program and implement it. When the supplier already orders something, we discuss the technical conditions under which we will work.

We have QCD in every division. Controllers are created from among the special contingent, they are employed at work. If there is a defect, they return the product back for revision. A civilian foreman works with the prisoners in the OTK department. In addition, all intra-system contracts undergo an external examination: a contract is concluded with an expert organization on a competitive basis, and they conduct an audit (select 20-30 product samples from a batch and give a conclusion - ed. note). If it says that the product is not of proper quality, then we send it for revision, and it is processed.

Is defective products for a prisoner a fine?

If a prisoner works on individual tailoring (he sews from beginning to end), then during marriage his production rate will be less. If the brigade worked, then the production rate decreases for the entire brigade. We have piecework wages, so it is not profitable for prisoners to marry themselves.

“It is unrealistic to fully maintain an institution through production”

How are prisoners paid?

The money is credited to personal accounts, from there the funds are redistributed to claims, payment of alimony (if any). Particular attention is paid to the employment of convicts with claims. According to claims for nine months, 56.6 million rubles were transferred to the victims from the personal accounts of the convicts. The rest of the prisoner can save and receive upon release, or can spend in the store, which is in every institution.

If production in the GUFSIN is put on a solid footing, will they be able to bring penal colonies to self-sufficiency?

It is unrealistic to fully support the institution at the expense of production. This is huge money. Take even one meal: 23,000 convicts eat every day three times a day. This is 90 grams of meat, 30 grams of butter, we are obliged to provide them with this. We cannot produce enough food to provide all the prisoners: we do not have the appropriate climate and areas in the region. It should be understood that the majority of ICs are located in cities. We will not grow potatoes on the parade ground.

It should also be understood that the vegetables produced by the enterprises of the GUFSIN do not immediately go to the prisoners' table. First they are bought by the state. It also happens with hygiene and travel kits, clothing products. In order to meet the intra-system needs of the institutions of the GUFSIN in 2017, state contracts were concluded in the amount of more than 300 million rubles.

Halva instead of pears

In Kuzbass, 21 institutions of the penitentiary system are covered by production activities. Main areas: metal and woodworking, furniture, building materials, garments and footwear.

As for agriculture, colonies-settlements No. 2 and 3 located in the Chebulinsky district, Anzhero-Sudzhensk KP-31 and fourteen subsidiary farms are engaged in it, - said Pavel Akulenko, head of the press service of the GUFSIN of Russia in the Kemerovo region. - In total, they contain more than three thousand heads of cattle, 4.3 thousand pigs and seven thousand heads of poultry. By the way, in KP-3 last year they milked five thousand kilograms of milk from each forage cow - more than in ordinary farms in the region. Special institutions sold 850,000 chicken eggs.

For several years, the Kuzbass special contingent has been fully self-sufficient in potatoes, which were grown in 2014 by 4,850 tons, and vegetables (more than 1,100 tons). This year, 360 hectares of land have been allocated for planting second bread, and 65 hectares for vegetables. Over six thousand hectares have been occupied by wheat, barley, peas, oats and winter rye. More than a hundred units of agricultural machinery and over seventy convicts participated in the sowing campaign.

GUFSIN develops not only agricultural production, but also processing. Dairy workshops of two Chebulin colonies-settlements have already produced more than 1,200 tons of packaged milk this year, and the KP-2 meat workshop annually produces eighty tons of sausages, dumplings, dumplings and other semi-finished products.

As part of the self-sufficiency program last summer in Kemerovo IK No. 22 of general regime, a modern line for the production of margarine was opened and brought to its design capacity - three tons per day, which produced 380 tons per year - for 22.68 million rubles, - adds Pavel Akulenko . - A natural product with a high fat content is well sold both in the region and abroad, and also serves as a raw material for flour products baked in the 44th colony of the city of Belov.

This high-security facility used to specialize in sports equipment (such as punching bags) and is now famous for oriental sweets and oatmeal cookies, which are in great demand. Last year, prisoners serving long terms in the colony produced and sold pastries worth a million rubles.

This year, the GUFSIN of Kuzbass plans to expand existing and open new production facilities - sunflower halva, butter and cottage cheese, confectionery and soda, fruit juices and jelly, long-term storage milk and canned vegetables.

In 2014, correctional institutions of the Kemerovo region produced foodstuffs worth 1.3 billion rubles, which is 148.4 million more than in 2013. 29 names of new types of products have been mastered. But, as they say, not by bread alone - the GUFSIN is growing not only with agro-industrial capacities. In 2014, sewing workshops were reorganized or created using the in-line method of manufacturing products. Subordinate units today sheathe the personnel and special contingent not only of Kuzbass, but also of Transbaikalia, Tyva, Buryatia, Tomsk Region, as well as healthcare institutions, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In the same 22nd colony, a modern car-painting complex was opened. The queue of civilian customers is scheduled for a month in advance - they are attracted by both the quality of work and the price. And in the Kemerovo correctional colony No. 5 of the general regime, a completely unique production was organized - a workshop for the processing of large-sized car tires and tires. The direction for the region, frankly, is strategic: tires of heavy vehicles working at coal mines that have served their time are fire hazardous, and their combustion products are harmful to humans and nature.

They decided to use the used tires for crumb rubber, which is used in road repairs, for the manufacture of safe coatings, rubber shoes, sorbents and the same tires.

The estimated output of crumbs is more than two hundred tons per month, and the colony will start making safety tiles based on it soon, Pavel Akulenko specified. - This will bring the production base of the correctional institution to a new level and provide jobs for at least sixteen people.

By the way, IK-5, in which those who committed minor crimes for the first time are serving their sentences, also specializes in the manufacture of plastic windows, clothing, pasta, as well as in the repair of vehicles. Thanks to the development of production, convicts acquire a specialty, gain experience that will be useful to them in freedom. According to Pavel Akulenko, those who are employed (and there are already almost half of those in the Kuzbass colonies) are much more likely to be released on parole. Many of them have writ of execution with the claims of the victims, which must be satisfied.

For myself and my neighbors

The penitentiary system of the Altai Territory includes seventeen correctional institutions and pre-trial detention centers. The production sector consists of six labor adaptation centers for convicts, two medical and production workshops and five extrabudgetary activities. In 2014, they produced products and rendered services in the amount of more than 477 million rubles. The overall production growth amounted to 10.8 percent.

In its development and search for industrial potential, the penitentiary system of the region is guided by the characteristics of the region - the leading producer of agricultural products and food in the Trans-Ural part of Russia. Mill complexes operate in three institutions, which in 2014 milled 912 tons of wheat flour of the first grade, 1,150 tons of second grade and 707 tons of rye flour. This made it possible to provide flour not only to all local institutions, but also to completely cover the need for the penitentiary system of neighboring regions - the Republic of Altai and the Tomsk region. Produced in "places not so remote" flour is characterized by high baking qualities and is ideal for the production of a wide range of bakery and confectionery products.

Last year, 343 tons of cereals were produced at our own production. Barley, wheat, barley, peas and millet are released in penal colony No. 3, located in Barnaul. Buckwheat - in colony-settlement No. 2. Flour and cereals are packed in bags and sent to other institutions.

