The head of the Kaluga colony hid prisoners from a public commission
On 18 November, the Kaluga Public Oversight Commission inspected the Federal Budgetary Institution 'Correctional Colony No. 3' (FBU IK-3) in the village of Tovarkovo, which the observers were only able to enter after filing a complaint about being denied access to the colony with the special supervising prosecutor. Prisoners from three detachments were hidden from the observers in the club. This was reported by Lyubov Elye, a member of the oversight commission.
The head of the colony, Aleksey Kostenko, did not allow the observers to familiarise themselves with the logbook of personal receptions of prisoners and reprimanded a doctor who attempted to show them the infirmary. Kostenko refused to show the cell-type premises (PKT) and the disciplinary isolation cell (SHIZO).
When the observers expressed a desire to inspect detachments 6, 7, and 8, the head, according to Elye, quietly indicated something to his assistant, and the prisoners of these detachments were immediately gathered in the club and locked in. The prisoners were not even allowed to finish their lunch, they did not hand in their spoons, and they were not released for a smoke after lunch, which is established by the daily routine at IK-3. At the moment the observers left the territory of the IK, which was accelerated by the head of the colony claiming that the human rights activists had taken up too much of his time, the prisoners continued to remain in the club.
The observers managed to speak with several prisoners and accept complaints from them, on the basis of which the POC (Public Oversight Commission) will appeal to the Kaluga Region Prosecutor's Office with a petition for the initiation of a criminal case against Kostenko and other colony employees on the grounds of a crime provided for by Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ('Abuse of office').
As Kasparov.ru correspondent Sofya Mikitik notes, the POC is a body formed on the basis of the Federal Law 'On Public Control over Ensuring Human Rights in Places of Detention and on Assisting Persons in Places of Detention'. The POCs are created under the auspices of the Public Chamber of Russia and should operate in all regions of Russia.