Broadcast of the official blog of Maria Arbatova in Hyde Park. How women live in Russian prison

"Don't swear off money or prison"
“Prison is not a choice, even honest people end up in it”
/Russian proverbs/.

The majority of law-abiding citizens who have never been to a pre-trial detention center, colony or prison, nevertheless have some idea about the life of prisoners. It is formed under the influence of films, television shows, newspaper articles and stories of acquaintances who have been “there”.

But to what extent do ordinary people’s perceptions coincide with reality? What are the conditions of convicted women? What activities are spent doing many days of imprisonment?
Do you want to know? see photo report from Correctional Colony No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

IK-2 is a general regime women's colony. It is located in the Leningrad region, in the village of Ulyanovka, not far from the city of Tosno. This is the only women's colony in St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions.

Women convicted of any crimes (including serious ones) for the first time come here. Because there are no strict regime colonies for women like there are for men. Most of those convicted under Article 228 - Illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, production, processing of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues.

Since it is a general regime colony, women live here in dormitories. One of them is in the title photo. As you can see, there are no bars on the windows. Moreover, regular-sized windows with opening sashes: you need to ventilate them - no problem!

All convicts, in the absence of contraindications, are required by law to work. There are several production facilities in IK-2. For example, in the clothing industry, uniforms are sewn for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And sometimes commercial companies open production facilities on the territory of correctional institutions. They rent premises, import equipment, provide convicts with work, and pay wages.

Expenses for accommodation, food, etc. are deducted from the accrued salary, the rest is transferred to personal accounts. Money from personal accounts can be transferred to loved ones or spent in the prison store.

Working convicts have the right to annual paid leave - 12 working days. Vacations are granted with or without travel outside the correctional institution. But travel leave is granted only with the permission of the head of the colony. This happens infrequently, only in exceptional cases. As a rule, women spend their vacation right in the colony - in the vacation center.

Those sentenced to imprisonment are granted short-term visits lasting four hours and long-term visits lasting three days on the territory of the correctional institution. There can be six short-term dates and six long-term dates per year.

Also, those sentenced to imprisonment are given the right to telephone conversations. The duration of each conversation should not exceed 15 minutes. Telephone calls are paid for by convicts at their own expense or at the expense of their relatives.

1. A dorm room with easy living conditions. There's even a TV on the wall.
Those convicts who follow the daily routine, do not violate the regime of detention, work, participate in amateur activities, can be transferred from ordinary conditions of detention to lighter ones.

2. There are a lot of cats living in dormitories. Moreover, all the cats we met looked quite well-fed and well-groomed.

3. In their free time from work, convicts can take part in various leisure activities.

4. This room is the “hallway” in one of the dormitories. Convicts are given the opportunity to decorate the interior to their taste.

5. Everything is made by the hands of the women living here.

6. Another handsome man.

7. Cats are not the only representatives of the animal world in the hostel.

8. Prison store. Here you can buy food, drinks, and household chemicals. The assortment is richer than in some rural and country stores.

9. Payment is made from a personal account, no cash, of course. Debit and credit are combined in these cards - the store can function even without electricity!

10. And this is a room in the vacation center. Wooden beds, paintings on the walls. Looks like an inexpensive resort.

11. There is also a kitchen here. Here you can cook your own food using store-bought products.

12. The highlight of the holiday center is the sauna. It’s quite small, but that doesn’t bother anyone here.

13. Since the colony is for women, several creative workshops are organized here.
Here, for example, carnival masks are made.

14. Participation is voluntary, in your free time.

15.

16. In addition to making masks, women here sew dolls. The result of the work can be passed on to loved ones. Many people have children left behind, and this is a great opportunity to give your child a gift.

17.

18. Paintings are being painted in the next room. The environment is very creative.

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21. And these dolls gained popularity outside the walls of the colony. Some copies were taken to an exhibition at the St. Petersburg Puppet Museum to participate in the general competition.

22. The manufacturing process is quite simple. The blank is pasted over with papier mache and covered with paint. Real hair is used, usually your own, and the face is drawn. The most important thing is an elegant dress, and this is where all the author’s imagination comes into play.

23.

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25. Hands are sculpted by hand (pardon the pun). But what are they made from?