A few years ago, a line for the production of PET containers with a capacity of 600 bottles per shift was installed in colony-settlement No. 7. Automation allows you to perform all technological operations with just two convicts. The installation was purchased in 2013, when a dairy plant with a capacity of two thousand liters per day appeared on the basis of the "seven".

PET bottles of our own production are also filled with sunflower oil, which is produced in correctional colony No. 5 from local raw materials. During the year of work, it was possible not only to provide sunflower oil to all institutions of the penal system of the region, but also to supply eleven tons to the subdivisions of the Altai Republic. The line's capacity is 750 tons per year, while the needs of the region's UIS are just over eighty tons.

The cake obtained in the process of pressing the oil is used in animal husbandry, which is also actively developing in the penitentiary system of the region. This year it is planned to receive 250 tons of pork meat. For its processing, a slaughter station was organized in LIA-1. Poultry farming is developing on the basis of the third colony. The poultry population has more than doubled over the past two years due to its own incubators. If in 2012 307 thousand chicken eggs were produced, then in 2015 750 thousand are planned.

Other promising areas are also being developed in the penitentiary system. There is a sewing factory in correctional colony No. 6, which includes seven sewing shops, two cutting shops and one packaging shop. 411 women are employed in production. The capacity of the factory allows to produce more than 200 thousand units of finished products per month. Here they sew bed linen, clothes for convicts and military personnel, bags.

Quite cost-effective

In the Novosibirsk Region, more than a dozen correctional colonies undergo re-education through labor, on the basis of which eleven centers for professional adaptation and a medical and industrial workshop are organized. About 30% of prisoners are employed behind barbed wire - about 4.5 thousand people - and these figures need to be increased, according to the regional GUFSIN.

To accomplish this task, in-system orders are placed in all correctional facilities. This is not only work in the kitchen and care of the territory, but also the production of clothes for the so-called "special composition" of the colonies, barbed wire and even uniforms for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. So, according to the price list posted on the website of the GUFSIN of the Novosibirsk Region, an officer's cap sewn by the hands of prisoners costs 535.72 rubles, a fur hat for command personnel - 1,298 rubles. There are caps, shoulder straps, and uniform ties complete with gray-blue suits.

Sewing is generally included in the list of the most frequent types of production in captivity. In addition to overalls and police uniforms, inmates make pillows and blankets, socks and gowns, towels and bed linen. In some places they even sew winter children's clothes. Many convicts are employed in the foundry industry, in metal and woodworking, in the production of building materials and food. Among the highest paid professions in the GUFSIN in the Novosibirsk region are seamstresses with earnings of about ten thousand rubles a month, blacksmiths with a monthly salary of nine thousand, and furniture assemblers who receive eight thousand rubles.

In addition to simple products, the colonies also produce exclusive ones that require artistic vision. For example, the "classic of the genre" - wooden carved backgammon - can be officially purchased here for a thousand rubles, and for three, depending on the art of execution. Handmade braziers (also three thousand rubles apiece) cannot be compared in terms of the quality and monumentality of the foundry design with factory collapsible "one-day" ones from retail chains. Yes, and the furniture here is also different - from the simplest stools to the "head's chair with a prefix" for eleven thousand rubles.

Even large enterprises of the Novosibirsk region willingly cooperate with the GUFSIN and place orders for the production of interior doors, upholstered furniture, paving slabs, decorative fences, street lamps, fire extinguishers - a mass of various goods that can be found in stores.

In two colonies of the Novosibirsk region there are workshops for the production of vegetable and butter, as well as cottage cheese. At the same time, all correctional facilities in the region have their own agricultural land, where they grow potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, cabbage, and cereals. Prisoners are engaged in animal husbandry and poultry farming.

Production in the Novosibirsk colonies brings about 700 million rubles of income per year, which ensures more than ten percent profitability. The list of partners of the regional GUFSIN includes about twenty large enterprises, including such well-known ones as the Trud machine-building plant or the Kors-K shoe factory. But there are also smaller productions, which, however, often supply their goods to the largest retail chains.

By the way

Employed prisoners also celebrate professional holidays. For example, on June 22, in the Novosibirsk women's correctional colony No. 9, the best sewing teams received congratulations in honor of the Light Industry Worker's Day. The management of the institution presented certificates and valuable gifts. The department of the Novosibirsk GUFSIN has seven vocational schools where prisoners can master 25 professions in demand.

When it comes to places where people are serving sentences for a crime, it seems that the conversation should be about a prison or a colony for men. However, one should not forget about another disaster for Russia. This is an ever-increasing female crime. It also requires punishment and restriction of freedom.

Women's zones in Russia are 35 colonies, in which 60 thousand people are serving their sentences. This number is five percent of the total number of prisoners in the country. Women's zones in Russia, the list of which is very small, are far from being in all districts. That is why most criminals have to serve their sentences far from their home.

What are women sitting for?

The conducted studies convincingly prove the fact that the fair sex is committing crimes that are more and more close to "male" in nature. In recent decades, there has been an increase in hooliganism, in which the fair sex took part.

Also, women are imprisoned for fraud, shoplifting, burglaries, selling and transporting drugs, buying and selling stolen goods, stealing cars, and forging documents.

The number of youth gangs, whose members are very young creatures aged 15 to 19, is also growing in the country. Such criminals in skirts are especially cruel, killing their victims without any reason. Many of these girls have drug problems that cost a lot of money to use.

It is worth saying that those who are serving sentences could be twice as many. However, women's zones, like men's, are regularly released thanks to amnesties. Reduces the number of those serving sentences and rather soft legislation. However, the problem of society does not become less urgent because of this. After all, thirty percent of convicts who are sent to women's zones are deprived of their liberty for especially serious crimes. As a rule, they are committed on a domestic basis, when a dispute develops into a fight with bloody consequences. The crimes of the rest of the mass of women are theft and distribution of drugs. And only a small percentage of convicts are ladies who have committed economic crimes.

Correctional institutions for the weak half of humanity

Where are women's zones in Russia? They are scattered throughout the regions of the country. Moreover, each of the colonies has its own characteristics. For example, there are women's zones in which children's homes are equipped.

These are the following correctional institutions:

Kemerovo;
Moscow;
Sverdlovsk;
Vladimir regions;
Khabarovsk and Krasnodar Territories;
Nizhny Novgorod;
Samara;
Chelyabinsk;
Mordovia.

There are women's zones in which minors serve their sentences. This is 21 thousand girls. Almost one and a half thousand of them are placed in educational colonies. One of these correctional institutions is located in Bryansk (Komarov St., 30).

For dangerous recidivists, women's zones in Russia are also provided. Where are they located? One of these colonies is located in the Perm region (Berezniki, Lenina avenue, 81), and the second - in Oryol (village Shakhovo).

Almost twenty thousand women are kept in the pre-trial detention center. Especially for women, pre-trial detention centers were opened in Moscow (Shosseinaya St., 82), St. Petersburg (Arsenalnaya St., 11) and Yekaterinburg. How are criminals kept in other regions? There is a zone for women in the prison. Such pre-trial detention centers are of a mixed type.

