Monitoring visit to State Institution ‘Bakhmut Penal Institution No. 6’
On 7 October 2020, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHRPG) monitoring group, consisting of Maksym Revyakin, Pavlo Shvab, and Tamara Horbachevska, visited the State Institution ‘Bakhmut Penal Institution No. 6’.
Bakhmut Penal Institution No. 6 performs the functions of a remand prison. Based at the institution is a sector for life-sentenced prisoners, where 54 individuals are held. There is also a maintenance unit for convicts serving fixed-term sentences who work as the institution’s service staff. At the time of the visit, there were 18 such convicts.
The institution’s administration staff consists of 339 people. In total, 742 detainees and convicts are held in the institution.
Maintenance Unit
The rooms in the maintenance unit are clean and recently renovated. The sleeping quarters are quite spacious and bright, with beds at a sufficient distance from one another; each sleeping room has drinking water tanks.
The toilet in the unit is somewhat small, but it looks tidy, and the plumbing is in good working order. The hygiene room has three washbasins and a shower cubicle. A boiler is installed in the room, so hot water is always available.
The dining room is well-renovated, with a microwave and a multicooker; convicts can watch television while eating.
The unit has a schedule for the sanitary treatment of the premises; treatment is carried out 6 times a day.
There is also a computer room in the unit. Convicts can use the Internet according to a schedule for 50 hryvnias per month.
Sector for life-sentenced prisoners
At the time of the visit, 54 convicts were serving sentences in this sector. For the most part, convicts are held in cells of 2 and 4 people. The cells look tidy, and almost every cell has a television. Some convicts keep cats in their cells. There were no empty cells in the sector.
As in other institutions, the sector has exercise yards with sports equipment. Two yards are renovated, one of which is intended for mothers with children.
Other yards are typical and outdated.
The yards are located on the roof of the building, and daylight barely reaches them – giving the impression of being in a closed cell with only a small gap for light to enter.
Kitchen
At the time of the visit, the main kitchen was being renovated. Food was being prepared in the back-up, well-equipped kitchen, which was built in 2015. The food was cooked using wood-burning stoves.
Medical Unit
At the time of the visit, there were 20 patients in the medical unit. There is no shortage of staff or medicines. The unit is well-equipped, with a modern fluorograph and a modern dental office. The dentist fills cavities for convicts, which is quite rare in penal institutions; usually, they only extract teeth. The laboratory has a device for detecting the Hepatitis C virus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, two members of the institution’s administration contracted the disease.
EU project ‘Resisting torture, cruel treatment and impunity in Ukraine’