Human rights activist Bukalov: I would not be surprised if a riot breaks out in one of Ukraine's colonies

At the end of July, in Nikitovka Correctional Colony No. 87 in the town of Horlivka, Donetsk region, nine prisoners inflicted bodily injuries upon themselves. As the head of the press service of the regional administration of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences, Anatoly Bondarenko, explained to journalists, the act of self-harm was committed by inmates held in the so-called “high-security section”. “Prisoners who regularly violate the regime are placed there. There are only eleven such individuals in this section. Nine of them scratched themselves,” said A. Bondarenko. According to him, the prisoners only “scratched” themselves, and none of them required hospitalisation...

Perhaps for the colony itself, this is not an extraordinary occurrence, but in recent years, such emergencies have begun to occur suspiciously often – incidents in the Donetsk colony, Sokal high-security colony No. 47 (Lviv region), Volnyansk colony No. 20, Dnipropetrovsk colony No. 89, Sverdlovsk colony No. 38 (Luhansk region)...

“Ostrov” asked Alexander Bukalov, head of the human rights organisation “Donetsk Memorial”, to comment on the situation in Ukrainian penal colonies.

- Alexander Pavlovich, are you claiming that a riot in a penal colony is possible?

- I have concerns that serious, large-scale incidents in places of detention in Ukraine are possible. This is because, to prevent this, the most important thing is for the colony staff to work professionally. For example, consider how the administration acted in one colony where two new prisoners attempted to “assert their rights”. Upon arrival at the colony, the two prisoners declared: “Give us the press, our rights are being violated!” The colony administration acted very correctly: they called a non-governmental organisation and invited journalists. Upon learning of this, the prisoners abruptly changed their intentions and refused both the meeting and their demands. The conflict was resolved, as the agitators merely intended to simulate a violation of their rights. There were no grounds for it whatsoever. This is an example of professional conduct by staff.

It is not excluded that mass disturbances in a colony could occur not so much as a protest against real and serious violations of prisoners’ rights, but rather on the basis of simulated violations, where prisoners might attempt to abuse the opportunity to report administration violations to the press. I have encountered such cases. Prisoners speak of violations by the administration, and there is indeed a grain of truth in their words. However, upon a detailed study of the situation, it turns out that such conflicts with the administration are conflicts based on the principle of “you bother me, and I will bother you in my own way”. This is an element of confrontation with the administration; there are no serious problems there. It is simply an attempt to pressure the institution’s administration through the hands of human rights activists and journalists. And I do not exclude that, if there is a desire to “needle” the administration of a colony, provocations by the inmates are possible anywhere. It is not excluded that the recent incident in the Nikitovka colony belongs precisely to this category.

But even more so, riotous manifestations are possible because colony administrations, unable to professionally “resolve” the situation, will act clumsily and directly – with force. And as a reaction to such force, a riot is entirely possible. For example, I have reports on the facts of special forces units entering colony territories: on 3 June of this year, this occurred at Volnyansk colony No. 20, and on 12 June at Dnipropetrovsk colony No. 89. By the way, there is still no official information on what actually happened there, nor has there been a denial. Which is also telling. At our request, addressed to the President of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office is currently conducting an inspection. Or consider the information we posted on the “Prison Portal” (www.ukrprison.org.ua) about an alleged mass attempted suicide by prisoners held in the isolation ward of the Sverdlovsk high-security colony No. 38 (Luhansk region). On 22 July, the State Department for the Execution of Sentences officially stated that, indeed, on 21 July, 11 inmates had inflicted “minor scratches on their forearms” with shards of glass from broken electric light bulbs.

The Department explains that “the inmates motivated their actions by their disagreement with the search conducted in the disciplinary isolation cells”. I hope an investigation into the incident will follow. We will attempt to obtain full information from the colony administration regarding what happened there.

- Recently, there have also been a number of cases of inmate disobedience in the colonies...

