The law is the same for everyone. However, there is a category of people for whom the legislation is especially harsh. We are talking about serial killers with dozens of victims. Any punishment for such a person seems too lenient. Therefore, it is important not only to isolate the maniac from society, but also to choose for him a preventive measure that would correspond to his actions.
And in this case, the most terrible punishment for serial killers, rapists and pedophiles is not life imprisonment, but the prison laws that they will have to face in the cell. Below we will talk about how maniacs are imprisoned in Russian prisons.
A “fun” life begins in a pre-trial detention center
If a person is suspected of committing a number of brutal murders, then investigators do not have the right to let him go home before the start of court hearings. Since we are talking about a particularly dangerous criminal, he must be taken into custody. For the period of investigative and judicial activities, the suspect is sent to a pre-trial detention center.
Thieves' laws reign in every detention center. Prisoners who live by their own standards treat murderers, rapists and pedophiles with outright hatred. And if a maniac gets into a cell with radically minded prisoners, it is unlikely that he will be able to live long with such neighbors.
Therefore, serial killers in pre-trial detention centers are kept in solitary confinement to avoid reprisals. But if the criminal does not want to cooperate with the investigation, then he will have to get acquainted with prison laws. For example, in the 90s of the last century, a maniac suspected of committing 14 rapes ended up in the Kresty prison. To “split” the rapist, the investigator asked the prison administration to put him in a common cell.
Naturally, the maniac’s cellmates were not supposed to be “wool” prisoners who would simply beat the criminal to death, but ordinary “peaceful” prisoners. By the way, beatings in cells often occur on the instructions of the prison management. In this way, it is possible to get even the most intractable criminals talking.
When the maniac ended up in a common cell, the prisoners did not touch him, but exerted psychological influence on the newcomer. He was told what fate awaited the killer in the zone. Moreover, these stories did not resemble intimidation, because the prisoners mentioned real criminals who could not avoid a sad fate. As a result, the rapist made contact with the investigation, hoping for easier conditions of detention.
In most cases, it is impossible to hide information from cellmates about the article under which the prisoner is being held. Prisoners often know in advance that a rapist or maniac is being transported to prison. And although murder in itself is not considered a shameful article among thieves, in the zone they do not respect people who kill just like that, for pleasure. If a person is a maniac, then he can only count on universal contempt.
Chemical castration
Chemical castration is widely used in the USA and Europe, Alexey Gavrishev, head of the law firm AVG Legal, told 360. In particular, in France, Italy and Great Britain. The measure itself is not new; there is a sound grain in it. In a number of American states, voluntary consent to the procedure is an alternative to a prison sentence.
“In Russia, the measure will refer to measures of compulsory medical influence. The procedure must be repeated constantly. The pedophile conditionally needs to take a pill on Wednesdays or go to the doctor for an injection. How will these medications be financed and monitored? There are cases when pedophiles, despite taking medications, were still caught relapsing,” added Gavrishev.
Such a high-profile case occurred in 1994 in the United States, where a 33-year-old neighbor raped and killed seven-year-old Megan Kanka. Before this, the man managed to serve time for raping two children and underwent a chemical castration procedure. In 1996, the United States passed Megan's Law, which allowed the creation of public registries of convicted pedophiles with information about their whereabouts.
In France, Belgium, and Denmark, pedophiles are also subjected to forced chemical castration by court order. In Poland, three years of imprisonment are added to it. A prison term accompanies the procedure in Germany and Israel.
How rapists are treated in prisons
Until the 90s of the last century, the code of thieves was largely based on “purity of thoughts.” Stealing by default was considered a noble craft, and therefore the thief did not have to justify his actions. Murder was also held in high esteem in the zone, but it excluded violence. It was believed that if the victim was destined to die, then preliminary mockery of her was useless and meaningless.
For this reason, rapists were despised and humiliated, often committing the same actions to the criminal that his victims had to endure. This ritual was called lowering - after physical violence, the prisoner was considered offended. Most often he was classified as a member of the rooster caste - representatives of the lower prison hierarchy. In parallel with the physical abuse, the rapist suffered a mental breakdown. As a result, he became a broken, frightened and weak-willed man.
The status of a prisoner and his belonging to one of the castes is determined already in the pre-trial detention center. Sexual perverts and sodomites automatically become roosters or “wafflers.” The conditions of detention for such criminals are truly hellish. Roosters in the zone have their own rules of life. Let's look at them in more detail:
- the lowered one is forbidden to occupy the “shkonka” (bed), he sleeps under the bunk, by the bucket or at the door, like a dog;
- the dishes of the offended are marked by drilling holes (other prisoners are prohibited from taking things belonging to the rooster);
- those who are lowered do the dirtiest and hardest work (maintaining garbage pits, cleaning toilets);
- in case of disobedience to the order of any higher-ranking prisoner, the rooster can be beaten, plunged face-first into a bucket, or killed (since it’s a shame to touch roosters, they only beat them with their feet or objects that come to hand).