There is also a women's zone for foreign criminals on the territory of our country. It is located on the territory of Mordovia. 12,000 foreign citizens are serving sentences in this correctional facility, 500 of whom are residents of far abroad countries.

As for pre-trial detention centers, they are located in cities. Most often in the center of the village. This is explained by the fact that most of the pre-trial detention centers were built before 1917 in Tsarist Russia. And in those days, prisons and prisons were the most important city public services.

As for the PS, the women's zones in the regions of Russia were built, as a rule, in Stalin's times. Until the early 60s they were called camps. Such institutions were built away from the main roads. That is why today it is very difficult to get to many of them by public transport.

Where exactly are women's zones in Russia? Addresses and locations are listed above.

Types of PS

What could be the women's zone? First of all, it should be said that penitentiaries belong to the criminal correctional system of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. With the help of colonies, punishments are executed, which are expressed in imprisonment either for a certain period or for life. The penitentiary also contains those sentenced to death.

A zone for women can be a correctional or educational colony, a prison, as well as a medical correctional institution.

Types of IS by modes

As a rule, the Russian women's zone is a penal colony. It contains persons who have already reached the age of eighteen. The criminal correctional system of Russia includes four types of colonies. Their difference lies in the existing modes.

Among them are the colonies:

Settlements;
general regime;
strict regime;
special regime.

However, not all of these correctional facilities are for women. What is the regime on the women's zone? To serve their sentences, criminals are sent only to settlement colonies, where they can live on a common territory with men, as well as to penitentiaries of general regime. In the latter institutions, convicts are separated by gender. Is there a women's zone, a strict regime or a special one in which is applied to convicts? There are no similar correctional institutions for criminals.

Referral of convicts

In what colony will a criminal or a criminal serve his sentence? This is decided by the court. Thus, correctional institutions of general regime are intended for women who have committed grave and especially grave crimes in case of any relapse. In addition, the court, when considering the case, carefully examines the identity of the perpetrator. And taking into account the circumstances of the committed crime, a decision can be made to send a woman who has committed an illegal offense through negligence to a correctional colony. Here, those criminals who must be punished for an unintentional criminal offense, as well as for an act of medium and small gravity, can also serve their sentence. In this case, the crimes must be committed for the first time.

A women's prison (zone) for juveniles is an educational colony with the same general regime. In these institutions, light and ordinary, as well as strict and preferential terms of serving time are established. Juvenile delinquents have one single privilege. In case of conscientious performance of labor duties and the absence of penalties that must be confirmed within the first three months of imprisonment, the administration can transfer them to the usual mode of stay.

Criminals can be sent by the court to settlement colonies, as well as to medical institutions of the law enforcement system. In the territory of these PSs, there is no differentiation by gender. Here, men and women live in buildings located on the same territory. At the same time, separate rooms are provided for them.

A women's prison (zone) is a place where criminals with young children (up to 3 years old) can serve their sentences. The court sends such mothers to colonies where a children's home is opened. Not only women with children, but also pregnant women get into such institutions.

Internal distribution

Directly in the correctional facility, convicted women are settled by the administration. So, criminals who are serving their sentences for the first time are kept separately from those who have already been in the colony before. Women who have received their term for dangerous and especially dangerous criminal offenses are also kept isolated from others.

The administration of the penitentiary places these categories of convicts in separate areas. However, the fulfillment of such conditions becomes not always possible due to the lack of housing, as well as the lack of the necessary organizational and material and technical base.

Conditions of detention

The women's zone (see photo below) provides for the creation of ordinary, light and strict conditions for convicts. Some amendments have been made to the Federal Law relating to these PSs. They touched those ladies who are serving their sentences in facilitated conditions. Thus, such women are allowed to live outside the territory of the colony together with their families if there are six months left before the end of the sentence.

In general, the law does not regulate the conditions of detention in a general regime colony based on gender. Women are granted only minor privileges in the form of an increase in living space (3.5 square meters instead of 2).

In addition, convicted pregnant women and those who have reached the age of 55 can be involved in unpaid work only with their consent. These categories of convicts, as well as minors, must be credited to their personal account with at least fifty percent of their earnings.

According to the penitentiary rules, women can:

Use cosmetics;
purchase necessary things, clothes, etc. in the store on the territory of the institution

In addition, a hairdresser and a photographer work in the correctional colony for convicted women. Women must pay for their services with their own money.

Places of residence

Cells for female convicts can be of various sizes. However, most of them are designed for 40-60 people. Bunk beds are for sleeping. They are installed in two rows. In the people, such sleeping places are called "bunks". Only a few beds, which are set in the opposite corner from the cell doors, can be without a second shelf. This place has its own name - "glade". Here lives the eldest and women close to her, who have long been serving their term.

The cell also has its own kitchen, as well as a toilet with a shower. They are located separately from the main room. Despite the fact that the time for visiting the shower for women is not limited, they can wash their clothes only on certain days.

The camera is cleaned daily. And they do it in the morning and in the evening. On weekends, a mandatory attribute is the general cleaning of the living room, kitchen and toilet. This is done by duty officers who are appointed according to a specific schedule. Refusal to clean is not possible. The only exceptions are those convicted women who have been serving sentences for more than a year.

For poor cleaning, punishment is sure to follow. A guilty woman is assigned additional duty outside the schedule.

Motherhood behind bars

There are maternity wards in the women's zones where children's homes are open. They are created in order to provide medical care to pregnant women serving sentences in a colony. According to the legislation, the administration of such institutions must create all conditions for the normal development and residence of the children there. A convicted mother can communicate with her child in her free time from work. However, they are allowed to live together.

After the baby is three years old, with the consent of the mother, he is transferred to the upbringing of relatives or other persons. Otherwise, the child will be sent to a public child care institution.

A woman is given a short leave to arrange her baby. Its duration is fifteen days, excluding travel. Subsequently, for the same period, the administration of the colony grants the mother annual leave to visit the child.

In the event that the convicted mother has less than a year left to serve her sentence, a three-year-old baby can be left in the orphanage. Here he will wait for the release of his mother. However, such a right is granted only to those women who are distinguished by impeccable behavior.

Pregnant women and women with children under the age of three are entitled to all the rights and benefits provided by Russian law. In addition, they can purchase basic necessities and foodstuffs, health equipment, special clothing and footwear without any restrictions. Payment in this case is made at the expense of funds stored on the personal account of the prisoner.

Employment

The administration of any penal colony has one very important responsibility. It should provide convicts with employment. This takes into account the age of the woman and, if possible, the specialty.

Working convicts are entitled to paid annual leave. Its duration is twelve days, excluding weekends.

Juvenile offenders who are in an educational institution are granted longer leave. It is eighteen business days. The same leave is due to those women who have reached the age of 55.

It is noted that convicted ladies work more diligently than men. Only a small percentage of women do not want to work or treat their duties in bad faith.

In order to diversify the monotonous work of convicts, who are usually employed in the clothing industry, the administration of the penitentiary often offers them new areas of employment. This is knitting and lace weaving, folk crafts, etc.

