Only the acronym FPS distinguishes the current prison service from the GULAG.

Olga Romanova

Anyone who has had a close acquaintance with prison knows very well that beatings, torture and ritual humiliation go on in prison camps. The Federal Prison Service knows this too, knows it very well and supports it because otherwise they would not have pushed through the law on the use of physical force and special weapons like truncheons on prisoners. They will go on beating, torturing and humiliating, because without them the FPS would collapse.  Not because they are evil people (though that too), but because without torture, beatings and humiliation the Russian prison system as it is today would not be able to function. This is the base for its operation. An internal combustion engine works on petrol and the FPS works on violence. There are several reasons for this.

1. Performance indicators. This marvellous government department has dozens of performance indicators: the number of escapes; profit from the prisoners’ work in the industrial zone of a camp, and the timber logging; the number of clubs of various kinds for the prisoners; the increase in the numbers of sambo wrestling champions and of piglets produced by the breeding sows. The only indicator that’s missing is how many people have been reformed by their imprisonment. This is only right because the prison system doesn’t reform, it just metes out punishment. As it is not aiming to reform, there are no holds barred when it come to dealing with the prisoners because if one is not reforming, but simply punishing, anything is allowed.

The Russian prison system was never humane

2. The working dynasties of prison warders. People who pass on their experience to the next generation. The Russian prison system was never humane. It never reformed or re-educated. There were always fights, hot boxes and bullying. And one more thing: who goes willingly to work in a prison or a camp, on the lowest and mid-ranking levels of the departmental hierarchy? Usually only someone who couldn’t get a job anywhere else. Who has nowhere else to turn. So where would these kind of people get any humanity, knowledge or civilised skills from?

3. Thievery and corruption. Corruption and torture are two things, which are as closely interlinked as a needle and thread. There’s the industrial zone with all its money-making possibilities, and the boss, the head of this zone; then you have the businessman who wants to organise, say, the manufacture of clothing. He understands that he will be able to make bumper profits because the workforce receives almost no payment and the silent, uncomplaining convicts can be exploited without scruple. Do other entrepreneurs understand this? Of course they do, which is why everyone wants this kind of workforce. So, who gets to set up his business in the zone? Quite right – the person who has bribed the boss and comes and goes in the Prison Service management office as he likes (he has either paid for a holiday, medical treatment or a flat for the boss’ children etc). And who allows the businessman to exploit the convicts in this way? Right again, the zone boss will make sure that everyone is employed for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, but a prisoner’s timesheet will show that he worked five 8-hour days with lunch breaks. The zone boss then divides up the profit from this difference in hours, as well as coming to an arrangement with the work inspectorate, which could take exception to such flagrant violation of the labour laws. What’s the easiest way to do this? Well, to ensure that not one complaint ever gets outside the zone. No one gives even the slightest squeak. How is this done? Very simple. Beatings, torture, humiliation and intimidation. Power is demonstrated by raping one of the complainants with a broom publicly, in front of all the prisoners. This means his life will not be worth living because now the other convicts will despise him and others will not feel like coming forward to complain. But that’s if you can be bothered to get your own hands dirty. If you can’t, then all you have to do is agree with the zone racket committee that you will close your eyes to mobile phones and drugs if they keep order themselves and make sure that no one complains. You tell them to sort out the complainants themselves. If one complaint gets out, then the drug supply channels are closed off.

The close links between the zone and the prosecution service are very powerful

4. The zone boss usually maintains very good relations with the prosecution service. Firstly, because ROP (release on parole) is very bribe-worthy. But just taking money from a convict for writing a good reference to the court is hardly enough. The court could simply ignore it, and the prosecutor could oppose it. The convict also understands that he has to do more than pay for a good reference. You have to cut the prosecution service in too. The close links between the zone and the prosecution service are very powerful and judges don’t generally do anything which might spoil this relationship. Secondly, the prosecution service knows exactly what goes on in the industrial zone and likes to be part of it. So, think about it: even if you have got your complaint outside the zone, even if your lawyers or relatives have managed to get to see the prosecutor – will he take up the cudgels for you? Will he punish everyone, and the beatings and torture inside the zone will stop once and forever? Well, quite.

The impunity, the corruption, the idiocies and the overall management have made the Prison Service into something for which there can be no cure. Anyway, no one has ever tried to cure the system, which differs from the GULAG [Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps] only in the letters of the acronym. So the FPS cannot be reformed – total destruction is the only solution, to be followed by a completely new beginning. A new Penal Code, new principles for the imprisonment of criminals (to reform them, and for the protection of society), and with new people. These people will make their own mistakes, but they will not be weighed down by the past and the experience of the prison warders.

Ladies and gentlemen, is it not shameful that we should be arguing about torture in the 21^st century in a country which sort of passes for civilised?

This article first appeared in Novaya Gazeta