Colonies in the Kharkiv region are provided with bread

All correctional facilities in the Kharkiv region will be fully provided with bread, regardless of whether flour prices rise due to a grain shortage or not.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit 2 correctional colonies that are under the administration of the Department of the State Penal Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region.

Together with other journalists, I was kindly invited to visit penitentiary system institutions to see with my own eyes how and what prisoners are fed there. The occasion for the visit was the information widely circulated in the media about the likely rise in the price of new-harvest bread in Ukraine.

Correctional colony No. 18 previously used an electric bakery. However, a wood-fired oven was recently installed. One batch of dough in the bakery yields 114 loaves of bread. In total, per day, according to the local baker Andriy, about a thousand loaves are produced in the colony. All the bread—fragrant and tasty—goes to the convicts' table.

Andriy himself received training as a baker in his youth and worked in the profession. Then he faltered, broke the law, and received a punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 3 years. His wife and child are waiting for him at home. Thanks to the fact that even in prison he has the opportunity to work in his specialisation, he does not lose his qualifications; furthermore, Andriy shares part of his earnings with his family.

The Deputy Head for Intendant and Communal-Domestic Support of Colony No. 18, Hryhoriy Brovko, noted that the introduction of a wood-fired bakery allowed for a monthly saving of approximately 6,000 UAH, which had previously been spent on electricity. The cost price of 1 loaf for the colony is 1 UAH 49 kop.

I will share my impressions—bread in such an oven is not only more economical but also tastier than ordinary bread, as it has a barely perceptible aroma of a campfire.

Bread baking is organised in the same way in the 12th correctional colony. Baker Serhiy, who became familiar with the new craft only within the colony itself, dreams of working in his acquired specialisation upon release. He emphasises that he makes bread using only flour, salt, water, and yeast, without any chemical additives, leavening agents, or preservatives, which is why the loaf turns out good and crusty—you cannot buy such a loaf in shops.

However, as they say, ‘man does not live by bread alone’—it was interesting to find out from the convicts if they are fed normally and if the food is of appropriate quality. With the permission of the colony's management, I had the opportunity to ask this question to persons serving their sentences who had just exited the canteen after lunch. And they all noted that they are satisfied with the quality of the food.

Perhaps such a rather positive state of affairs regarding food provision in the Department's institutions is connected with the fact that in the State Penal Service institutions, food supply is centralised and rationed. Therefore, every colony, regardless of the cost of flour and other foodstuffs, receives them according to regulations.

In contrast to the practice that has developed in the temporary detention facilities (ITT) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, where funds for the maintenance of the special contingent are allocated to the management of district departments, and in varying amounts at that. Therefore, members of mobile monitoring groups for the observance of constitutional rights and freedoms of man and citizen in the activities of internal affairs bodies have more than once encountered facts where, within the limits of a single region, the food for temporarily detained persons costs entirely unequal sums; naturally, its quality also differs.

Returning to the issue of providing the Kharkiv region's colonies with bread, I will note that previously, bread was baked on wood only in cases of power outages, but since the beginning of this year, all colonies in the region have switched to baking bread in ovens using alternative types of fuel. That is, on wood and on waste from the furniture industry, the production of which operates in the institutions of the Department of the State Penal Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region.

Therefore, even under conditions of rising prices for flour, which agronomists are predicting in connection with the grain deficit due to drought and poor harvest, the provision of bread to penitentiary system institutions will not be weakened.