Leisure

What do convicted women do in their free time? These are, as a rule, minor household chores, satisfying personal needs, writing letters, participating in amateur art activities, playing sports and reading literature. In addition, women are actively involved in religious activities. They help the ministers of the church to conduct the appropriate ceremonies.

Many of the convicts emphasize the importance of unlimited correspondence, as well as the possibility of using a computer network and telephone communications to communicate with close relatives.

What is the hardest part of being in prison?

A woman is assigned a certain social role in society, and other functions are destined than those of men. In addition, representatives of the weaker half of humanity are always distinguished by a way of life and a historically determined place in the system of human relations. And this is not to mention the biological and psychophysiological characteristics of women. What happens to them in places of detention?

Once in the temporary detention facility, the violator of the law finds herself all alone. The fact is that women are rarely placed in temporary detention facilities, and those who end up there are placed separately from men. Such conditions from the first hours are perceived very painfully. The lack of communication with people has a depressing effect on the female psyche.

Further, when an arrest warrant is issued, the violator of the law is transferred to a pre-trial detention center. Prison reality becomes a complete surprise for women. Sometimes this makes the offenders lose their sense of reality. And this is not surprising. After all, every person who finds himself in prison for the first time experiences the strongest stress. And if in the temporary detention center it seems that this whole nightmare will soon end, then in prison it becomes clear that the imprisonment will last at least several months or even more than one year. Informational hunger also influences the psychological state of a woman. It begins to seem to her that her relatives have forgotten her, and her friends have completely abandoned her. This greatly increases the suffering of the prisoner.

In such a situation, only conversations with cellmates have some psychotherapeutic effect. Feminine nature allows you to calm down a bit, sharing at least someone with a sudden misfortune. However, every person sometimes feels the need to be alone with himself. But it is not possible to do this in the chamber. The constant presence of strangers simply begins to annoy and cause anxiety. When such a psycho-emotional state of a woman reaches its maximum level, inevitable conflicts arise. Fortunately, for ladies, they are limited to petty domestic issues and end with conversations in raised tones. Fights in the cells where the ladies who violated the law are located are extremely rare.

After the verdict is passed, the women's zone awaits the criminals. Photos taken in the colony convincingly confirm the fact that there is a lack of personal space here too. Whether it's a building site, a production facility, or a bedroom, prisoners are always in the crowd. In addition, the administration of the colony suppresses any attempts to decorate a nightstand or bed with any pictures or photographs. Even drying underwear on the back of the bed in the daytime can end in punishment.

For a person accustomed to a free life, it will also become difficult to comply with the general regime of lifting, hanging up and eating. It is not easy to spend in common places and free time from work.

Prison clothing negatively affects the psyche of a woman. This is usually a blue or gray skirt or pants, as well as a blouse. For the street, a padded jacket and a scarf are issued, which should be on the woman all day until she returns to spend the night in the barracks. It is this accessory that irritates those serving sentences very much.

What is the meaning of restrictions? They make a woman understand that her usual actions are dangerous. And in order to avoid risk, it is necessary to adopt established rules. Through established discipline, the administration seeks to fit all prisoners into one pattern, forcing them to obey and comply with the rules of the internal order. A person deprived of his personal life begins to lose control over his actions. He is losing the habit of being independent. Often this leads to the fact that, once free, a woman cannot adapt to the ordinary life of society.

As a member of the PMC of Moscow, I repeatedly visited SIZO-6. Although this is a women’s detention center, but there (as well as in the men’s SIZO-4) there are also so-called “b / s”, that is, former policemen, guardsmen, prosecutors, judges, FSB officers, jailers, investigators ...

Employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow have a special relationship with the “BES”: they are kept in small cells; chefs prepare separate meals for them. If ordinary prisoners are given lumps of fat instead of meat, then the "BES" are certainly served meat and of good quality; medical assistance is provided to them in the first place; searches are carried out delicately... That is, in all positions, the "BES" in the isolation ward have a privileged position.

It seemed that the “closed from under the shoulder straps” would have the same special position in the zone - after all, separate correctional facilities were built for them. But it turned out that in the colonies of former judges, prosecutors, investigators and police officers, the same chaos awaits as ordinary prisoners. In general, no matter how cynical it may sound, but this is a good science for those who are still in office and proudly call themselves security officials ...

We continue to talk about the Mordovian strict regime colony No. 5 for "BES". By the way, the issue of Novaya Gazeta dated April 26, 2017 (No. 44), in which the article “ShIZO for their own” was published about what was happening in IK-5 of the Republic of Moldova, was not delivered to the imprisoned subscribers in IK-5. But all the same, as the prisoners say, "the newspaper was pulled into the zone" ...

Map of the Mordovian colonies. Photo: press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service

“I feel uncomfortable when a man touches me”

Vladimir Melnikov (a former employee of the internal troops, a participant in the hostilities in Chechnya. At the end of April 2017, he was released from IK-5 RM. His first and last name have not been changed): , they undress in order to thoroughly inspect, this is understandable, because there are cunning convicts, they can hide something in an elastic band from their underpants. Well, some employees, such as Garkushen (the head of the detachment), can feel it. I feel uncomfortable when a man touches me. I say: "What are you feeling?" And he: “What if you tied something under the balls.” I say: “What are you driving, or what? You look like that, you will see what to feel there. Well, Eroshkin, Ryakshev, Vilyakin, who like to feel, also ... They feel the genitals with their bare hands, without any rubber gloves. They don't even know what gloves are. All of them are young men. I think a normal man will not feel a man. They probe everyone. Sometimes they hurt, obviously on purpose. Most likely, they are gay.

When they touch the genitals with their hands, this can happen in front of several prisoners. Yes, they don't care, they still turn on the video recorders. I say: “Why are you filming, what right do you have to film me when I undress. It's not legal. You search, but turn off the recorder.” They say, "So legal."

These habits of undressing and feeling the genitals appeared under the current bosses - under Anoshin (head of IK-5), under Trofimov (deputy head of IK-5 for BIOR (for security and operational work)) appeared. Before that, somehow they did not undress. This is one of their initiatives.

On January 13, 2017, in the morning, I was taken out of the ShIZO for a search. They searched and, I see, Fedor Petrovich Eroshkin (junior inspector of the OB) is standing on the length (in the corridor) and winding a string around his finger. This lace was adapted to open the window, because there is a local grate that prevents the window from opening. The distance from the grille to the window is about half a meter. The grate is small, the hand cannot get through there. Eroshkin tore off this cord, that is, deprived me of the opportunity to ventilate the room. I say: “Why did you tear off? This room needs to be ventilated. He: "I don't care" - obscenities. And he says: "Let's go for a second search." I say: “I was actually just searched, I don’t have any prohibited items, a second search will not give anything.” Well, they took me for a search. Eroshkin says: "Undress." I began to unbutton my jacket, at that moment he was in my groin with his knee. I doubled over in pain, and at that time he began to jump on my right leg. Then Eroshkin began to beat me with the edge of his hand on the neck from above, below, on the Adam's apple, hit me several times in the stomach. “I will piss you here. You will suck me here now, ”he yelled at me like that. He was foaming right out of his mouth. Vilyakin stood nearby, he is also a junior inspector of the security department, and Butusov (DPNK - duty assistant to the head of the colony), who said: “What are you doing, gasping? What are you…” and insulted me in every possible way.