26. Of course, from bread.

27. If you look closely, all the dolls have different faces.

28. They decided to use motifs from Ancient Egypt in the interior of the gym.
And again the TV is on the wall.

29. And this is the chapel, which is visible in the title photo.
Father comes once a week from Tosno and conducts services. Those who wish can take communion and confess.

30. One of the industries where convicts work. The equipment is modern, all processes are under program control.

31. And this is what comes out. You will buy a bowl for your cat in the store, and it will be made here.

32. In Correctional Colony No. 2 you can not only work, but also study.
There is a vocational school right on the territory of the colony.

33. The main profession that can be obtained here is seamstress.

34. The school has several classrooms.

35. Women here not only study, but also work.
The main products are work clothes, uniforms for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, medical clothing and bed linen.

36. Creative works.

37. Recently, the school has introduced training in a new profession - painter-finisher.

This photo report was prepared as part of a joint project spbblog and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

To be honest, what I saw in IK-2 was absolutely not what I expected. Starting from the absence of bars on the windows and fairly good living conditions, and ending with a variety of options for creative activities. In my unprofessional opinion, all the conditions have been created here for rethinking your actions, acquiring new professional skills and starting a new life.

A woman in prison: prison visits, prison sex, children born behind bars...

To the colony to meet my wife

Sergei is preparing to meet his wife Galina in the colony. He has already purchased everything needed for a 30-kilogram transfer. All that remains is to buy some sweets for the three-day date - berries, fruits, ice cream.

Sergei has been going to the colony for meetings for three years now. In another three years, the sentence will end. The sentence that Galina received is nine years in prison. Her first husband, with whom she was involved in the same case, also received the same amount. To date, Galina has served six years. Her first marriage had cracked even before her arrest. A couple of years later, when the spouses had already been distributed to different zones, it became clear that they didn’t even have anything to write to each other about.

Sergei is Galinin’s second husband. We somehow managed to meet each other at the stage. The young man then received two years in prison. We started corresponding. If letters go from zone to zone, this is always problematic. But we established a connection through will. After serving his sentence, Sergei came to Galina for a short date. Soon they signed. The husband tries to support his wife in every possible way, both morally and financially. “When our loved ones behind bars feel like they are needed outside, time flies much faster in captivity,” he says. In turn, Galina writes in almost every letter to her husband how happy she is, because she finally understood what it means to live.

For those who are far from the realities of prison, this short story is supposedly from the series “Santa Barbara”. However, anyone who has been in prison will tell you that other things happen in prisons. Although rare.

As a rule, their mothers and, less often, their fathers come to visit convicted women. More rarely - spouses, especially with children.

“Why do they need dates, why?” “If spouses most often wait for their husbands, then men are much less patient,” says Sergei sincerely. “The longer the period, the significantly less chance of maintaining the relationship.” He explains this by the fact that men are without They can’t have sex, and therefore when the wife is behind bars, most often they find new life partners.

Sergei is convinced that long prison visits should still be much more frequent than once every six months. He also believes that so-called bachelors should also have the right to long visits with loved ones.

Human rights activists refer to the experience of the Swedish penitentiary system, where prisoners, regardless of whether they are married or not, can meet with their loved ones in prison every week. “If we talk about our long visits of up to three days (one, two, three times a year ), is absolutely not enough. There is also the opportunity to meet with their families weekly. Frankly speaking, there is the possibility of some kind of physiological release, which is also important. In this way, a person constantly feels a connection with his family. In addition, relatives do not have to think about how and for what to collect the next parcel for the carer. Here in Sweden, where prisoners are provided with literally everything, there is simply no such problem.”

Such a restriction of visits, as well as the forced refusal of sex during fertile age, leads to disruptions in the hormonal cycle, affects the mental state, and creates an atmosphere of significant sexual tension in prisons.

More than half of the sitting women are covered in lesbian love

According to research by psychologists at the Moscow Research Center for Mental Health, conducted in institutions of the Russian prison system, a woman in prison, due to the lack of necessary tactile contacts with loved ones and emotional connections, “breaks down” much faster than a man. The psyche of women cannot stand it after 2 years of forced separation from home, relatives, and family, while in men this happens after 3-5 years. Often in such conditions, instead of a real feeling, a woman who needs it begins to look for some kind of surrogate feeling.

According to researchers, forced lesbian love in Russia affects more than half of the women in prison. A similar picture is typical for most women's correctional institutions, explains former convict Maria, who served two years in a colony.

