NCJ Number
161197
Date Published
1995
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This report describes site visits made in November 1994 by researchers from the Netherlands to two prisons in Ukraine: a penal colony with a tightened-up regime and a strict-regime prison of the closed type.
Abstract
The Berezan penal colony had 1,213 male inmates, 60 percent of whom were between 18 and 25 years old. The men were all recidivists; their average length of stay is 3-5 years. The colony has 450 staff members; each staff member guards several dozen prisoners on a corridor. Inmates must work in one of the colony's workshops for which they receive a salary on an account. They do not have cash in hand. The Berdichev strict-regime prison has 765 inmates and 261 staff members. Its organization, procedures, and services are the same as those in Berezan. The production services produces school furniture, wooden floor tiles, bread bins, and other simple wooden kitchenware. Inmates earn money, but do not receive cash. They can spend about 70 percent of their earnings in the prison shop. The prison's most important problems are the supply of materials to the factories and the high prices of food for the inmates and staff. The buildings of these institutions are old and in poor repair. The factory halls were large and dark and had bad working conditions. Staff members guard large groups and do not have time to deal with inmates individually. Overall, the treatment of prisoners is reduced to the absolute minimum. Footnotes and appended diagrams