What is prison in 2022? What do prisoners do?

Author: Victor Anikin

22 March 2022 22:42

Tags: true prison fake

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Ruslan does not like to talk about his “exploits”. He says that he received sentences for theft and robbery as part of an organized criminal group. He claims that his conscience does not torment him - he robbed the “rich” and did not participate in “wet” affairs. He readily criticizes feature films and TV series that show scenes of prison life. “The same cliches, there is no such chaos as they show in the movies!” - says Ruslan, who decided to dispel some

See all photos in the gallery

What is a prison?

A prison is a correctional institution that uses a strict system for correcting the behavior of criminals. This is a complex of buildings in which violators of the laws of the Russian Federation are kept in general or solitary confinement.

The prison exists so that the offender realizes the gravity of his crime, changes his behavior and attitude towards society, and returns to normal life.

In such institutions, prisoners are kept literally under lock and key and cannot move, except for necessary cases, namely:

transporting a prisoner outside the prison during an investigative investigation;
visit of relatives or lawyer;
daily walks;
weekly visits for washing.

The following activities are not available to a criminal imprisoned:

education;
sport;
Job.

Help from the state

After release, the state provides prisoners with one-time assistance. However, one cannot count on serious financial support. In most cases, the prisoner will be bought a train ticket to his hometown and given 30-40 rubles as salary not received in prison. That's all - then the former prisoner must look for work and earn money.

When applying to social services, a person with a criminal past also receives a refusal. Such people are not entitled to any benefits. However, some applicants are offered a food package.

Who is serving sentences in prisons?

There are 3 main categories of prisoners in prisons:

persons who have committed especially serious crimes and were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of over 5 years;
dangerous repeat offenders;
convicts transferred to prison for a term of up to 3 years for malicious violation of the established procedure for serving general and strict regime penal colonies;
convicts left in prison with their consent to perform housekeeping work. These may be persons sentenced to imprisonment for the first time and for a term of no more than 5 years.

Temporary detention of convicted persons in prisons is allowed if:

their participation is necessary for carrying out investigative actions in the case of an act committed by another person;
their participation in the trial of an act committed by another person is required;
the convicted person is transferred from one place of deprivation of liberty to another.

Detention

If you become a suspect in a criminal case, they will come to you with a search at the most inopportune moment for you.
Most often - early in the morning. So two different procedural actions, search and detention, will be combined. Then you will be immediately taken to the third - interrogation. Dmitry Borisov was detained in the private home of his parents:

We arrived very early, around half past seven. My mother woke me up with the words: “The police are around the house.” There were about 15 of them. I realized that most likely they were behind me. I didn’t feel guilty, but I understood that we had come in earnest. They had a battering ram with them to break down doors. It was of no use, my mother opened it. I went up to the third, unfinished floor, because I wanted to ask my friends to come so that there would be no chaos. I didn’t have time to write the address, because a policeman stood up - he grabbed the phone and dragged me down. Then they took me for interrogation to the Investigative Committee. The investigator asked questions, but I refused to answer, citing Article 51 of the Constitution. In general, they behaved normally, allowed me to smoke, and even advised me to take warm clothes with me when they were taken away from the house.”

Ismail Ramazanov, seeing armed men in camouflage in his room at night, at first thought that they were robbers. But then they handcuffed him and began to beat him. Then he realized that this was not a robbery, but a detention.

“They put me in a chair, none of my relatives were allowed into the room,” says Ramazanov. “I tried to shout to my parents in the Crimean Tatar language and tell them that they were beating me. In response, they started beating me again. One of the FSB officers took a towel lying by the bed and began to choke me with it. His hands were handcuffed behind his back.

Then Ramazanov, according to him, was taken to a minibus, where there was a pickaxe or something that he mistook for a pickaxe. “If you show up, we’ll rape you with this stick and say that’s what happened,” said FSB officer Artur Shambazov. Then the detainee was called the “black machine” and began to beat again. The FSB officers alternated questions with beatings, either putting Ramazanov on the floor and jumping on his back with their feet, or lifting him onto a seat and starting to question him.

Procedure and conditions of detention in prison

There are 2 types of regimes in prisons:

general;
strict.

All categories of convicts are kept in a strict regime, including those transferred for malicious violations while being held in a general regime.

However, the law defines the circle of persons who cannot be kept in a strict regime, namely:

convicted women who are pregnant or have small children with them;
convicts with disability status of group I or II.

All convicts who have served a strict regime for at least 1 year are transferred to the general regime, provided they have no violations of the regime.

