TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE

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Torture and ill-treatment of children in Ukrainetionally justified. They can “forget” about the defendant for several weeks oreven months, not undertaking any investigative or other procedural activities.A minority mentioned force against themselves or cellmates. In one groupof cases, physical force from SIZO personnel was applied as punishment forinsignificant infringements of the prison regime, or infringements that hadnot, in fact, taken place. Another part of the respondents mentioned cases offorce however at the same time considered them normal response to infringementsof the regime or provocation, deliberate attempts to irritate personnel.As reasons for provocative behaviour, boredom was named and lack of waysof normally spending time on useful things or entertainment.The SIZO food is described as bad or very bad; it is much less frequentlycalled adequate, and from the products provided they try to take only bread,with other products called almost or totally inedible. The situation is rescuedby food parcels and their “fair divide”. Those who have more can share withtheir cellmates, however cases were also mentioned where if there aren’tenough, it’s the strongest who takes them.The conditions in the prison colony are largely assessed as “normal”,“much better than in the SIZO”. Respondents did not mention cases of physicalforce in the colony; the regime and relations with personnel were describedin neutral or positive terms. Huge importance was given to the possibility ofstudying and following the school programme; gaining a profession; being inthe fresh air; normally (as compared with the situation in the SIZO) communicatingwith peers. Positive mention is made of artistic activities; the work ofthe teachers and psychologists. Rejection is mentioned of alcohol and drugswhich was first forced on remand prisoners and became the normal state ofaffairs only in the colony (“now I remember that it’s possible to feel normal andsober”). We would note that this respondent was not provided with specializedmedical assistance for overcoming alcohol problems.In several cases prisoners asserted that they had become true believers inthe colony; they gave real weight to the possibility of keeping religious tenets,regularly meeting with representatives of their faith, spiritual mentors. Wecan’t assert that in places of confinement there is positive or negative religiousdiscrimination, however we also lack data to assert that members of all denominationshave equal opportunities with regard to religious practice.One respondent said that in the colony, when he turned 17, he had hadthe best birthday of his life. He received presents for the first time ever and138
Section 4Torture and ill-treatment of children in the context of juvenile justicecould sit peaceful around the table with friends. The subjective assessment ofconditions as “good” or “bad” to a large extent depends on previous experienceand basis for social comparison. Some of the young people were afraidof being released and asked the Administration to keep them in the colony aslong as possible since at least partly fairly believed that they have nowhere toreturn to.The criminal subculture in colonies is maintained partially, and differentfor different institutions, for example, despite the general requirements forprisoner equality. In men’s colonies there is still a problem with there beinggroups of prisoners with low status, the so-called “opushcheni” [“abandoned”].It is typical that prisoners serving sentences for sexual offences, aswell as people who underwent a special humiliating procedure, may regularlybe subjected to humiliation and physical ill-treatment meaning that in orderto avoid this, additional efforts are need from the personnel and administrationof the prison colonies. However the problems for this category of prisonersnormally begin in the SIZO, or during transfer between institutions; one ofthese problems may be repeated coercion to enter into homosexual relationswith cellmates.The status “opushcheny” partly depends on the Article in the CriminalCode that the charges relate to, but this does not happen automatically withoutthe circumstances of the case being establishing by higher status cellmates.The status can also be concealed as the result of victim behaviour intalking with cellmates or because of excessively aggressive cellmates; the wishto assert themselves or to humiliate one of the members of the group andrelease their psychological tension on the person.For example, one of the respondents said that his sentence had beenbased on unfounded charges of rape based solely on the testimony of thevictim: the purpose of the accusation had been, he said, from the outset to demandmoney from him. The respondent was thus in a high risk group. The cellmatesheard him out, looked at the documents and collectively decided thatthe charges were falsified. He was not therefore subjected to force.Another respondent, convicted of a group robbery attack, was in a SIZOfor 14 months. He claims that people who promote norms of behaviour of thecriminal subculture , or what is known in criminal slang as “ponyattya”, do notin fact fpllow them, they just use their experience of institutions and interpretsubculture norms to gain an advantage over people who are weaker. It’s easierto make agreements with them, however when they don’t succeed in making139
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DesignerBoris ZakharovOn the cover
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Section 5. ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIV
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ForewordThe investigation comprised
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Methodological framework of the stu
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⇒ 1. Information about the projec
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Section 1Analysis of legislation on
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Науково-практичне
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TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE

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