- Indeed, there are more and more such cases, and the reasons vary. On one hand, in our mobile age, one can report events promptly. And some prisoners try to abuse such opportunities, exploiting the closed nature of the system. In my view, the case in the Donetsk colony in January of this year became an example of such abuse. At that time, one of the prisoners, whom I met later, claimed via a mobile phone that there had been a suicide attempt. During the meeting, he showed me a plaster on his stomach, and I had the impression that he had simply punctured a fold of skin on his stomach with a small nail and called it a suicide attempt. In my opinion, there was no suicide attempt there at all. However, the lack of normal, reliable information from the regional administration of the Department regarding this fact, and the dense fog surrounding the situation, created the impression that it had indeed happened. On the other hand, in the stream of reports about emergency events in colonies, there is a portion of such simulations, there are semi-simulations, and there are serious problems. But even these are quite specific.

For instance, in one colony there was mass disobedience. After long investigations into the causes and comparisons of facts, I formed a hypothesis as to why it happened. It is quite likely that the prisoners had an agreement with the staff, and in exchange for some money, the staff allowed them certain “perks” – having mobile phones in their possession, or something else. But then a new warden arrives at the colony and says: no indulgences, from now on everything will be strictly by the law. The prisoners are indignant: hold on, we paid for these “perks”! However, having received a refusal, they are not outraged by the fact that the mobile phones they paid to use were taken away. They name other, formally admissible reasons for their discontent. I believe that in this instance, justice was indeed violated. However, the prisoners do not complain about the breach of agreements with the staff, but about the conditions of detention, poor food, and information about alleged violations of prisoners’ rights leaks outside the colony. Some of them are desperate; it is not difficult for them to chew on a blade, nail a hand, or pierce a cheek. For them, it is not a very complicated thing, but it has an effect.

On the other hand, there are also real cases of cruel treatment of prisoners. I have received quite a few reports about how cruelly – with beatings for no reason at all – people arriving at colonies are sometimes received. Moreover, not in all, but only in certain ones. As far as I know, the colonies of the Donetsk region do not belong to the category where the criminal element rules and where there are many abuses. Rather, we have so-called “red” zones, where the administration rules, and I have not yet heard of such cruelties in our colonies.

And the obedience of inmates can be achieved by the administration through various methods. One of them, which is quite questionable in practice, is the application of Article 391 of the Criminal Code – “Malicious disobedience to the requirements of the administration of a correctional facility”. Under this article, if a prisoner violates the regime, up to three years can be added to their sentence. Our organisation has provided legal assistance to some of the inmates sentenced under this article. Do you know for what violations they sometimes add a term? According to the law, if a convict has been punished by placement in a “punishment isolation cell” (SHIZO) or a “cell-type facility” (PKT), and subsequently committed two other infractions, even minor ones, the institution’s administration has the right to initiate a criminal case, and the prosecutor in court will demand an additional three years. And the court, as a rule, adds a year, or even three, to the existing term. It is very curious which violations can be the “last straw”. It turned out that such “violations” could be the prisoner changing their place in the cell. The administration assigns them one place in the cell, and they lie down in another. They tell them: since you behave this way, tomorrow you will be cleaning the yard. They refuse. That is it, that is enough to add to their term. And they add it. Supposedly “by the law”. But we have encountered curious details of the prosecution – a prisoner should only end up in a PKT not just for a violation, but for a violation committed with the aim of avoiding serving their sentence, whereas often they are placed there for other violations. And then, strictly speaking, this article cannot be applied. But prosecutors and judges often close their eyes to such “trifles”; the mechanism is well-oiled, the convicts do not receive legal aid, justice and legal rigour have never spent the night there, and therefore they just process them – they add terms, add them, and transfer them from colony to colony.

And one gets the impression that the prison leadership does not like it when prisoners receive legal aid. Because as soon as a person begins to receive legal assistance, they are immediately transferred far away... We provided legal aid to one person – he was serving his term in the Nikitovka colony, and we filed a cassation appeal with the court regarding what we considered to be an incorrect court decision. And he was immediately transferred to the Vinnitsa region. Of course, it is harder for us to provide him with assistance now. But we are tracking his fate. Information reached us that he was beaten and punished there. True, information later arrived that money was found on him upon arrival (which is forbidden). So, formally, there was a reason for the punishment. But after that incident, everything else seems to be going normally for him. He should be released in August.

Information from the zones arrives quite regularly; calling a convict these days is not difficult. I do not know where they get my phone number, but they call quite often. Often, prisoners ask for advice or ask us to send our brochures on legal aid, and we send them.

- But are convicts allowed to use a mobile phone?

- They are not.

- And they call?