Vladimir Melnikov

On the same day in the afternoon there was a commission, I was transferred to the PKT (cell-type room). The commission was headed by Trofimov. I told him: "I was attacked in the morning." He held my hand like that from head to toe: “Something,” he says, “you can’t see anything.” And I say: “They hit me, they beat me, I have a swollen scrotum, they hit me with a knee, they trampled my leg, I have a lump here, it hurts me.” He says: "Well, you can't see anything." Political officer Shpartyuk is sitting at the window and says to me: “Well, in two days the gynecologist will arrive, we will call you for an examination.” And all of them who were there (Khilko - BIOR inspector, Trofimov, Shulgin - deputy head of the OVR - department of educational work, Stolyarov - head of the PKT and SUS (strict conditions of detention), Shpartyuk and Shumkin) begin to laugh. I say, “I don't need a gynecologist. Are you behaving normally?" Although Stolyarov is filming me on camera, I am sure that they will not provide the same video where they mock for a report. They then give this video to the club, in the club the convicts cut this video and make video editing, and they already look as they should. And so they behave disgustingly on commissions - they curse, insult, scare ...

I did not receive any medical assistance due to the fact that my scrotum was swollen. On that day after I was attacked, about an hour later there was a round of the medical officer, Lieutenant Kazeeva. I asked her to conduct a medical examination and write a conclusion. But she didn’t give me any help, she didn’t give me a conclusion, she didn’t even examine me. I wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office. Still haven't received any response.

Two old women work as doctors in the colony, and it is high time to retire them. They come, you say: "Give me an aspirin." “What are you doing,” they say, “are you kidding me? Why are you asking me for him, you know that he has been gone for two months already. They come, they don't have any medicines. Basically, you can't go to the doctor. You say, "I'm in pain." She: "Write a statement to the doctor."

Why, you write it, it goes to Korzinkin, that is, it is thrown into the trash can. Employees themselves say: “What, send it to Korzinkin?” I say: "No, tell the doctor." You hand over to the physician, all the same nobody causes.

On March 31 of this year, all the PKTs were taken out at once, although usually each cell is taken out to a separate courtyard. There was a Georgian in the ShIZO, his name is Kakha, he is about 50 years old, they found an open form of tuberculosis in him. He was taken to the hospital, and they came to us, flooded the entire length (corridor) with bleach, in the ShIZO all the cells were flooded. When we were brought in from a walk, they closed us, it was just terrible there, all our eyes burned, all the mucous membranes burned, our head hurt a lot. We then washed and washed there for two weeks all day long, but the bleach still stank and stank. That is, we were simply poisoned like insects. We complained, demanded that we be transferred to another room. Where will we be transferred? Everything was covered with bleach, where we will be transferred. The last ones who were with Kakha in the cell were put on a diet for those two. But before that, he had been in the cell with others, and it is not known when he fell ill with tuberculosis. We all went together to the same bathhouse, for walks. And for walking there are narrow courtyards, just a checkered sky, sheets of metal. We constantly crossed paths with this Georgian. They were supposed to put everyone on a diet and prescribe preventive treatment. But no…

The fact that I wrote complaints affected the content. At first, the bosses said: "Write wherever you want." And you start writing, they start pressing. They make far-fetched reports, put them in a punishment cell in order to show others and you that whoever writes suffers, so that the desire to write, to fight for justice, disappears. The bulk of the convicts are therefore afraid to write something, because they are dating, on parole. And the second mass is afraid, because they will put them in the SUS, in the PKT, roll them up in a punishment cell ...

In the zone, they mock us as they want. Here the miscalculation should be carried out within 40 minutes, well, hours. According to the law, it is necessary: ​​at minus 25, checks are carried out in units, there is no charge. But under Anoshin and under Averkin, it doesn’t matter: it’s raining, frost, 27-28, they are driven out to exercise, miscalculations for two, three hours. For example, the same raid comes, winter, frost, they kick us out in the morning and we stand on our feet in the frost for four to six hours. Well, that is, they sneer as they want. In the cold, they can be searched - take off your hat, unbutton your pea jacket. You say: "It's cold outside." “So what? I don't care". You come to the detachments after these searches, things are all in a heap. Imagine, there are 150 of us in the detachment, each of us has a trunk signed, with a tag, each has his own things in the trunk. You come, and a mountain of things in the middle of the corridor, right into one pile of trunks, everything is shaken out on the floor, and that's it. Everything is broken, torn apart. Panels, ceilings, walls are torn off in the rooms… They behave like barbarians.”

"Kozloderka"

Prisoners of IK-5, Mordovia

Ivan Mordvin (former investigator of the Investigative Committee, prisoner of IK-5 RM, name and surname have been changed for the safety of the prisoner): “There are beatings of prisoners in the colony. But such things do not take out into the street, it does not happen in front of everyone. One was taken away, the other was taken either to the ShIZO or to the duty unit, that is, to a place where unauthorized persons, except employees, are not allowed. Here, in the colony, such a know-how is practiced: if the employee does not like you (I will not say, the employee is objective, not objective), he takes you to the “goat shed”. It is located directly opposite the duty station. This is the search room, colloquially referred to as the "goat shed".

This room is designed for people who are new to the colony to be searched, and then bred in quarantine or in detachments. That is, this is an ordinary search room where you cannot be kept for more than 20 minutes, according to the law. And not according to the law, you can go out in slippers on the street, in the same slippers because you were in slippers on the street, they put you in this "goat shed", and you can sit there for up to three days without food and without bedding, because there is no bed, there is no bunk, there is only a table. And you will be taken out once a day to the toilet. They can put several people there, because one employee didn’t like one prisoner, another didn’t like another ... The previous boss Averkin (this is the predecessor of the current boss) stuffed 40 people there last summer, they really stood there like herrings. The size of the room is quite small: the width is 2.5, and the length is about 3.50 meters. How can 40 people fit in there? And it's easy. Someone stood on the table, there is a U-shaped table in the middle, on which the convicts who arrive lay out their things, and in the middle of the letter “P” there is an employee and looks, searches all these things. Someone stood on this table, someone stood on the bench, someone clung to ...

Naturally, in no way is the landing in the "goat shed" made out. Why is the prisoner not sent to the ShIZO, but locked in this room? And it’s easier for employees - you don’t need to draw up in any way. And then in the ShIZO the convict will have at least some square meters, he will sleep there at night, albeit on bunk beds that recline only at night, but with bed linen. And being placed in this room is just a form of punishment.

Our boss, except for money, is not interested in anything. You see, because of the constant pulling out to the duty unit, being placed in the "goat shed" and the fear of beatings, people do not grumble. No one will openly oppose the administration, because they will snatch him out alone, whoever trampled him, will be taken to the duty unit, Khilko will come there, Trofimov will come and personally take up the upbringing.

If you write a complaint to the prosecutor's office? So she will not leave the colony. Those who have access to the Internet write complaints, but not on their own behalf. Afraid.

