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| Russia May Use Monitors for Prisons |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/17/2002 |
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The stench of sweat, cheap cigarettes and jailhouse gruel from decades of inmates at Moscow's 18th century Butyrka prison is slowly being overpowered by a new odor: fresh paint. Butyrka, one of Russia's most infamous jails, is getting a boost from a $2.5 million government-funded renovation and new laws that limit how long suspects can be held without trial. Along with those improvements, a Russian human rights group is trying to import a British innovation to help ease the overcrowding, corruption and disease rampant in Russia's penal system: civilian volunteers who monitor conditions in jails and fight for prisoners' rights. A delegation from Britain's Boards of Visitors is in Russia visiting several prisons as part of the agency's first official effort to bring its system to another country. From what the delegates saw, it's clear that civilian monitors - if allowed in - would find much to report about in Russian jails. According to the government, nearly 9 percent of Russia's 965,000 inmates have tuberculosis and 3.3 percent have HIV - disease rates that led the Moscow Center for Prison Reform to label Russia's penal system a 'prison Chernobyl.' In Britain, civilian monitors can make unannounced visits to prisons, unlock cells and go wherever they want, talking with inmates to ensure their complaints are heard. The system has been operating officially for a century and informally for hundreds of years. In 1999, Borshchov tried and failed to push through a bill to establish such a system in Russia. He's now backing a new compromise bill he hopes will be taken up before the Duma's summer break, but he acknowledged the government opposes it. |
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