- They call. But mobile phones held by prisoners are not my problem; that is a problem of the regime and security. A person calls me and asks if I can send them a book on the procedure for appealing a verdict or on the procedure for appealing the administration’s actions? I find out their address and send it. And to ensure they have a better chance of receiving it, I send them not even in their name, but to the warden of the colony with a request to pass the brochure to such-and-such an inmate. Everything is perfectly legal. I often even add a note that if the prisoner wishes, they can then pass this brochure to the colony library. And there is a chance to replenish the institution’s library with a useful book. As a rule, I later receive reports that the books arrived. And sometimes the staff reads these books even more attentively than the inmates. Well, that is excellent. It is useful for everyone to read such books there.

- How many suicides occur in places of detention?

- Annually in the country, there were between 40 and 44, but in 2007, there were 54 in places of detention. Per thousand convicts, there was an increase in suicides over the year by more than 35%. In my view, this is an indirect testament to the growing tension among staff and inmates. I cannot rule out that some of these cases might not have been suicides, but were written off as suicides. It is almost impossible to verify this, as the department’s leadership does not encourage independent research in the colonies.

- You have sued the State Department for the Execution of Sentences several times. Is it hiding suicide statistics in the zones?

- No, the State Department for the Execution of Sentences has been freely providing me with data on suicides and mortality rates for several years now upon a standard request. At the same time, in June, I won a case in court against the head of the State Department, Vasyl Koshynets, regarding the non-provision of other information – on the calculation of mortality indicators. While determining the mortality rate in the colonies, I found a noticeable discrepancy with the State Department’s figures every time. For some reason, theirs are always very optimistic – there is a decrease in mortality. Even when there is growth, if calculated per thousand convicts. So, I asked them to provide me with the methodology by which they calculate the mortality coefficient. They did not provide it to me. And I went to court. And when I received this methodology, I discovered that in their calculations, they do not include those who died in their hospitals. In other words, they simply started sending more convicts to their hospitals, mortality increased there, and naturally, fewer people began dying in the colonies. That is the indicator “by colonies”, which they exclusively show, that is “improving”. But in reality, things are not so rosy for them regarding mortality...

- Are these hospitals located on the territory of the colonies?

- There are so-called hospital-colonies, where all prisoners are patients. A small portion of the total number of convicts is held in these colonies – about three thousand out of 150 thousand. But their mortality rate is much higher than in all the other colonies combined, for which the department reports.

The Department does not like to share information that reflects their sore spots, their problems. They provide some data very reluctantly. For example, in January 2007, the entire colony in Iziaslav went on hunger strike, after which 40 prisoners (“instigators”) were scattered to all the colonies of Ukraine. In doing so, it seems that the rights of the convicts were grossly violated. I corresponded for half a year until I clarified many circumstances, including which staff were punished, etc. And when I got to the point of clarifying whether the procedure for transferring these 40 people was followed, whether everything was done according to the law, they stopped providing me with documents on this case. Although they are not classified. I am currently trying to obtain them through the court and hope that they will provide me with this information.

It is curious how the department’s officials sometimes become sophisticated in inventing dismissive replies. Once, in response to a request, they sent me an answer in which they claimed, without explaining anything: “Everything was done by us according to the law. If you do not agree, file a complaint.” But how can I appeal their actions if they do not provide the documents, and it is impossible to assess whether they acted according to the law or not? Such answers only increase suspicions that something there was “not right”.

A peculiar feature of my current court proceedings with the State Department, where the court called the actions of the department’s head unlawful, was the attempt to shield the head of the department from the blow. To do this, the department conducted an internal investigation, punished several people; many turned out to be guilty, but not the top leader. Although it was precisely his actions that were unlawful, which the court confirmed. They have now filed an appeal; we will see how it all ends.

They are trying to achieve the same thing in the second court process – to make the State Department the defendant, so that its leader can then search for and find the culprits among his subordinates and insist that he is personally not guilty. Then he will punish someone, and try to show himself to be “good and fluffy”. Alas, that is not so. Because many problems in the penal system of Ukraine today are in many ways connected precisely with the management style of the current leadership. Regarding this, my colleagues and I have already appealed twice this year – in February and June – with an open letter to the country’s leadership. The reaction is still sluggish. Although, as a result of the Cabinet of Ministers’ inspection in the autumn of last year, conclusions were also drawn about the necessity of changing the department’s leadership. They did not have time – the elections hit. And in the meantime, over the last three years, the situation with human rights in the country’s correctional system has not changed for the better, and in some aspects, it is only worsening.

