Prosecutor criticizes infringements by the Vinnytsa region MIA and Penal Department

The Vinnytsa Region Prosecutor’s office has spoken of violations of legislation by the region’s department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the regional division of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences.  These violations relate to holding people detained, convicted prisoners, and those remanded in custody.  This was reported today by the press service of the Vinnytsa Region Prosecutor’s office, quoting the Deputy Prosecutor Gennady Vyvdych.

“The Prosecutor has established serious infringements of legislation and international norms regarding the conditions in which citizens are being held in temporary holding facilities (ITT), rooms for detained individuals in police stations,  in the MIA centre for the reception and distribution of vagrants, the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) and penal colonies of the division of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences”.

According to Gennady Vyvdych, there had been cases found where people detained on suspicion of committing crimes had been held in the same detention facilities as those detained for administrative offences. In the SIZO there had been numerous cases where minors were held in the same cell as adults, or with people previously convicted, some even repeat offenders.

The Deputy Prosecutor of the region also commented that in a number of cases, people had been held in temporary holding facilities (ITT) for more than a month instead of the legally stipulated time limits of 3 or 10 days. Cases had been found where people had not been informed of their rights, had not been allowed visits, and it was not unusual for relatives of people detained to have not been informed where the person was being held.  Those detained were not provided with the conditions needed for normal existence, were not taken out for walks, were sometimes not given bed linen, and in a few cases not even a mattress.

“Instances have been recorded when, despite cells being vacant, 3 people were held in a cell intended for two. Moreover, people serving administrative arrest are not being provided with paid physical labour to compensate the state for their upkeep due to the fact that bodies of local self-government are not establishing and providing a list of appropriate enterprises and organizations. At present, of nearly 5 thousand able-bodied convicted individuals only around 1.5 thousand have been found work”, the report states.