It is in prisons that the most dangerous categories of criminals are kept, therefore, in relation to them, the legislator sets the goal of preventing these persons from committing new crimes. This is achieved by tightening the conditions of their detention and increasing isolation.

According to Art. 131 of the Penal Code, convicts are kept for the most part in general cells and only in necessary cases, by order of the head of the prison and the decision of the prosecutor, the prisoner is placed in solitary confinement, taking into account the established Art. 80 PEC requirements.

Convicts transferred from one correctional facility to another, as well as persons left in prison to perform household work, are kept in isolation from others.

Prisoners under general and strict regime are kept separately.

Persons held in general regime prisons have the right to:

spend monthly personal funds in the amount of 40% of the minimum wage on the purchase of food and hygiene items;
take advantage of the dating opportunity: 2 short-term and 2 long-term dates per year;
to receive 2 parcels/deliveries and 2 parcels within 1 year;
take advantage of a daily one and a half hour walk.

Prisoners serving strict regime sentences are allowed to:

monthly spend personal funds in the amount of 20% of the minimum wage;
2 short-term dates per year;
Receiving 1 parcel and 1 parcel per year;
going for a daily walk lasting 1 hour.

First short date

By sending a person to a pre-trial detention center, the state assumes that he will be isolated from connections with the outside world. By law, the investigator can allow visits with relatives once every two months. Dating takes place without physical contact, through glass, as in American films. The conversation is broadcast through the handsets of interconnected phones.

“The investigator froze me for a long time; I didn’t have a date for three or four months,” says Alexander Margolin. “Then they started giving.” They came in turn - my wife and children and my parents. Whether it was necessary to take children to prison is a difficult question for me. This greatly depends on age, on how children perceive it all. Heavily depends on the pre-trial detention center. The “Matrosskaya Tishina” has a huge hall, and the “Butyrka” hall is also more or less decent. At Vodnik there are only cages, and prisoners also smoke. The volume is small - if you go on a date in the second group, and not in the first, then it is inhaled and smoky, there is no oxygen. Dating is, of course, an emotional blow. At Vodnik there were dates in the morning. Until about three or four o'clock I felt sick, then I fell asleep, woke up for the evening check, and after that I went back to sleep. In fact, the day was gone.

Illustration: Alina Kugusheva for OVD-Info

Dmitry Borisov had his first date with his mother:

I was very happy, of course. You are taken to another building, first you hang out at the assembly, wait until you are called into the booth where the date is taking place. You're a little worried. Many people start to feel sad after a date. Some even refuse a date because they are overwhelmed by negativity. It happened to me, but it was a slight sadness. Bluesy light sadness. A date is a breath of freedom; you get a lot of energy from free people. Mom was worried whether they were beating me or wiping the floor with me. Well, mom is always like that.

What is a prison isolation cell?

Isolator (punishment cell) - a special prison department . There are cells there for prisoners who have violated the regime of detention.

The person who ends up there is prohibited from visiting, sending, or spending money; he is not allowed to take any personal items with him, except hygiene products.

Previously, those who ended up in a punishment cell were brought food every other day and were not given mattresses or bed linen.

These restrictions were lifted in 1992, but food for those in the punishment cell is still many times worse than food for all other prisoners.

Why can you end up in a punishment cell?

For violating the regime of detention, prisoners are expelled to a punishment cell (for example, if prohibited items are found on the convict during a search).

The following will not be transferred to the isolation ward:

pregnant women and women with young children;
disabled people of group 1 (Article 117 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation).

At the same time, fines have the right to:

go for a walk every day for 1 hour;
use personal hygiene products;
ask for a clergyman to come.

A convicted person can be placed in an isolation ward for no more than 15 days . But with repeated violations, the offender can be placed in a punishment cell again and again.

Thus, the offender can remain in the punishment cell for as long as the administrator determines.

What does the camera look like?

The cell in the punishment cell is very small - 9 square meters. m . The small window is covered with a sheet of iron. On both sides there are folding bunks, which must be folded during the day.

But sometimes up to 8 people are placed in an isolation ward, so they take turns sleeping on bunks. Prison workers do not allow you to sleep during the day. It happens that the bunks are folded until the evening. In this case, prisoners must stand all day.

The isolation ward is usually damp and cold. This is the so-called prison within a prison.

