The Rada has increased the minimum living space for convicts and removed restrictions on parcels and calls

The Rada has made the procedure for convicts serving criminal sentences more humane. On 21 January, the Verkhovna Rada introduced amendments to the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine regarding the ensuring of the rights of convicted persons in penal institutions.
321 people's deputies out of 431 registered in the session hall voted in favour of the adoption of the corresponding law as a whole.

At the legislative level, deputies established a ban on the discrimination of convicts based on race, gender, language, religious and other beliefs, national or social origin, property status, or marital or social status.

According to the law, members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the chairman and members of supervisory commissions, are admitted to the territory of penal institutions without special permits. Furthermore, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine will have this right.

Regarding the execution of sentences not involving deprivation of liberty, it is established that new arrivals at a correctional centre shall undergo a medical examination to identify infectious and other diseases within fourteen days. During the examination, they are held in separate premises.

In addition, the right of persons sentenced to restriction of liberty to move within the correctional centre (outside the dormitory) without permission has been extended. The Rada has also abolished the detention of women in high-security units.

The law provides for bringing the size of the minimum living space per convict in line with European standards, namely 4 sq. m instead of the current 3 sq. m. The number of telephone calls has been increased. Instead of one call per month, calls are established without restrictions. (The latter two changes come into force on 1 January 2012 – ‘Prison Portal’)

The opportunity for short-term leave outside the penal institution is granted to persons held in minimum-security institutions with lenient detention conditions, and to persons sentenced to restriction of liberty.
All convicts are granted permission to receive parcels without restrictions, and convicts in minimum-security colonies are granted permission to receive correspondence without it being checked.

A convict gains the right to request the administration regarding submission for parole from serving the sentence or replacing the unserved part of the sentence with a milder one.

Detention conditions for those sentenced to life imprisonment are changing, namely: the number of short-term visits is increased from once every six months to once a quarter; a standard is established that women sentenced to life imprisonment are, as a rule, housed in medium-security sectors of minimum-security correctional colonies with general detention conditions.

In addition, for men, it is envisaged that they may be transferred from cell-type premises, in which two people are held, to multi-occupancy cell-type premises of a maximum-security correctional colony, with permission granted to participate in group educational, cultural, and physical fitness activities in accordance with current legislation, after actually serving at least fifteen years of the sentence in such premises; and after actually serving at least five years in multi-occupancy cell-type premises, they may be transferred to ordinary residential premises of a maximum-security correctional colony.

A novelty is that in the event of being recognised as a person with a group I or II disability, or in the case of suffering from a serious illness, a person sentenced to community service or restriction of liberty, upon the recommendation of the body or institution for the execution of sentences, shall be prematurely released by the court from serving the sentence without the need to provide data characterising their behaviour during the service of the sentence.

Let us recall that today, 21 January, the Verkhovna Rada prohibited the administration of penal institutions from viewing the correspondence of prisoners sent to lawyers and received from lawyers.