Here is the mutual guarantee of the prosecutor's office, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Mordovia and the colony. They all know each other, they are all relatives, they live in the same place… Here is an example. The prosecutor for supervision arrived, all the convicts, so that they would not get to the reception, were herded into detachments, and an employee of the administration stood up near each detachment and did not let anyone out into the street. No one could break through to the prosecutor. After all, the prosecutor himself could enter the detachment. But he does not go to the detachments, he does not need it. He arrives, well, maybe for the sake of formality, maybe for show, so that the time was put down in the visitor's book at the checkpoint that he arrived at so-and-so, left at so-and-so. When the prosecutor arrived and walked with the head of the colony, one convict was in the library at that time (and our library is located outside the local sectors, that is, if you are in the library, you can safely leave there). And so he waited until the prosecutor with the then head of the colony Averkin passed by the library, left there and rushed to the prosecutor. The chief saw, said: “Stop, where are you going?” He says: "Me to the prosecutor." Well, the prosecutor can no longer lose face in front of the convict, he says: "Yes, I'm listening to you." And the prisoner began to complain about the head of the colony right in his presence. The prosecutor listened to everything, turned to the head of the colony, said: "Well, let's go, we will fix this in writing." You know what chief Averkin said to this prisoner, right in front of the prosecutor: “I will rot you. Here he will leave, and I will rot you. Averkin was the acting head of the colony for a year. In general, he was in operational management, he was an operator at the Federal Penitentiary Service for Mordovia and supervised our colony, that is, he was our supervising opera. Now he is the deputy head of the operational department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Mordovia.

Vladimir Melnikov: " Employees take everything - letters, manuscripts, statements to the prosecutor's office, which, in principle, are not subject to censorship. The Dubravny prosecutor arrives, calls, I go to him. Before that, they search me, take away these manuscripts. I go to the prosecutor (the last time was the prosecutor Mashkov), I told him: “I was going to you, an operative detained me, took the documents.” The prosecutor says: “I'm not interested now. I came for a different reason. The chief prosecutor (Melnikov) sent me to ask you for an explanation about the attack on you on January 13th. The other one doesn't interest me. I generally have now, - he says, - a day off. I say: “Come to work then. How can you not be interested, you are a prosecutor, you are obliged to respond.” Prosecutor: “Nothing like that, I'm not interested. I told you, I just need to take an application.” The prosecutor's office covers everything here."

“We can’t, we will be fired from work”

Ivan Mordvin:“A psychologist for a colony should be a courier between convicts and administration staff. Listen to claims, complaints, maybe something happened at someone's house, some personal tragedy, and just listen to the person, help with advice. And we have psychologists engaged in search activities. That is, employees of the OB (security department) voluntarily tell the psychologist: “Come with me to search.” We go home from work, psychologists stand and search us on a par with other employees of the administration. We go to work, again psychologists are standing there ... There is no trust in them.

In general, this colony is characterized by the fact that for the most part the employees of the administration are engaged in affairs unusual for themselves. When the head of the detachment searches you, you immediately associate him with an operative or with a member of the security department. When an operative comes to a garment factory and says: “Why don’t you work?”, you ask him a counter question: “You are an operative, you are not a production worker, what do you need here at all?” And they still have a plug in every barrel. You can draw an analogy, it's the same if you go to the police office to the investigator and say: "So, the investigators got together, took machine guns, took bulletproof vests - and went out to patrol." And the PPSniks will sit in the place of investigators to investigate criminal cases. That's about the same thing happens in this colony with the official duties of employees.

Employees of the administration, junior cadres, whatever they are told, they will do, they do not contradict the bosses. They can then come to the prisoners when their colleagues are not around, and complain about how difficult it is for them to work, how they cannot stand it. And when you tell them: “Take courage, say that this is not part of your job duties and you will not do this,” they say: “We can’t, we will be fired from work.” Because there is such a village here, and he receives 30-40 thousand rubles as an officer of the Federal Penitentiary Service. And he can’t donate that kind of money and go somewhere to work, because, firstly, he doesn’t know how to do anything except how to yell at the prisoners, and, secondly, who needs him, except for the FPS.

Colony employees work here for life and positions are inherited. We have several such cases in the colony, when children work directly with their fathers, they can even be on duty in one shift. There is no staff rotation here.

Bad smell of sausages

Production of sausages in IK-5. Photo: press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service

Ivan Mordvin:“The administration really feeds us with slop, they feed us disgustingly. We have a sausage shop in the colony, where they make sausage for sale.

Previously, pigs were bred in the colony, but a year ago there was some kind of epidemic in all the pigsties, and in our colony, including, they, as it were, burned all the pigs. Well, how did you burn it? Closed pigsties. They fed the pigs to us, they threw them into the gruel.

Now the colony just buys minced meat. In this sausage shop, they also make sausages ( according to the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Republic of Moldova, IK-5 produces sausages "Classic".-EAT.) I know for sure that they entered into agreements with soldiers, with other penal colonies for the supply of sausages. They make a ton, and their refrigerator can only hold 100 kilograms, and the rest of the sausages go out stupidly. If they do not have time to deliver to the consumer, rotten sausages are fed to prisoners. When a tank with these sausages is opened in the dining room, such a fetid smell, such a greenish smoke from this pan comes out, that it is clear that this is poison. Prisoners who can't buy food from hucksters eat these sausages. And they have nothing else to do. They are tormented by their stomachs, but they eat. Sausages are not given every day, but three times a week for sure.

The question arises: what is the point of making so many sausages if the refrigerator is a hundred kilograms? To make everything go rotten? After all, they could make fewer sausages, or buy a larger refrigerator. It seems to me that they write off money through us in this way, they write off raw materials on us. They allegedly buy more, but in reality less goes into production.

Vladimir Melnikov: " Sausages are disgusting. The last time they were given, so they were not just with a smell, they were green-gray, well, just rotten, you see, rotten stuff in general. I couldn't eat it. Someone ate, some units. But the bulk of them didn’t eat, of course.”

Photo: press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service

Ivan Mordvin:“In addition to sausages, this shop also makes sausages: boiled-smoked and raw-smoked sausages. I can't say it's rotten, but it really doesn't taste good. In terms of price-quality ratio, this sausage will not stand the competition. It costs 400 rubles a kilogram. But really, there is no meat at all. On the territory of the colony there is a shop where you can buy something to eat for yourself, including this sausage ( according to the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Republic of Moldova, IK-5 has mastered the production of three types of sausages with loud marketing names: boiled sausage "Kremlevskaya", semi-smoked sausage "Dvoryanskaya" and semi-smoked sausage "Delegatskaya". — EAT.)»

Vladimir Melnikov: " The food given to the prisoners is disgusting. In the morning they give ordinary cereals boiled in water - barley, chopped, cells. All this with tares. The quality of cereals is such that they only feed horses. Well, how they feed us cattle. During the six months that I spent in the ShIZO, in the PKT, we were only given rice on the water twice - on Easter and the next day. Buckwheat was given recently. She is all black. What is usually thrown away when the cereal is sorted out, they gave us, all blackness.