People

A pre-trial detention center is an amazing place where you will meet amazing people whom you would hardly meet in your free life. Persons involved in high-profile criminal cases always become the heroes of the news, and sometimes even entire media campaigns. Today you will see on TV a fight between football fans and police in Biryulyovo, and in a week the accused in this case will cross the threshold of your hut. But even without celebrities from crime chronicles, the pre-trial detention center is a kaleidoscope of lives. Guilty and innocent, murderers and smugglers, choreographers, mayors, prefects, lawyers, activists and everyone.

Ismail Ramazanov says that in every cell of the Simferopol pre-trial detention center in which he was sitting, there was one of the Crimean Tatar political prisoners. He heard about some of them while he was still free, and he even met the Ukrainian taekwondo champion Uzeir Abdullaev at sports training camps. In the pre-trial detention center, Abdullaev was very ill, and Ismail tried to help him, demanding that the FSIN bring a doctor. But no medical assistance was provided. Ramazanov believes that he was transferred from this cell to another precisely because of constant complaints about the absence of a doctor.

The defendant in the “Bolotnaya case”, Alexander Margolin, ended up in Moscow pre-trial detention center No. 5 “Vodnik” already with experience of administrative arrest for the action on December 5, as well as after 12 days in a temporary detention center and ten days in a quarantine cell. When he got to the hut, where he spent the next year, the effect of novelty had already worn off.

“There was no overcrowding, 8 people at first, then they added a bunk, so there were 14,” Margolin recalls. - Cellmates as usual: 228th - drugs, one scammer, someone has a “hooligan”. Mostly visitors. There was one Balt, they took him with cocaine. Although he was more on a different topic - he was carrying cigarettes to the European Union. It was interesting to talk to him. There was also a Kyrgyz man. He was a plastic surgeon, then he got into a car accident, broke his arms and went into fraud. We played a lot of chess.

Alexey Gaskarov, once in the cell, was faced with a strong desire of the TsPE operatives to find out who ordered the pogrom in Khimki. Various people came to Gaskarov and introduced themselves as “thieves” or “authorities.” They asked how much he was paid, said that someone should “answer for the lawlessness” and that “the gang of thieves is concerned about the bustle in Khimki,” and that this “bubble” provoked police activity, which is why the thieves are suffering losses.

This is how the conflict with the inmates is described in Pyotr Silaev’s book “Correspondent Gaskarov in Hell and Other Stories”:

Gaskarov began to wait for the black mark - and very soon it knocked on the window. On the “road” a note arrived, officially notifying him that a “serious conversation” would take place with him today in the exercise yard. Lesha looked around his cell. It was stupid, funny and disgusting - could this really be the end?

But no “serious conversation” happened, because an international campaign began in defense of the “Khimki hostages” and the pressure on Gaskarov in the pre-trial detention center stopped.

What is quarantine in prison?

This is a medical examination of a newly incarcerated person . The procedure includes identifying signs of possible diseases in a citizen that could harm other prisoners (tuberculosis, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, etc.).

In addition, as part of the quarantine inspection, specific signs of the citizen are recorded: scars, tattoos, etc.

The examination begins with a paramedic, who identifies the primary complaints of the person admitted, measures sugar levels, blood pressure, and takes tests (urine, feces, blood). After this, a laboratory test is carried out.

If there is a suspicion of the presence of any disease, the convicted person is sent for examination to a specialized specialist. In standard cases, a citizen is admitted to places of detention reserved for all prisoners.

If serious illnesses are detected, the prison administration has the right to petition the court to change the place of serving imprisonment from a correctional institution to a medical correctional institution, where complex therapy of sick persons is carried out.

In practice, the quarantine procedure is often formal . The cells designed for this purpose are overcrowded, unsanitary, and doctors only check for airborne diseases.

This is why there are many sick people in prisons who need treatment but are not transferred to a medical facility. The maximum period for the quarantine procedure is 15 days.

Sentence. Denouement

And now, the matter has come to an end. If you are acquitted, then you are just lucky. If you were given a suspended sentence, then you are also very lucky. And if, nevertheless, you have to go to serve your sentence, then under no circumstances withdraw into yourself or become isolated. Continue to live, develop, learn something new and hope for the best, because hope dies last.

There is life behind bars too. Live in the moment, don’t think about what will happen later, when you leave, there is only here and now, there is no other way. No, of course I’m not dissuading you from continuing to fight for the truth and defend your rightness in further courts, but you don’t have to live in freedom, live in the world in which you are now, believe me, it will be easier, much easier.

What can be sent in a parcel to prison?

It is recommended to put in the “transfer”:

Personal items (toothpaste, brush, wooden comb, napkins, disposable machines, toilet paper, sanitary pads, soap, plastic or aluminum utensils).
Warm clothes, socks.
Literature for reading, notebooks, pen.
Tobacco products.

