This unlawful practice is still used and remains unpunished, despite the declared penitentiary reform. Now this beating in the Odesa SIZO has already been muffled in the long familiar fashion

A new norm sneaked in when nobody was looking will lead to a situation where investigations into allegations of torture and ill-treatment by prison staff are carried out by the suspected perpetrators’ colleagues .

Ukraine’s MPs have failed worse tests, nonetheless the refusal to remove a norm hearkening back to Soviet times is frustrating. It is likely that many MPs could simply not be bothered to read the bill, with this potentially costing prisoners up to three years’ extra imprisonment.

Crimean prisoners sentenced under Ukrainian law are having Russian citizenship foisted on them and being illegally ‘retried’ under Russian law. Elvis Asanov, a life prisoner, registered his protest at such attempts on May 11 by slashing his throat directly in the courtroom.

Human rights activists have called for the adoption of draft bill 2708 which aims to remove the current possibility of extending prisoners’ sentences over alleged minor offences.

If signed into force, Nadiya Savchenko’s first legislative initiative as MP could result in up to one in five prisoners being released, however there could also be some more negative consequences. .

The third anniversary is approaching of the entry into force of the new version of the Criminal Procedure Code [CPC]. However some experts say that officials working on crimes have still not adapted to the demands of the document, and there remain numerous infringements of the rights of parties to the proceedings in their actions. Is this the case?

The civic initiative Donbas SOS has issued an appeal over the plight of over 50 people – both prisoners and local residents whose nearby homes have been destroyed – who urgently need to be evacuated from Prison Colony No. 23 (Chornukhino).

Dangerous working conditions and lack of safety mechanisms; reductions in wages or even non-payment altogether were the conditions Kharkiv Human Rights Group monitors found in prison colonies in the Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky and Zhytomir oblasts

Oleksandr Bukalov from Donetsk Memorial reports that amendments to the Penal Code which allowed life prisoners to have long visits are still encountering resistance from the Penitentiary Service

Following reports of a hunger strike involving a number of prisoners at the Zamkova Corrective Colony No. 58 in Izyaslav, a monitoring group with representatives of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group visited the colony without any warning on Nov 25

Oleksandr Bukalov from Donetsk Memorial reports on the general trend towards a reduction in prisoners in Ukraine and on the difficult situation regarding prison colonies in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

There is an ominous sense of déjà vu about reports that prisoners at a Ukrainian corrective colony have been beaten during a ‘search’ only weeks after reports that 20 prisoners had gone on hunger strike in protest at conditions and treatment.

Among the countless victims of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, one group has gone unnoticed. Tens of thousands of prisoners serving sentences, as well as people in detention, are held in the areas under the control of Kremlin-backed militants.

Convicted prisoners in the Crimea are having their sentences forcibly re-qualified under Russian legislation. This will likely result in many Ukrainian prisoners losing their chance to release under amnesty

Shocking allegations that a prisoner awarded large compensation by the Court in Strasbourg is being blackmailed and coerced into handing the money over to the prison administration

Serhiy Pavlichenko and his father recently had their appeals rejected against highly controversial convictions on charges of killing a Kyiv judge Serhiy Zubkov

On 5 September the Verkhovna Rada began consideration of a number of draft laws needed for the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. It passed the first of the laws on amendments to the Penal Code

According to figures from the State Penitentiary Service as of 1 July 2013 there were 136,223 prisoners in places of confinement. Oleksandr Bukalov from Donetsk Memorial notes that this is the lowest number in the last 2 decades

Over the last two years there has been a surge in the number of prisoners committing suicide, with the numbers 34% up on 2008-2010. The number of deaths in penal institutions has also risen