Soup is served for lunch. Well, you can eat with hunger. Don't even ask about meat. What kind of meat? Salo floats in the soup - this is at best. The second is boiled pasta with water, well, the porridge is so sticky. Pasta is dark, the lowest grade that can be. Well, chicken bones can give. The whole pulp is cut, the bones are boiled and given. And everything is fresh. Salt is not given to us. Bread gives kerosene. I don't know what kind of flour it was baked with. And the bread is always raw, it constantly hurts my stomach.

They give light tea, no taste, nothing. It is slightly sweetened. There is no milk at all: neither in cereals, nor like that, there is none at all. Although the law requires 100 g of meat, 100 g of milk. Eggs can be given once every two weeks.

For dinner, they usually give potatoes directly with rotten, with cabbage, with water, such as vegetable stew. Potatoes in the kitchen are not cleaned immediately before cooking. Potatoes are brought in in advance, for example, a car of 10 bags, and once they clean it all. Nothing is picked out, no eyes, no rot, nothing is cut off. There are blue barrels of 170 liters of water, about five. They peel these potatoes for a week or two with an electric potato peeler and throw them into the water. And when a potato floats in water for a week or two, it becomes covered with a sour crust, well, it turns sour, and it floats in these barrels. Then they just take it out, chop it up and give it to the prisoners. If it’s mashed potatoes, then they can dilute it with raw tap water to the level of jelly.”

Ivan Mordvin:“The food in the cafeteria is very, very, very disgusting. Those who can afford, do not eat there. They only take bread. Well, if you press, of course, you will go there to eat, because there will be nothing else left.

Of course, there are hucksters in our colony, but the administration is fighting with them, they are not satisfied with them. Seven months ago, a new leadership came to us, Andrey Viktorovich Anoshin became the head of the colony, well, we call him “master”. He immediately began to fight hard with the hucksters. They are put in a ShIZO, preventive conversations are constantly held with them. The administration will soon overcome all hucksters. Let their prices be high, but without them it is impossible, really impossible. Only a few hucksters remained in the colony: Bely in the 11th detachment, Stepukhov in the 2nd detachment, Cherdantsev in the 10th detachment, Gazin and Klimov in the 6th detachment.

Corruption is everywhere, but, on the other hand, if there were no telephones, if there were no such corruption in the colony, we would not be able to report all the arbitrariness. In my personal opinion, hucksters for convicts brighten up a little life. Well, they really help a lot. This is an ordinary market economy. Yes, they have high prices, no one argues with this, the cheat on the same Snickers bar is exactly two times. The hucksters "Snickers" now cost 95 rubles in the colony. They sell sausage, cheese, depending on the type of cheese, its cost can be from 400 to 700 rubles, but on average they buy cheap varieties, because we don’t care about fat here, if we live.

Personally, I can afford to buy from hucksters, and, of course, hucksters take advantage of this. Others cannot buy, and this is why they resent the hucksters. The colony now has a little less than a thousand people. Two-thirds can afford to buy from hucksters. I buy five thousand rubles a month from hucksters. This is not much, because I have the opportunity to call taxi drivers myself, transfer money to taxi drivers, and taxi drivers bring food here without the mediation of hucksters. Some prisoners are not sent parcels, they have a limit on receiving a parcel, they give it to me. They simply do not have the opportunity to “warm up”, they are not sent anything, some simply do not have relatives. They also benefit from such a symbiosis. Because they don’t give away the right to send a parcel for free, they also get a thousand rubles, or a block of cigarettes, as they themselves want. I don't take it for free from them. I go to some person, the poor fellow, as we call them, and I say: “Do you have a limit?” He says, "Yes, there is." - "Will you?" - "Give" - ​​"What do you want?" He says: "A block of cigarettes." Please, a block of cigarettes. A thousand rubles? Please, a thousand rubles. In the zone, a block of Donskoy Tabak cigarettes (the most popular cigarettes in our country) costs 90 rubles a pack, that is, a block costs 900 rubles. In fact, the same thousand.

It is beneficial for the administration when people buy from them in the store, for example, the same smoked chickens, because the profit goes to the colony's budget. In this regard, last year they stopped accepting any food products in programs, except for canned food, dryers, crackers. They issued a special order, I don’t know how legal it is. In all other Mordovian colonies, you can order “Doctor’s” sausage and grilled chicken through the Internet transfer, only in our colony such transfers are prohibited.

I call the taxi driver, I say: “Dear, would you be so kind, I will transfer the money to you, please bring me 20 pieces of chickens for such a person.” He brings, and they tell him: “You can’t transfer grilled chicken.” He says "why?" “Everything, ban. We have an order, the chief said not to transfer. But at the same time, grilled chicken is quietly sold in the colony's store. They cost depending on weight, from 190 to 230-240 rubles - half a chicken. Expensive. It can be prepared both in the canteen and on other colonies. Our colony, for example, makes sausage, but smoked chicken is made in another colony, on the 14th. On the 2nd colony (this is a female colony) - carbonated sweet water in one and a half liter bottles, it is called "Dvoechka". Disgusting water, but they take it too.

The administration forbade bringing into the colony what was cooked on a date.

If earlier on a long date with your parents or your wife, on the last day you fry there, steam, cook chicken, cutlets, pilaf, scrambled eggs, pack it all in bags and then calmly take it out and eat it with your friends, put it in refrigerators, somehow you try to stretch, but now it's all banned. From a date, you can canned food, you can take out drying, and ready-made food is prohibited.

Seamstress and logs

Ivan Mordvin:“There is a city-forming enterprise in the zone, where most of the money comes from - this is a garment production. That is, it's dust, threads... In the summer you sweat stupidly in this workshop, because 300 people are sitting, the engines of each sewing machine are running, everything is heated... In the summer, the workshop sometimes heats up to 45 degrees. The current boss, Anoshin, first of all, when he came, closed the shower room in the sewing shop. He said: “Your production is not dirty. You belong to the category of light industry. In light industry, a shower after work is not allowed. Everyone sews, everyone works, there are locksmiths, electricians, garment workers there too ... Everyone is in this dust and simply sweating. The working day ends, and you can’t wash yourself, you go dirty to your barque. I am extremely annoyed by the manner of the current leadership, they have deprived us of even basic amenities - an elementary shower. They say: "You are supposed to wash once a week, so wash yourself." Although, according to the law, there should be a bath not once a week, but twice.

We complained, wrote a complaint that, according to the new internal regulations, it is necessary to wash twice a week, but we were given only once a week. Both the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Supervisory Prosecutor's Office replied that they wash us twice a week. In fact, there is only one. And how can we prove that we are not washed twice? No way. Only testimonies of prisoners. But the prisoners are afraid to testify against the administration.

More about working hours. According to the schedule approved by the head of the colony on February 14 this year, the working day lasts from 9.00 to 18.00. From 18.00 to 18.30 - whoever wants, then does. And in fact, the working day is until 18.30. Who at 18.15-18.20 got up because of the typewriter, he spends the night in the ShIZO and can spend 15-40 days there. In order not to pay us the full rate, so as not to count the eight-hour working day (from 9 to 18), they made a lunch break not for an hour, but for an hour and a half (from 12 to 13.30). But in fact, all the same, by 13.00 they return and work. That is, we illegally increase the working day by half an hour. On Sunday, April 30, we were voluntarily-compulsorily deprived of Sunday and driven to work. What was explained? And they didn't explain anything.

