Bozhkiv Correctional Colony (No. 16)

The state institution “Bozhkiv Correctional Colony (No. 16)” is a medium-security institution for the detention of men who have previously served a sentence of imprisonment. The institution is located in the village of Bozhkivske, Poltava District, Poltava Region, and is part of the structure of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine. The Bozhkiv Correctional Colony is one of the oldest penitentiary institutions in Ukraine, with a history dating back to the 1920s.

In 1923, the Pervozvanivka Agricultural Colony was created in the Poltava region, designed to provide food for the region’s places of detention. In 1925, in accordance with the decisions of the authorities of the time, the colony was moved closer to the Bozhkiv railway station, where the Bozhkiv Agricultural Colony was created on the basis of former landed estates. This year is considered the beginning of the modern institution’s history. Over the following decades, the colony actively developed as a large agricultural complex. It had thousands of hectares of land, livestock farms, agricultural machinery, and production facilities in its use.

The labour of convicts was primarily linked to agriculture, which remained the institution’s main area of activity for a long time. During the Second World War, the colony was evacuated, and its material base suffered significant losses.

After the liberation of the Poltava region in 1943, the gradual restoration of the farm and residential infrastructure began. In the post-war period, production and administrative premises, dormitories, communal facilities, and housing for staff were rebuilt. In the 1960s–1980s, alongside agricultural production, the institution’s industrial enterprise was actively developed.

Modern mechanical workshops were created, and the production of gearboxes, metal products, electrical engineering products, and other industrial goods was mastered. During this period, large-scale construction of residential buildings, production facilities, and social infrastructure also took place. In 1976, part of the lands and production base of the Bozhkiv Colony became the basis for the creation of the Kryukiv Correctional Colony No. 29. After the declaration of Ukraine’s independence, the institution’s activities were adapted to the new conditions of the criminal-executive system’s functioning. In 1999, it received its modern name — the state institution “Bozhkiv Correctional Colony (No. 16)”.

Production was reoriented according to market needs, and the main focus gradually shifted to ensuring the execution of sentences, the organisation of convicts’ labour, vocational training, and social-educational work. Today, the institution continues to combine production activities with the fulfilment of its primary function — ensuring the execution of criminal sentences.

One of the important directions remains the realisation of the convicts’ right to paid labour, which must be carried out in accordance with the requirements of national legislation, international standards, and with proper social insurance for the working persons.

With the beginning of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation, the institution’s activities are carried out under martial law, which has made the issues of ensuring the convicts’ right to life, medical care, the maintenance of social ties, and safe conditions of detention more relevant.

The Bozhkiv 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, access to medical care, material and living provision, the application of disciplinary practice, the functioning of resocialisation programmes, and the compliance of the institution’s activities with national legislation and international standards in the field of human rights protection are examined. The results of such monitoring are an important tool for identifying systemic problems and preparing recommendations for their elimination.

Contact information: State institution “Bozhkiv Correctional Colony (No. 16)”, 38718, Poltava Region, Poltava District, v. Bozhkivske, Tsentralna St., 5

Head of the institution: PROVOROTSKYI Ihor Vasylovych

Telephone: (0532) 55-42-10