Having learned that a person is imprisoned for numerous rapes, cellmates in most cases resort to sodomy themselves. Moreover, I rape the maniac using improvised means, for example, a mop handle. He can also be given to be “torn to pieces” by the roosters, who at one time experienced no less humiliation, and therefore are burning with a thirst for revenge. Therefore, if the prison administration does not take certain measures, the maniac will not live long in prison.
Not wanting a similar fate, some maniacs committed suicide in a pre-trial detention center after hearing the court verdict the day before. Some rapists were helped by fellow inmates to take their own lives.
In recent years, prisoners have become more loyal to rapists. Now, before the execution, the convicted person can be given the floor. And if he is able to prove the “necessity of what he did” or the guilt of the victim, then he will be able to avoid punishment. For example, sexual contact may have been consensual, but the woman subsequently reported rape to the police. In such situations, the convict will be able not only to avoid a sad fate, but also to achieve some kind of compassion from his cellmates.
A pedophile and a serial killer will not be able to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of prisoners. People with a pathological craving for cruelty are not welcome in prisons. Therefore, the cellmates simply will not listen to the newcomer’s excuses.
There is little “sacred” in the criminal world, but prisoners consider mothers and children untouchable. Therefore, a pedophile will not only be brutally mocked, he will certainly be killed. And this death in most cases will be painful. This rule is the same for both “black” and “red” colonies.
Current legislation obliges the heads of colonies to keep rapists and maniacs isolated from other prisoners. However, both prison officials and criminal authorities will find a way to get rid of the unwanted element. For example, a maniac can be “removed” by accident during his transportation to the colony. In this case, the killer will simply be shot, chalking it all up to an attempt to escape. If the maniac does reach the place where he is serving his sentence, then an “accident” can happen to him at any moment.
Have a question for a lawyer? Ask now, call and get a free consultation from leading lawyers in your city. We will answer your questions quickly and try to help with your specific case.
Telephone in Moscow and the Moscow region: +7
Phone in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region: +7
Free hotline throughout Russia: 8 (800) 301-39-20
Cellmates can also hang the killer, explaining the incident as suicide. And no one will understand the causes of the maniac’s death.
If the evidence collected by the investigation is not enough to impose capital punishment, then the convicted person can prove his innocence to his cellmates.
Crime as a diagnosis
Who is serving sentences in the region’s colonies today for assaulting the sexual integrity of children, and how are pedophiles put on the path to correction in prison? Currently, 255 people are being held in correctional institutions and pre-trial detention centers in the region under articles of the Criminal Code on sexual abuse of children and adolescents. This is slightly less than half the total number of rapists, approximately one or two people out of every hundred inmates. Nine criminals convicted of rape and indecent assault on children have not yet reached the age of majority and are serving their sentences in the Angarsk educational colony.
In a cell with an “offended”
As the head of the department of pre-trial detention centers of the regional department of the penitentiary service, Alexander Vorobyov, said, now in the zone there is no intolerance towards pedophiles that flourished in previous years. Those convicted of raping children, especially in a homosexual form, were previously treated very cruelly in places of deprivation of liberty: they were humiliated, beaten, and turned into outcasts.
Once, about 20 years ago, the head of the general regime colony in Plishkino showed me how the “offended” person lives. In the barracks, at the very entrance, a place was fenced off for him - a “cockhouse”; there was a mattress and a bowl right on the floor. And next to me, in the pose of a hunted animal, sat a young man, and so much fear and pain splashed in his eyes that I could not stand this sight and asked to end the “tour.”
Even five years ago, when, according to Alexander Vorobyov, the zone lived “according to concepts,” a pedophile could not avoid the fate of the “omitted.” “At that time there were corpses, especially in pre-trial detention centers.
Now all institutions are under the control of the administration, and the traditions of thieves are a thing of the past,” assures Alexander Vorobyov. According to him, now in the pre-trial detention center there is no possibility of assigning a pedophile to a general cell. After the quarantine department, where security guards, doctors and psychologists work with each of them for 10 days, rapists are placed next to their own kind, as required by Article 33 of the Law “On the Detention of Suspects and Accused of Crimes.”