The timing of sending parcels to prisons is set by the prison management.

What can be transferred from food to prison?

Acceptable products for delivery to a prisoner:

Packaged, instant cereals, vermicelli, mashed potatoes.
Sunflower oil, onion, garlic, bouillon cubes.
Black tea, coffee.
Powdered milk, instant jelly.
Dried sausage, salted lard.
Smoked lard, salted fish (allowed only in the cold season and not in all prisons).
Honey, condensed milk in soft packaging, caramels.
Dried fruits.
Canned food (in single versions, since they will be opened for inspection).
Bread (small quantity).

It is recommended to deliver products in transparent packaging, otherwise they will be opened. Cigarettes, tea, and sweets are never superfluous, since they are a kind of currency.

It is prohibited to transmit:

perishable foods (eggs, meat, milk);
foods that require long cooking times;
substances that cause intoxication;
pornographic materials.

If you try to transfer weapons, drugs, or substances to a prisoner, a criminal case will be opened against the sender of the package.

What can be sent in a parcel to prison?

You can send products from the above list in a postal parcel . But when collecting parcels sent by mail, you should avoid smoked meats and foods that quickly spoil without refrigeration.

The parcel may remain at the destination post office for a long time.

The general rules for the transfer of parcels to prisoners may be supplemented by each correctional facility with its own rules due to a temporary moratorium imposed by the administration after an incident.

The exact list and transfer rules should be found in each specific institution.

Prison laws and regulations

Despite the fact that correctional institutions, including prisons, are the territory of state law, at the same time, “prison laws” are in force among prisoners, invented and strictly observed by the persons held there.

These are very strict rules, a strict hierarchy and order, the violation of which can be punished quite severely.

A specific prison population is people who have broken the law, but nevertheless they obediently comply with prison rules.

Below are some of the most striking and important concepts and rules that are strictly observed by prisoners.

What does it mean to sit in a basin in prison?

Anyone who has just joined the ranks of criminals will have to undergo so-called “registration” and live under generally accepted prison conditions.

Cellmates are not indifferent to what kind of person they will serve their sentence with, communicate and have contact for a long time.

Therefore, formally, “registration” is a test in the form of tricky and strange questions, with the help of which the residents of the cell will be able to understand what kind of attitude their newly-minted bunkmate deserves.

The first day in prison reveals the essence of a person and puts a mark on him. You need to answer truthfully or wittily.

Often in cells they offer a newcomer to “sit in a basin . It is believed that if bubbles appear, then the person is “leaky.” You don’t need to fall for it, but just firmly refuse, citing the fact that this joke is known to a newcomer.

What does ELEPHANT mean in prison?

ELEPHANT is a tattoo that has long been used in Yiwu. It is typical for the Soviet period, but even today, such tattoos can also very often be found on people who have returned from places of imprisonment.

There are several options for deciphering this tattoo:

“death to cops from a knife”;
“Soviet special purpose camps”;
“Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp”;
“From an early age there were only misfortunes.”

There have never been formal restrictions on tattooing in correctional institutions, but due to the mention of “cops” and “knife”, the ELEPHANT was mainly applied by negatively minded convicts.

What is BUR in prison?

This is the name of a high-security prison barrack, a room in which prisoners are kept under lock and key.

In essence, this is an internal prison of the camp, where malicious violators of discipline, those who refuse to work, etc. are placed.

BUR arose back in the 20s of the last century, and in the early 60s it was replaced by the concept of PKT . However, prisoners still often call this room BUR.

The time spent in BUR can be up to six months, and this period is not included in the term of imprisonment. There is a table and benches in the room, you can take books, receive a parcel or delivery. You cannot sit or lie on the beds during the day.

What is SUS in prison?

SUS stands for Strict Containment Conditions . When the convicted person arrives at the place of detention, he is assigned a general regime of detention; then, based on his behavior, the presence or absence of penalties, he is transferred to light or strict conditions of detention.

These regimes differ in the number of visits provided to the prisoner, as well as the amount of non-cash funds spent.

What does it mean to “roll balls” in prison?

Many prisoners, having nothing better to do, get carried away with modifying their bodies by any available means. Improvements often concern the genitals, and they approach this matter with imagination and passion.

“Balls”, “drops”, “bars”, “sleepers” - all these are various forms of implants that prisoners implant into their organs . It is believed that this helps a man become a successful lover.

