Life-sentenced prisoners allowed long-term visits

Since May 2014, persons sentenced to life imprisonment have been allowed long-term visits. They had been prohibited since the introduction of this type of punishment in 2000. Short-term visits were allowed only through glass and initially once every six months, then once every three months. The impressions of a woman who saw her brother during such a long-term visit in July are given below.

“We had a wonderful time at the visit... For the first time, my brother held his daughter in his arms!!!! She’s almost 14. To say we were happy is an understatement — three days flew by like three minutes... I think we were the fourth (family to visit), even though the colony staff were scared of these visits and didn’t know themselves what was allowed and what wasn’t... No one really bothered us with checks, although I heard that they don’t even give them knives, and that they wake them up at night for checks... Thank God everything was fine with us in that regard. Maybe they judge by the prisoner, I don’t know. Or maybe they don’t know themselves yet how things work. They say in private conversations that some need to be checked every hour. We probably wouldn’t even mind the checks — after all, it is a prison, and the prisoners are considered special...
We waited so long for these visits that until the last moment we didn’t believe they would let us in... You have to take all documents confirming the relationship with you — passport, birth certificates, and marriage certificate. We signed consent to be filmed by video cameras (they are in the kitchen and in the corridor). There is a telephone to contact the officer on duty if we need something, for example, to get medication for the evening or a razor, and then return it. The convicts themselves tell me that this is resocialisation. The convicts themselves talk about nothing but these visits: fresh news, and in general, they have become needed by someone, and they are awaited not only at home... Now they have at least some positive variety. For example, my brother is now participating in the upbringing of his daughter in person. Before this, (it was) only by correspondence. There is something to think about, to talk about, to understand, to listen to, to do... They say the atmosphere has improved there in the unit, they have started paying less attention to minor infractions by the administration, and they hassle each other less. They say their life now goes from one visit to the next... And what is not the least important — we brought food for the long-term visit: milk, ice cream, meat, fish, cottage cheese, eggs!!!!! Things they haven’t eaten in years, if not decades. You can cook for them there, at least feed them something like that. I am not nitpicking about the conditions, if we had to sleep on the floor — we would have agreed, honestly...
So, thank God, it became much easier for us morally... financially it is much more difficult, long-term visits are not cheap with the travel costs... But we don’t mind, as long as there is an opportunity, we try.
I think time will tell how things will be, but for now, we are very happy..