Although the “offended” are still found in the zone today. “We still don’t have pioneers here. Among the convicts there are leaders and weak individuals, and conflicts occur. But now they “omit” regardless of the crime charged - for this it is enough to have a weak character,” says Dmitry Karpovich, deputy head of the operational department of the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service. The criminal world is getting smaller, according to the heads of the central administration's services.
Despite the fact that the status of pedophiles in the zone has changed, today all of them are on preventive registration - they are under enhanced supervision. Those convicted of crimes against children are placed in residential buildings on beds at the entrance, and are in the top five for inspection. These and other security measures are designed to prevent not only violence against them, but also suicide. At the beginning of this year, in pre-trial detention center No. 6 of Angarsk, accused of 50 crimes of a sexual nature, the victims of which were children, took his own life. In a suicide note to his mother, the former teacher said that he was tormented by his conscience. It is quite difficult to prevent such incidents. There are not enough human and technical resources for total supervision in the zone. But a lot has been done in this direction recently. In pre-trial detention center No. 1 of Irkutsk, an experiment is currently being carried out to introduce remote supervision: a month ago, video equipment was installed in one of the buildings, including in the cells of minors, solitary confinement, the quarantine department, and punishment cells. The so-called duplex communication now allows the inspector to talk to any prisoner without entering the cell: to make a comment, to listen to complaints.
Portrait of a criminal in the interior
Pedophilia is actually a medical term, not a legal one. The World Health Organization calls this pathology a disorder of sexual orientation with sexual desire directed towards children. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment for crimes of a sexual nature, the victims of which are minors: 131st (rape), 132nd (violent acts of a sexual nature), 134th (sexual intercourse and other actions of a sexual nature with a person under 16 years of age). years of age) and 135th (depraved acts) article. Today, in the colonies and pre-trial detention centers of the region, among those charged under these articles, there are no people with severe mental illness. According to the head of the medical department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Andrei Lemeshevsky, all those accused and convicted of sexual crimes against minors are recognized by experts as sane and practically do not need the help of psychiatrists. “Pedophiles, like alcoholics and drug addicts, are in a state of forced remission in prison. There is no provoking factor here, and people with pathological attraction do not require treatment, says Andrei Lemeshevsky. – But today there are psychiatrists in almost all institutions. Persons on preventive registration, including those prone to pedophilia, are examined by them quarterly. Basically, employees of psychological laboratories created in colonies have to deal with anomalies in the mental status and behavior of so-called pedophiles.”
The chief specialist of the psychological service of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Veronika Moskvitina, said that since last year, those convicted of sexual violence against minors have been included in the list of categories with which work with specialists of this service is considered a priority. At my request, she drew a generalized portrait of a criminal prone to pedophilia. The age of most of these convicts is from 20 to 35 years, but there are also many who are over 40. Many of them are officially married or divorced, but have cohabitants. As a rule, they raise children (often as stepfathers). The educational level of convicts in this category is higher than that of other criminals: most of them have completed secondary school or a vocational school. Among the rapists there are unemployed, but mostly they are employed in the wild. They mostly live in cities, but recently rural residents are increasingly being put on trial for rape of minors. In the zone, pedophiles are unsociable, avoid conflicts, try to behave exemplary, strive to get a job and pay off claims for compensation for harm to their victims. Most of them do not have penalties and manage to earn rewards - even despite the fact that colony staff are prone to find fault with this kind of “pupils”. Such “indifference” towards this category of convicts is explained by the fact that jailers are not eager to apply humane acts to people who pose a danger to children in the wild: transfer to a settlement colony or parole.
However, the colony administration now has virtually no influence on the court's decision on parole. The petition to the justice body is received, bypassing the camp leadership, from the convicted person himself or his lawyer or relative. The correctional institution provides only characterizing material, but the servants of Themis, when deciding the fate of the convicted person, are guided, as a rule, by purely formal conditions: three-quarters of the sentence has been served, there is a petition, no violations of the regime have been noted - the path to freedom is open. Pedophiles today go for parole on a general basis.
Meanwhile, experts believe that the risk of recurrence of such crimes among those who have received freedom is quite high. Psychologists of the Federal Penitentiary Service assure that it is very difficult to influence the personality of a pedophile: these convicts for the most part do not admit guilt, do not make contact, and do not want to open up, even when you talk to them face to face. There is no talk of group psychotherapy at all: they avoid communication with their own kind.
Castrate drunks
After talking with the prison authorities, I decided to go down to the “people”. What do pedophiles themselves think about their future and innovations in the law? The heads of psychological laboratories of two maximum security colonies located in the regional center tried to answer this question: Natalya Gryzhova from IK-19 in Markova and Oksana Drach, who works in the “six” on Sinyushina Gora. One of these institutions is trying to re-educate the so-called pioneers; the other houses people who have been previously convicted several times. The law now does not allow these categories of criminals to be mixed in the zone in order to eliminate the bad influence of repeat offenders on those who have recently embarked on a criminal path.