- What do you attribute this to?

- One of the reasons is the level of competence of the department’s top leadership. The head of the State Department, Mr Koshynets, is a former employee of the oil industry, and in three years he has failed to feel the system, its specifics. He has remained a stranger to it. And therefore, he is often unable to make adequate decisions; he is sometimes pushed toward decisions that harm both him and the system. One should not forget who is held in the colonies. There has always been a certain confrontation between the administration and the “criminal element”, which has a “common fund” (obshchak), “warms” the zone, supports its own in the zone, etc. Such a confrontation has never ceased, and now it is acquiring new forms. The deficit of competent personnel and serious personnel miscalculations by the leadership have led to the fact that recently, the merging of the negative-oriented contingent and the corrupt part of the correctional institutions’ staff has strengthened. They find mutual understanding more easily than before, and each side gets its own interest. And the innocent people are left to pay the price.

- Do correctional institutions correct anyone at all?

- I think that our colonies are far from correctional, and that is not always the fault of the staff. This is on one hand. On the other hand, sometimes the correctional, or rather, the educational effect is very noticeable. When I was in the colony for juvenile girls in Melitopol several years ago, and I saw how carefully and gently the staff treats them, the thought suddenly occurred to me that some of these girls were simply lucky that prison appeared in their lives. Because only in prison were they able, for the first time, to feel human attention and care. Perhaps the food here is not very good, but if a girl lived before this with parents or only with a mother who drank, and the child saw only the negative sides of life, and in the colony she encountered normal human relations, care – I think it is unlikely that such a child will greatly regret the time spent in the colony. Some of these girls admitted in their essays that it was only in prison that they learned they had rights. Therefore, in this case, I would not unequivocally say that prison cripples. And if a person at a young age accidentally stepped onto a criminal path, and then ended up in comparatively normal conditions in the colony, realised something, then the correctional effect of the colony, perhaps, is present. But, of course, far from to the extent that is intended. Primarily because the prison does not have sufficient financial resources for this, and very few human resources. There should be psychologists and social workers in this system... And there are catastrophically few of them. And therefore, to a much greater extent, the correctional effect of the colony is a wish than a reality.

- The penal system of Ukraine recently turned 10 years old. Is it appropriate here to speak of successes and achievements?

- I think there are indeed achievements. And to a greater extent, they are conditioned not so much by who was the leader of this system, but simply by changes in society – both social and economic. The system began to be financed a little better, and the conditions of detention of prisoners became a little better, information about some violations in the system became more accessible, which allows human rights organisations to react more promptly to facts of human rights violations. The staff of colonies and other places of detention began to participate more often in conferences and seminars, i.e., to study. On the whole, undoubtedly, the system is changing for the better.

But in this set of changes, there are both positive and negative components. I named the positive ones, and as for the negative ones, I would, first of all, count the fact that the overall professional level of the system’s workers is falling. The working conditions of the staff in places of detention are not becoming better; many issues are not being solved, which leads to personnel tension, and one way or another, it is reflected on the prisoners. This is where subjective factors begin to work – who manages the system and places of detention, what legislation is working. For example, the parliament cannot pass the amendments to the penal enforcement code, which were prepared two years ago and would allow for improved conditions of detention for prisoners.

In short, over these 10 years, of course, the penal system of Ukraine has achievements in the humanisation of conditions of detention, but there are still many problems, and they are not always objective.

- In which region of Ukraine are the most prisoners held?

- In Donetsk. 16-18 thousand of the 150 thousand prisoners in Ukraine are held here in pre-trial detention centres and colonies. This is very simply explained. Previously, the prison system was part of the industrial complex: colonies were built where extremely cheap labour could be used – near factories and mines. In the Donetsk region, there are 20 correctional institutions. Next come the Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk regions – with 15-16 institutions each, and in other regions even fewer. For example, in the Chernivtsi region, there is one institution; in the Zakarpattia region, only one pre-trial detention centre. Therefore, in the Donetsk region, there are more not just prisoners, but also patients with HIV and tuberculosis – they account for almost a third of the all-Ukrainian total. By the way, when they are released, they most often settle here.

