Court obliges Stavropol penal colony to pay compensation to prisoner

Georgy Kolyan, a convict with disabilities, requested compensation of 900,000 roubles for the lack of medical care and violation of conditions of detention in a Stavropol penal colony. The Stavropol Territorial Court recognized the violations, but assessed moral damage at 50,000 roubles.

The “Kavkaz.Realii”* reports that Georgy Kolyan claimed that in the penal colony No. 5 of the Stavropol Territory, where he was serving his sentence from 2016 to 2018, a washbasin and a toilet were arranged on the street, without heating or hot water supply, with unsanitary conditions in the toilet, where there were no doors and where rats lived. There was no place for prisoners’ walks, the roof of the convict barrack building itself was leaking, and the rooms were damp and cold.

In addition, in his claim, Georgy Kolyan has noted that he has been diagnosed with disability since 2001 and needs constant medical treatment, in particular, a vital medicine. However, the convict did not receive the necessary medicine or medical treatment. Georgy Kolyan also did not receive medical treatment for his arm broken when he slipped and fell on the stairs.

The “Caucasian Knot” has also reported that prisoners of the women’s penal colony in Zelenokumsk are being illegally placed to a ShIZO (punishment cell) and are not being provided with the necessary medical care, report mothers of convicts from Kabardino-Balkaria and the Astrakhan Region. The situation is typical for Russian penal colonies, and it is extremely difficult to protect the rights of prisoners in penitentiary institutions with limited access, human rights defenders from the “Team Against Torture”* report.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

*The “Team against Torture” (TaT, formerly the “Committee against Torture” – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.