There are currently 23 men serving sentences for sexual abuse of minors in both colonies. But only one of the convicts agreed to meet with the journalist. Alexander Ivanov was sent to prison colony No. 6 in 2008 for 28 episodes of criminal activity: leading a gang, robberies, assaults, carrying weapons, falsifying documents, etc. Among other things, the “track record” of the 48-year-old leader of a gang operating in the Ziminsky district includes three rapes. The victims of two of them were girls aged 14 and 16.
Alexander Innokentyevich pleaded guilty to all the crimes for which he went to trial. But he does not consider himself a pedophile, that is, a sexual pervert. After the previous, third, conviction, he lived with a family and helped his partner raise children. And he committed the rapes while intoxicated. The man does not consider the girls who fell into his drunken arm to be children at all. “I worked as a watchman in a store, they came with their peers and clustered together. We drank together. Well, that's how it happened. If it weren’t for the booze…” says the convict, who behaves exemplary behind barbed wire, works in a repair and construction team and doesn’t even dream of parole. He says: “I’m unlikely to live, the sentence is long - 16 years.” So issues related to parole and chemical castration of pedophiles do not concern him at all.
According to psychologist Oksana Drach, my interlocutor is a completely typical representative of colony residents convicted of so-called pedophilia. All 10 of her clients in this category committed a grave sin while they were extremely drunk. Sexual abuse of minors by repeat offenders, whose previous convictions usually involve property crimes, is attributed solely to alcohol addiction. And most of them are ready to work with a psychologist on this problem. But none of the rapists experience a pathological sexual attraction to young children, which is the essence of pedophilia. This is what the prisoners themselves say, and Oksana Drach largely agrees with them. In conversations with a psychologist, convicts say that they do not understand how they could do such a thing. In five cases, the victims of the rapists were stepdaughters aged 12–17, whom they helped raise and did not have a stone in their bosom. Moreover, three of these convicts maintain relationships with their families: their cohabitants have forgiven them, are ready to accept them after the end of their sentence (and it exceeds 10 years), and visit them in the colony. Moreover, men who, as in the case of Alexander Ivanov, were provoked into crimes by the so-called victim behavior of the victims - the seeming availability of girls who consider themselves already adults - are not inclined to associate themselves with pedophilia.
Oksana Drach considers the misfortune of her charges primarily to be elementary alcoholism and promiscuity, and not health problems that require medical intervention and changes in hormonal levels. The head of the psychological laboratory of IK-19, Natalya Gryzhova, completely agrees with her. She has to work with 13 convicted child abusers. All but one were under the influence of alcohol. Moreover, in terms of the cruelty and cynicism of the crimes committed in a drunken stupor, these pioneers are able to give a head start to previously repeatedly convicted villains, from whose corrupting influence they are trying to protect them by separating them into different zones. They all chose children as their victims, not accelerated girls who had matured before their time. Two even attacked preschool-aged children, and one girl died from her injuries.
And yet, their crimes, committed spontaneously, while drunk, in a state of passion, are unlikely to amount to pedophilia. Alcohol is known to increase sexual desire and aggressiveness, and reduce self-control. Drunken criminals did not specifically look for their victims among minors. They simply raped those who came to hand and could not resist - the children of relatives and acquaintances who happened to be nearby.
Next up for the “black list”
The main symptom of pedophilia as a diagnosis - a manic attraction to sexual contact with children - was found by only one convict in IK-19. It just so happened that his anonymity could not be maintained, since he is a public figure. Stanislav Sutonko, a pastor of a Protestant church and a leader whose employees were involved in the rehabilitation of drug addicts and helped street children, is a well-known personality in Irkutsk. The activities of the organization he headed were covered at one time by Vostochka, but the convict refused to meet with the journalist, saying that he considered himself guilty, deeply repented, and in court asked for forgiveness from the parents of the children he had desecrated. The clergyman is the only one in the colony
No. 19, who committed cynical crimes against minors - indecent assault and attempted rape - with a sober head. Moreover, I prepared for them in advance and carried condoms with me.
According to psychologist Natalya Gryzhova, Stanislav really sincerely and deeply repents. He is supported and visited by his wife and sons, but it is difficult to say whether the already middle-aged man will be able to cope with personality defects, which, according to the psychologist, formed in him as a child and distorted several lives, including his own. Natalya Gryzhova came to the conclusion that all those convicted under articles related to violence against a child went through psychotraumatic situations in their childhood that their brains could not cope with. It is no coincidence that almost all rapists wrote in their questionnaires that they grew up in large families where the nature of their upbringing was permissive. A change of stepfathers, humiliation suffered, the situation of an unrecognized child, violence - the convicted do not want to talk or cannot remember what specific shocks laid the foundation for their problem. “You have to squeeze every word out of them,” says the psychologist.
