Prison King's Life.
www.ombudsman.gov.ru/dad_2008/dad11/dad927/20.doc
Prisoners sleep by turn because of lack of places.
The main Volgograd prison - SIZO 1 (a Detention centre) on Golubinskaya Street can truly be called one of the oldest architectural monuments of the city. Its first "customers" the prison of Saratov region accepted in 1886. In Soviet times the building changed its name to "Stalingrad prison number 1 UNKVD of Stalingrad region" - but it didn't change its specialization, there were so many people convicted during the years of repression that in 1935 places came catastrophically short of, so they began to build another sections.
During the Second World War cells began to fill in with people accused in the 58 th article: deserters who had fled from the battlefield. When the battle line came right up to the city, women were released from prison, while the rest were evacuated over the Volga. By the way, they achieved it without any escape. After the city was free from Nazi army, prisoners returned to Golubinka. Also there were added the German POWs. Captive Field Marshal Paulus sat in one of its cells. They say that even a piano was standing in the cell of this
"VIP" prisoner. But now days ordinary prisoner sit in this historic cell, and the piano stands in the museum.
Prison's crib
Every year approximately 100 thousand people go through the SIZO. Someone detains there for a few months, but someone stays in SIZO for a few days I mean whose who is getting their places of punishment. Someone is imprisoned for several years. There is a man in the cell number with the face, blending in with the color of the walls - an ex- investigative officer. He is waiting for the end of the investigation for 5 years. We could say that he is lucky - he sits in the renovated cell: with a whitewash ceiling, TV, white sink and a toilet. "There are just over a half of cells like this in the jail. Cells which completely the relevant to European standards" - said a chief of the detention centre Victor Nescheret. The most comfortable cells - with shower, new beds and clean walls, are, of course, in female, "child" and hospital sections.
By the way, there are also mothers with their infants here. In the hospital for the "families" like these existed a separate cell: an iron bunk bed next to a tiny wooden. There are drying nappies and sliders on the background of cancellated windows. There is a small square courtyard behind the window, where they accept and send temporary "guests" of the prison to the following stages. Dogs are constantly barking. "They are lucky to be here" - prison officials proudly note: conditions are decent; there are always good meals for babies.
There was a section at Golubinka, where prisoners sentenced to death were held. They say that up to 1967 the death sentence was executed right here. There is a place, which is look like a shower-room in the basement where the walls still keep bullet traces. Now days, there is only one inhabited cell in this long gray corridor. This is a man from the Volgograd region. He was recently returned from famous "Black Swans" the place where the cruelest prisoners are kept.
In turn to sleep
Only relatively recently begin to appear a sewerage and a ventilation. But the smell is still here. And it won't disappear, because over a hundred years, it simply became a part of these walls. But today's life in the prison cannot compare with what was going on here in the 90's.
That time, there were approximately 4 700 prisoners in a building designed for 1300 people. There were 40 square centimeters for one adult. They ate and sleep by turn. They took their dishes and beds with them in the prison. A bucket instead of a toilet. The walls are covered with fungus and mold. They say the match didn't burn because of lack of the oxygen.
Now everything has changed. Today they give to prisoners a set of linen, and even toilet paper. But problem with square meters still exist. "According to regulations there should be about four square meters per person" - patiently explains Igor Sizov - the head of General Directorate of the Federal Office of Enforcement "And we really have only 3,72 meters per person, but now we have 400 people extra".
Authorized representative of Human Rights in Volgograd Michael Tarantsov thinks that - the main problem of this situation - the treatment of police towards the prisoners.
They should be more attentive to the decision of arrest , take into consideration whether there are places in prisons, and use the arrest only in extreme cases, think Tarantsov. We already have a lot of other measures that we are not use: house arrest, bail, surety. I've already sent a letter to the State Duma and to the President with similar proposals. And recently I got the answer that they will take into consideration to improve the legislation. They promise that within a few years, "European standards" will come in our prisons.
By Irina KRECHETOVA
05.11.08
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