The scale of violence in women’s colonies in Russia is described: Society: Russia: Lenta.ru
Torture and rape are absent in Russian women’s colonies. Human rights activist Marina Litvinovich described the scale of violence in women’s colonies in an interview with Lente.ru.
According to her, one of the largest problems of prisoners in women’s colonies is the inability to go to the toilet when the need arises: women who work mainly in the sewing industry claim that they can go to the toilet once or twice per shift and this is given for about five to ten minutes. At the same time, the production employs about 70 people.
“In general, as you understand, when a person is not allowed to go to the toilet for a long time, this is torture. Moreover, associated with humiliation of human dignity. Women scream and feel pain from it. – said the human rights activist.
Another humiliating violent practice Litvinovich called the search facilities in the pre-trial detention center, when employees look for prohibited items and force women to strip naked, squat and spread their legs wide. Moreover, if a woman has periods or is pregnant, this does not matter.
Speaking about prisons, Litvinovich also pointed to the issue of hygiene – once a week prisoners go to the bathhouse, but only half an hour is allocated for it, and there are fewer taps than there are sometimes people, there is no hot water, and it is impossible to wash well. Women are often reprimanded or sent to punishment cells (punishment cells) if they wash themselves in the sink. They do not have a free opportunity to take a shower even during menstruation.
“These are the house rules – showers only once a week. “They even apply to special detention centers,” she explained.
A common practice is the production of clothing, men and women.
On October 5, the human rights project Gulagu.net published a video of the rape of prisoners in the hospital of the Saratov Federal Penitentiary Service. According to human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin, 40 gigabytes of videos of torture by prisoners were filmed by employees of official video recorders, on the Internet and other videos. Criminal cases were initiated, the situation was taken over by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the State Duma and the Federation Council.
On November 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Alexander Kalashnikov. As Interfax reported, the reason was the resonance caused by the publication of a video of torture in colonies. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Colonel-General of Internal Service Arkady Gostev has been appointed the new head of the department.