By the way, the suicide mentioned in this article, who was responsible for a series of five dozen crimes against children, admitted that he himself was raped by high school students at the age of 11. The case, as experts say, is not so rare. So, the rehabilitation of victims of such crimes is also important as a preventive measure: after all, the tragedy experienced can not only leave a mark on the child’s psyche, but also turn him into a rapist in the future. Perhaps it is the latency of cases of manifestations of sexual pathology that explains the rapid spread of pedophilia. The number of young residents of the Angara region who have suffered from perverts has increased 3.5 times over the past three years. Meanwhile, most of these crimes remain a terrible family secret. According to the deputy head of the department for combating pedophilia ORCh-5 of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Irkutsk Region, Kirill Railyan, it can be especially difficult for boys to tell adults about their misfortune - due to a feeling of shame for something for which they are not to blame.
Can chemical castration, which is talked about so much today, be considered a panacea for pedophilia? According to psychologists and doctors of the prison department, personality problems that led to sexual violence cannot be solved with one injection. “These problems sit in the head,” says Natalya Gryzova. “A castrated alcoholic will probably not commit a crime on sexual grounds, but his aggression can take another form - result in murder, for example.”
But while some experts have doubts about the effectiveness of medical castration of rapists, everyone is convinced of the need to establish total surveillance over those who have left the zone. The federal law on administrative supervision of persons released from prison has been in force since July 1. So today pedophiles with an outstanding or unexpunged criminal record are (or rather, should be) under the control of local police inspectors. In addition, organizational measures, including the creation of a database on pedophiles in the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, seem useful. ORCH-5 employees have already included 120 people who are suspected of sexual abuse of children or have already gone to trial for these crimes. Soon those who are now trying to be re-educated behind barbed wire - pedophiles, perhaps already castrated - will also be included in the police “black list.”
Payback from punishment
Naturally, the maniac will not be able to buy his way out of the official verdict. However, far worse than a prison term is lynching carried out by fellow inmates. If the guilt of a pedophile or maniac has not yet been proven, then he can buy immunity for himself. Of course, such status is not cheap, and the amount is determined individually, taking into account the “track record” of the criminal. But in most cases we are talking about tens of thousands of dollars.
If the rapist is subsequently transferred to another colony, he will have to pay off again. Previous agreements are not taken into account in this case. In addition, it is not a fact that the new cellmates will agree to grant immunity to the killer.
Another option is possible when, after receiving the money, the rapist begins to be bullied, ignoring all agreements.
Surgical castration
The Czech Republic remains the last country in the European Union where surgical castration has been successfully used for pedophiles who have served a prison sentence for 20 years. Over these years, there has not been a single case of relapse in the country. Since 2012, surgery has been prohibited for preventive purposes, even if a person insists on it. Only those whose sexual offense has been proven are subject to intervention. There is only one alternative to this - an essentially indefinite stay in a psychiatric hospital.
“After serving his sentence, a convicted rapist cannot be released until doctors and the court decide that he is no longer a danger to society. For this purpose, he is prescribed treatment in a psychiatric hospital. It can last a year, or five years, or maybe a lifetime... But the patient can avoid this if he voluntarily agrees to castration. After such a procedure, he can no longer have relapses, and the court calmly releases him,” Czech sexologist Peter Weiss told kp.ru.
“Hey everyone, he’s not with us”: what awaits Russia if the moratorium on the death penalty is lifted
However, in the post-Soviet space, capital punishment is rarely used against those who commit such crimes; legislation is still moving towards humanization. But in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Cuba this is par for the course. Somewhere pedophiles are hanged, and in African countries, for example, they are burned alive. In Yemen, child abusers are shot in public and shown on television.
In Indonesia, pedophiles are jailed and can be sentenced to several hundred lashes with a cane lash. After 50 blows, the convict may lose consciousness, and as soon as he recovers, they will begin to beat him again until all the blows ordered by the court have been delivered, the Daily Mail writes. There is also a law on forced chemical castration.
Laws on chemical castration for pedophiles were also introduced into the Russian State Duma, but were rejected. Recent cases, however, have revived the discussion on this topic. The head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, spoke in favor of strict control over persons who have committed crimes against children after their release. And State Duma deputy Sultan Khamzaev called for the return of the death penalty for pedophiles.
