Mashivka Correctional Colony (No. 9)
The state institution “Mashivka Correctional Colony (No. 9)” is a minimum-security institution with low-security conditions for men sentenced to imprisonment. The institution is located in the village of Kustolovo-Sukhodilka, Poltava District, Poltava Region, and is part of the structure of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine. The history of the institution dates back to 1922, when an agricultural-type correctional labour colony was created on the basis of a former landed estate in the village of Hrynevshchyna (now Kustolovo-Sukhodilka).
It became one of the first institutions of this profile in the Poltava region. Convicts worked in agriculture, as well as in brickworks and alcohol production.
Initially, both men and women were held in the colony, and its activities were based primarily on agricultural production. Throughout various historical periods, the institution changed its name, subordination, and functional purpose several times. In the 1930s, it operated as an agricultural correctional labour colony, and during the Second World War, it was evacuated.
After the liberation of the Poltava region, the institution’s activities were restored, and convicts were again engaged in work in agriculture and local production. In 1953, the colony was liquidated, and its farm was transferred to a state agricultural enterprise. As early as the end of 1956, the institution was restored as the correctional labour colony No. 9 with an agricultural profile.
In subsequent decades, it was reorganised several times in accordance with changes in the criminal and criminal-executive legislation of Ukraine. From 1971, an experimental settlement colony for persons convicted of negligent crimes functioned at the institution. Later, it was repurposed into a settlement colony for persons who had embarked on the path of correction, and after the entry into force of the new Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine, it received its modern status as a minimum-security institution with low-security conditions.
At the institution, there is also a section for persons sentenced to the punishment of restraint of liberty. Traditionally, one of the key areas of the colony’s activity is agricultural production, which is combined with the organisation of paid labour, vocational training, and social-educational work with convicts. At the same time, the realisation of the right to work must comply with the requirements of labour legislation, the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine, and international standards in the field of human rights.
After the beginning of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation, the institution’s activities are carried out under martial law, which has increased attention to issues of ensuring the convicts’ right to life, healthcare, access to medical care, and other fundamental rights. The Mashivka Correctional Colony is regularly under the attention of state and public control bodies.
Over the years, it has been visited by representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, and independent human rights organisations. During monitoring visits, the conditions of detention of convicts, the realisation of the right to work, the use of civil-law contracts, the provision of social insurance for working convicts, medical care, access to education, material and living conditions, disciplinary practice, and compliance with international standards for the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty are examined.
The results of such visits are used to prepare recommendations for eliminating identified violations and improving the institution’s activities.
Contact information: State institution “Mashivka Correctional Colony (No. 9)”, 39433, Poltava Region, Poltava District, v. Kustolovo-Sukhodilka, Lisna St., 1/1
Head of the institution: YAKOVLIEV Ihor Serhiiovych
Telephone: (0532) 64-10-29