- Are patients with HIV and tuberculosis treated in the zones?

- Tuberculosis patients are treated. There are aid programmes from foreign and domestic donors, and the situation with tuberculosis in the colonies as a whole across the country has more or less stabilised. According to the department’s data, there is even a decrease in the number of patients with an open form of tuberculosis in the colonies, i.e., they are somehow managing. But with HIV and AIDS, it is more complicated. They are also trying to treat them, but the number of such patients is gradually growing, however, as it is in the general public. And in the colonies of the Donetsk region, their share remains higher than the average for Ukraine.

- Is there work for prisoners in the colonies?

- The zones are poorly provided with work. Across Ukraine, only about 20% of able-bodied prisoners are provided with work. And in general – it varies. For example, if there is good sewing equipment in the women’s colony in Mariupol, and there are orders, then many of the convicted women are occupied with work. But in some colonies, only 3-5% of prisoners are provided with work. Unfortunately, prisoners are paid little. They can earn no more than 250-300 hryvnias per month; moreover, the colony then deducts 85% from this earnings, and only 30-40 hryvnias remain from the sum, which can be managed. What will they be enough for? Maybe to pay for accommodation during a long visit if one of the relatives comes. Or prisoners in some room might chip in among themselves and buy themselves a television for the room...

- Is that permitted?

- Of course, it is even encouraged. In principle, nobody is surprised by a television in the zone anymore. But having invested their modest earnings into that same television, the prisoners are left without money... I do not know how legal all of this is, but there are questions about how the money earned by prisoners is used in the colonies... Overall, work for prisoners is difficult because the state does not want to grant benefits to colony enterprises. And it is very difficult for them to compete with commercial enterprises because they have low-skilled workers, outdated equipment, and they do not receive any preferences. And therefore, it is very difficult for them to play by the rules of an ordinary commercial enterprise.

- Is Ukraine adopting Western experience in the detention of prisoners? What should we copy from them, and what should we not?

- I think that blindly copying someone else’s experience is not necessary. Because, for example, in Sweden, there are more people sentenced to deprivation of liberty than there are places in colonies, nevertheless, they do not put everyone into overcrowded prisons, but put them on a waiting list. A convicted person, after the court, continues to walk free and waits until a place opens up for them in the colony. They might walk free for two years like that, and then go to serve their term. Here, the level of legal awareness of citizens takes its toll. A law-abiding Swede will live for two years at liberty, then go to prison for a year and a half, and then will continue to live at liberty. Is such a thing possible for us? (laughs)... Perhaps elements of the Western penal system could partially be copied and applied here. But this should be done by people who know this system well. Here in Ukraine, such people among scholars, and even more so among politicians, can be counted on one hand. And the saddest thing is that the department’s leadership does not want to listen to such people. Apparently, for the current head of the State Department, it is more important how the Prosecutor General’s Office and the President will evaluate him than how fair he will be towards the prisoners.

In confirmation of my words, I can say that even the internal investigation, which I mentioned, did not begin when I appealed to the department head three times, but when the General Prosecutor’s Office intervened following my letter, and a request came to the head of the State Department from there. Only then did the head of the department deign to react and start an internal investigation. Because he certainly needs to report to the General Prosecutor’s Office. And the State Department is very annoyed by my persistence and that of my colleagues from other human rights organisations; they try not to notice us, as if we are nobody to them, zero, an empty space, trifles. And they sometimes react to our appeals only after an additional request comes from the General Prosecutor’s Office, from the Commissioner for Human Rights, or from the President. And in many disputed issues, the prison department has only one position: “Human rights activists are lying, the truth is only what we say!” And the department still does not understand that it is time for them to restructure, and not to make an enemy of human rights activists.

- What is needed for this?

- First of all, it is necessary that professionals work and manage there. In some ways, professionalism is more important than the fact that some employee takes bribes. For security in the department, this is the lesser evil, for a bribe-taker at least knows what definitely cannot be done in the system. And they will not commit as many stupidities as a self-confident but power-wielding dilettante. Because the blunders of a dilettante can lead to very grave consequences. And the current leaders, unfortunately, do make serious blunders. And then they try to make others guilty. And they even accuse human rights activists of, supposedly, fulfilling the order of the criminal element! As they say, no comments...