Kamianske Penal Colony (No. 34)

The state institution ‘Kamianske Penal Colony (No. 34)’ is a minimum-security institution with general conditions of detention for women who have been sentenced to imprisonment for a specific term for the first time.

The institution is located in the city of Kamianske, Dnipropetrovsk region, and is part of the structure of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine.

The history of the institution dates back to the post-war period. In 1949, after the repatriation of German prisoners of war who were involved in the reconstruction of the Dzerzhinsky Dniprovskyi Metallurgical Combine, a women’s correctional institution was created on the territory near the enterprise. At that time, it functioned as a camp unit of the Department of Correctional-Labour Colonies of the Internal Affairs Department of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Executive Committee. The first years of the institution’s existence were spent in difficult conditions. Convicts were held in wooden and frame-filling barracks that did not meet modern requirements for living and domestic conditions. Despite this, the number of the contingent exceeded two thousand people. That is why the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR made a decision to build a new, modern complex for a women’s penal colony. A new stage in the development of the institution began in 1987, when large-scale construction of a new complex was launched outside the urban area, near the Dnipro–Kyiv highway. The project envisaged the creation of modern infrastructure for the time for the detention of female convicts, the organisation of their labour, education, and socio-educational work. On 10 October 1992, the newly built colony officially began its activities.

After the declaration of Ukraine’s independence, the institution continued to function as part of the national penitentiary system and passed through several stages of organisational reform.

By an order of the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Sentences dated 29 November 2005, the institution was designated as a minimum-security penal colony with general conditions of detention for women sentenced to imprisonment for the first time. Over the years, women convicted of minor or medium-gravity crimes, as well as serious and particularly serious crimes, have served sentences at the institution.

After the renaming of the city of Dniprodzerzhynsk to Kamianske in 2016, the institution received its modern name — the state institution ‘Kamianske Penal Colony (No. 34)’.

Today, the colony remains the only specialised women’s penal colony in the Dnipropetrovsk region and plays an important role in the system of execution of criminal sentences.

The institution ensures proper conditions of detention for convicts, the organisation of labour, access to education, professional training, and socio-educational and psychological work aimed at the resocialisation of women and their preparation for returning to society.

Contact information: State institution ‘Kamianske Penal Colony (No. 34)’, 51912, Dnipropetrovsk region, Kamianske, Mykhaila Hrushevskoho Street, 214

Head of the institution: ABRAMOVYCH Karina Oleksandrivna

Telephone: +38 (097) 113-02-55 E-mail: [email protected]