Cherkasy Pre-trial Detention Centre

The Cherkasy Pre-trial Detention Centre is a pre-trial detention institution that ensures the custody of persons held under arrest, as well as the execution of sentences for certain categories of convicts in accordance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation.

The history of the institution dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1913, the Cherkasy City Duma passed a resolution on the construction of an investigative prison, which was put into operation in 1916. In 1932, a complex of buildings of a former mill on the current Blahovisna Street, where the institution is still located today, was converted for use as a pre-trial detention facility.

During the Second World War, the premises were used by the occupying authorities as a place for holding detainees and prisoners of war. After the liberation of Cherkasy, the complex was restored, and in 1964, a pre-trial detention centre was officially established on its base.

At the end of the 1990s, a second security block and a canteen building were constructed, and individual infrastructure facilities were modernized. Today, the Cherkasy Pre-trial Detention Centre is part of the structure of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine and performs the functions of a pre-trial detention centre and a detention house, and also contains a maximum-security sector for holding persons sentenced to life imprisonment.

A significant portion of the institution’s buildings is of an advanced age, which necessitates constant reconstruction and modernization of the engineering infrastructure and residential premises in accordance with modern requirements. Over the last few years, the institution has been visited multiple times by representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, and human rights organizations.

During monitoring visits, the conditions of detention for those arrested and convicted, the state of medical care, compliance with the right to healthcare, material and living conditions, the right to privacy, and other aspects of ensuring human rights were evaluated.

The results of these visits included recommendations aimed at further bringing the institution’s activities into compliance with national and international standards for the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.

Contact information for the State Institution “Cherkasy Pre-trial Detention Centre” Address: 234 Blahovisna St., Cherkasy, Cherkasy region, 18015

Head: Roman Anatoliiovych Diachenko

Telephone: (0472) 37-51-40

Email: [email protected]