There are about 250 machines in the workshop, that is, 250 sewing workers plus attendants (that is, trimming, grinding, linkmen, which are cut back and forth), the workshop must throw out about 500 ready-made suits per day. Prisoners sew robes, suits, uniforms. Sewn, for example, janitor suits. Now costumes are being sewn for private security companies and at the same time Antignus costumes with a mesh on the face are being sewn. The suit "Bastion" is sewn.

We sewed a suit for our army three or four months ago. A very complex suit, sand-colored, for Syria. Nobody got into the norm. It was a very expensive suit. The firm paid 650 rubles for tailoring one product. And on the website of this company, the same suit costs 12 thousand rubles. The fact that the company paid the colony for a suit is considered a lot of money, because on average, firms pay us 150-200 rubles for a suit. Garment workers who fulfill the norm (and it is always too high) receive the minimum wage: 3-4 thousand. But if there are 200 people in the shop, then out of 200 people 20 are able to fulfill this norm. In general, we are a cheap labor force. I call myself a slave. I have a higher education and everything, but I am a slave. I'm really a slave at the Federal Penitentiary Service. This is due to the attitude towards us in the colony, and because of the salary. After all, basically we are paid a penny, no more than 200 rubles a month. That is, half a kilogram of disgusting sausage. But what can you do…”

Vladimir Melnikov:“When I first arrived at the zone, I worked. In the sewing shop, at the milling. I worked for a month, I was paid 40 rubles. I came to the boss and said: “What kind of slave wages is this? I worked decently for a month. I'm not asking me to pay 30 thousand, I understand everything, but I certainly earned at least a couple of thousand. What kind of humiliation is this? He: “What you earned is what you got.” I say: "Well, you'll figure it out." He says: “Why figure it out, we have it like that here. Where did you get? In the zone "Well, if such a payment, then why should I work. And I began to write complaints. Since I have a serious illness, I was taken to the hospital. And there I was prescribed restrictions on work - to exclude night shifts, work in a noisy room ... Well, in the end, there was no work for me in the zone.

Photo: press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service

Ivan Mordvin:“In addition to sewing, we have coal production. For one company, we produce charcoal for barbecue for barbecue in barrels. About 40 people work at this production. These are such large barrels with a firebox, with a volume of 5 thousand liters. Birch logs are laid there, the barrel is melted and birch logs are converted into coal under temperature in three days. Then prisoners in gas masks climb in and shovel out this coal, load it into cardboard bags of five kilograms, a car arrives and picks them up. And people in the wild fry kebabs on this coal. Of course, we have no complaints about the people who buy this coal, but the production itself is harmful both for the prisoners and for the residents of the village. The environmental prosecutor's office gave permission to our administration to use 10 barrels, and all barrels must have a common hood - a high pipe. But in fact it turned out that we have 15 barrels, 10 barrels smoke into a large pipe and the smoke spreads high above the ground, that is, you do not breathe it. And five barrels, when they are flooded, they smoke directly above the ground. That is, you walk and breathe it all. This smoke goes to the local village where people live, children breathe this fumes, this fumes settle everywhere in them.

About a year and a half ago, we had a foreman here of the steam power department, the so-called PSH, which is responsible for heating the premises in winter. Konstantin Iost was his name. The administration (deputy chief Trofimov) said: “Now we are putting barrels, coal will be made in them, pipes must be laid to them so that smoke goes through them.” Without insurance, at their own peril and risk, they drove him: "Let's climb the pipe." Jost says: “How can I climb the pipe? What if I fall out of there? “Well, it’s okay,” they say, “you’ll figure it out.” He climbed on this barrel of five tons (it's about half a railway tank, but the same height). He had to weld a pipe from the barrel. The pipe into which the smoke goes is 30-40 meters. Well, he stumbled, fell, the pipe fell on top of him. Dead body. Trofimov, of course, said: “I didn’t give instructions to anyone to climb the barrel, what are you talking about? We are without insurance ... God forbid. Well, that's it, refuse ... "

"Need to chip in for repairs"

Ivan Mordvin:“We live in a detachment, the supply manager comes, presses the bell, everyone gathers in the PVR (room for political and educational work), this is the place where they watch TV. This is the largest room where the whole squad can fit. And the supply manager says: “Guys, our roof is leaking, we need to block it. If we do not block it ourselves, then you understand that the administration will not help us in this. In short, guys, I'm waiting for the money. Although the administration allocated money for repairs. But they do not go directly to the barracks.

Let's say the roof leaked in the dressing room of the detachment and go to the administration with this problem and say that “we have a roof leak, allocate money”, of course, they will not allocate money, even if they have it. They will say, “Do it on your own. The only thing, they say, is how we will help you, we close our eyes, that we will allow you to drive (well, that is, bring to the zone) cement, plaster ... ”That is, they are still doing a favor for the fact that we are doing their work. They have such a logic here. They take it to their credit.

For example, a church was built in the colony, a log cabin of the church. It was built for four years and for four years the convicts collected money for these purposes. The administration came and said: "We need to report that we are building a church." As a result, the church was built, but with the money of the convicts.

I'm not talking about any household appliances. All televisions, refrigerators, all microwave ovens, which are in all units, were bought at the expense of convicts. They all have inventory numbers on them, as if it belongs to a colony, but in fact they were all bought with the money of convicts.”

Vladimir Melnikov: “The supply manager gathers a detachment in the PVRk and says:“ We must chip in for repairs. A list is kept - who, how much. If you didn’t hand over the money, the head of the detachment pulls you: “So, now you are on the 106th for refusing to work ( By Article 106 of the Penal Code “Involvement of convicts to deprivation of liberty to work without pay”, convicts may be involved in work on the improvement of correctional institutions and the territories adjacent to them for no more than two hours a week. Refusal to work may result in the placement of a prisoner in a ShIZO or PKT. — EAT.). Employees personally start to shmonat you. Special attention is being paid to you from all sides. The amounts demanded were different. They demanded both 500 rubles and 200 rubles for household work. Differently. Once a month it was at least necessary to hand over, and it happened several times a month. Either we need to collect on the roof, let's throw off 300 rubles each, then let's 200 for paint ... ".

Revenge

Vladimir Melnikov:“I was given supervision for three years. That is, from 10 pm to 6 am, sit at home and celebrate twice a month. This is what the colony decided. I was illegally recognized as a malicious violator. The judge didn't even listen to me. This is the revenge of the colony for the fact that I wrote complaints against them.

Do you know what words the colony staff used to escort me to freedom? "Well, what, soon you wait?" I say, "I'm not going here." And so, it’s also impossible to promise, now is such a time. They say: “Well, what, will there be complaints?” I say: "Well, of course, I will continue to seek justice for your illegal actions." They say: “Come on, come on, good luck to you, write, we don’t care, unsubscribe if you still don’t understand ...”