Although the operation to implant “balls” is short, preparation for it takes a lot of time. To do this, prisoners find a suitable size piece of transparent plastic (for example, from a toothbrush) or glass, then give the piece the desired shape.

Next, the product is processed: first with coarse sandpaper, and then with fine abrasives. At the last stage, they are polished with a cloth, then worn in the mouth for several days. Polishing with the tongue eliminates the smallest roughness to which the meat may adhere after installation of the implant.

And now comes the moment of implantation. To do this, prepare a punch: a sharpened toothbrush or a stainless steel spoon. The prisoner pulls off his skin, his assistant places a punch on it and, with a sharp blow to it with the heel of his boot, makes a hole in the skin.

An implant is inserted into the hole, if possible, sprinkled with furatsilin and bandaged for several days. While the wound is healing, the prisoner from time to time twists the “device” under the skin so that it does not grow in and rolls freely.

The most interesting thing is that such an operation, which cost several packs of cigarettes in prison, has become popular today in freedom in the form of various punctures, inserts, piercings, but this is done in professional salons and costs a lot of money.

Myth No. 2: If a person is imprisoned for rape, he will certainly be punished

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“Many people are in jail for rape, and some of these people were simply framed.” It happens that a woman decided to save money, or she came to the boys’ dacha and then wrote a statement. Only pedophiles or rapists who killed their victim can be held accountable for such an act. I remember when I was in a maximum security colony near Irkutsk, they put a 60-year-old man in our cell. It seemed like a normal man, aged, and said smart things to his young cellmates. After a short time, word of mouth reports that he raped children! They asked - was it the case? He began to babble something uncertainly. Well, they kicked him well then, without any sexual excesses. The next day, the guards moved him to another hut, to the “roosters”. He should not have been among us, since the administration prefers to keep such people in separate cells. Apparently, they decided to teach him a lesson with our help. The first question for a newcomer is where he came from, and only then everything else. Everyone will be glad to see a fellow countryman - this is a bunch of common themes. Then they can ask what he did in freedom, take an interest in the article...

“Covered” prison: what is it?

This is the slang name for prison-type institutions for those convicted of serious crimes or sent by court order from a colony for systematic violations of the detention regime.

The period of detention in a “cover” is from 1 to 5 years, no more. Prisons where “krytniks” are kept are often called central prisons.

There are only 15 indoor prisons in Russia. One of the toughest is Zlatoust.

The indoor prison is intended for especially dangerous criminals who sit in cells and only go out for exercise. There is a pre-trial detention center and a detention area for prisoners who were brought in for several months.

“Krytniks” do not go to the canteen, but eat in the cell. The food is handed to them through the window in the door.

In general, any prison is a terrible place that no one should go to. But, as they say, don’t swear off prison or pocket money.

Pre-trial investigation stage

At this stage, as a rule, it does not really matter how many witnesses you have testifying in your favor or what you say to the investigator. Of 100% of the prisoners I have met, at least 50% adhere to Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation throughout the pre-trial proceedings, i.e. they do not give any testimony at all.

A good lawyer will tell you directly whether it is worth speaking during the investigation or whether it is better to remain silent. But remember that lawyers cannot be trusted 100% either. This is one system, and lawyers, as a rule, are also cogs of this system and are forced to follow generally accepted rules. But most of them, nevertheless, do their maximum and instead of 5 years, you are sentenced to, for example, 2 years or given a suspended sentence.

Nowadays, there are almost no acquittals. There are only about 0.4% of them (data from the Investigative Committee). For example, in 1935-41, during the so-called repression and persecution, on average, people's courts handed down about 10-14% of acquittals. So you shouldn’t really hope that you can be acquitted, but you also don’t need to give up.

How to protect yourself from the arbitrariness of the investigation

If you see that there are obvious violations of your rights in the case, and the investigator is “molding” the case, regardless of the laws, then you should sound the alarm immediately. To do this, ask the authorities of the pre-trial detention center for the addresses of supervisory authorities (they are required to provide them) and start writing letters wherever you can. Under no circumstances remain silent and do not tolerate arbitrariness on the part of the investigator. Write to me about any of his illegal actions.

How can you find out if the actions of the investigator are legal? Ask your relatives to give you the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and comments to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation; you can find these books in a bookstore or in a library. Since you have enough time, start studying them and sending letters. At first the letters will be dry, but over time you will begin to express yourself no worse than a novice lawyer. And by the way, the so-called “dubaki” (prison and camp guards) treat prisoners who write complaints and understand the laws a little differently than others.