For good behaviour, convicts will receive permission to leave correctional facilities for up to 14 days

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has approved an instruction on the procedure for granting convicts permission for short-term leave outside of correctional facilities.

2010 Amnesty – results

During July–October 2011, an amnesty for convicted persons was carried out in Ukraine. Its results are as follows.

Commission for the prevention of torture has commenced work

By a Decree of the President of Ukraine at the end of September, a Commission for the prevention of torture was created; by another Decree of 18 November, its composition of 35 people was formed.

Shelter for convicts burned down

The only rehabilitation centre in Ukraine for those released from places of confinement has been burned down, and more than 20 people have been left on the street without food, clothing, or medication!

Russia combats corruption in prisons

In the first 7 months of 2011, 52 FSIN employees were convicted, 21 of them for corruption-related criminal offences

Picket in defence of the right to collective hunger strikes

In Russia, human rights activists demand the protection of the right of prisoners to hunger strikes

Reform of the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine.

‘Round table’ on the topic of preparing amendments to the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine

NO RADICAL POSITIVE CHANGES ARE OCCURRING IN THE PENAL SYSTEM, WHILE ALARMING TRENDS ARE INTENSIFYING.

On 15 September, a press conference was held in Kyiv by the human rights organisation ‘Donetsk Memorial’ on the topic ‘Violation of Prisoners’ Rights: 2011 Trends’, where statistical data for the first half of 2011 were presented and examples of human rights violations in 2011 were cited.

‘Music will help those who have stumbled to recover’

On 7 September, a new social-rehabilitation project for Ukraine, ‘With Music in the Heart’, aimed at the social rehabilitation of convicts, kicked off in Kharkiv.

Events in Colony No. 60. Versions of events.

The conflict arose with the connivance of the colony leadership.

Regarding the events in Colony No. 60 of the Luhansk Region

One of the versions of the causes of the conflict

Chief jailer of Khabarovsk Krai shot himself in his office when detectives arrived

Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service (UFSIN) for Khabarovsk Krai, Vladimir Konetskikh, has been found dead in Khabarovsk.