Maria: “Many people have this kind of connection. Especially among those who repeatedly sit for a long time. Those who have short terms can only taste this kind of love lightly. Some people get by without sex at all. However, among those serving long terms, more than half have such connections. All such relationships arise absolutely voluntarily. Nobody rapes anyone."

As Maria says, two types of such partnerships are common in women’s prisons.

Maria: “1 are the so-called “halves”, they identify themselves as women and look accordingly feminine. The 2nd type of connection is when women already perform male and female roles. The first of them look very much like men. When I first saw such a woman in a pre-trial detention center, I thought that some guy had been put in the cell by mistake.

Such women are called “cobles” or “pickers”. Their faces are scarred, their hair is short, their voices are rough. I don’t know how it happens that a woman changes completely. "Cobles" show signs of attention to a certain girl. They are like a real married couple. The so-called man will protect his mistress and be jealous of her. Moreover, specific scenes of jealousy occur, and fights and arguments are not uncommon. After being released from prison, the “koblas” sometimes did everything to get back. After all, the so-called wife remained there. The love was so strong. If both women are free, then very often they continue to live together in freedom. Sometimes a couple raises the child of one of them together. It happens that even those born in prison.”

"Where the babies come from?"

According to Maria, the demographic problems characteristic of society did not affect women's zones at all. Convicts give birth very often.

But where do children come from in the colony, from whom? As Maria says, women get pregnant while still free, just before the pre-trial detention center. Some become pregnant while still in prison after long visits with their spouses. There are other options.

Maria: “Sexual relations with men also happened in our zone. For example, with civilian workers. When there was construction going on somewhere. But, however, such cases were often stopped. As a result, those workers were fired, and the women received various penalties. The very last point: when the clinic was being built during my time, girls were forbidden to even come close to those workers, wear short skirts and thus provoke men. As far as I know from the girls themselves, they are trying to come into contact with the so-called “chemists” at the factory. They are trying to organize a call to meet in some back rooms. But recently the factory has recruited very young and frightened people who are literally running away from these girls. Previously, as experienced prisoners told me, in a separate cell you could meet a male prisoner for 50 “cu.” Now this is almost impossible - everything is under video surveillance.”

Remembering breastfeeding women in prison, Maria says that not all of them are familiar with maternal feelings. The girl believes that most of these convicts give birth to a child for opportunistic reasons, for the sake of various privileges. These are walks without restrictions in the fresh air, improved nutrition - dairy products, more fresh fruits and vegetables. Plus regular medical care. This, however, can be said about the zone. In a pre-trial detention center, it is much more difficult for pregnant women - they live like everyone else.

Maria: “In addition, some women, such as mothers of infants, can even expect to receive parole. Upon release, they receive certain material assistance - money, toys, things. When they leave prison, they often simply take and abandon their children... More often at train stations. This happens in the first hours after release.”

As Russian expert psychologists note in their studies, very rare stories of prison motherhood have a happy ending. The system itself in the former Soviet republics is structured in such a way that for a person who has been released from prison, there are no conditions to find any place for himself in life. Therefore, usually former convicted women, who have developed maternal feelings and who are not going to give their child born in prison to anyone, remember with nostalgia the time they spent together with the baby in the colony. Even if it was lack of freedom, their small family had everything necessary for existence. Under the conditions of the Russian penitentiary system, there are also homes for children of convicted mothers. They are designed for children from zero to three years old. How advisable is it to keep children from their very birth in a prison “orphanage”? Isn’t it better to do this in the same institution at large until the mother is released from prison?

A journalist I know, who visited the women’s colony several years ago at an Open Day, noted that the prison house resembles a private kindergarten. The walls of the rooms are painted with fairy-tale characters, and there are wooden cribs in the rooms. There is a music room and games rooms, a children's courtyard with gazebos, flower beds, and a playground with swings. All problem children who have inherited certain diseases from their mother, and these are the majority, are under the close attention of a neurologist, pediatrician, nurse, and educators. Their health is slowly recovering. Then the journalist was able to talk with some mothers. One of them, convicted Alla, in a conversation with a colleague was very worried about how painful it was for her to see her child behind the “thorn.” Alla became pregnant in the colony while on a date with her husband. At first he encouraged her very much, wrote, and came. And then he disappeared. They say he has a new passion. Not a day, Alla said, did she have the thought that her daughter’s life begins in the zone.

The woman, however, was confident that she would still put her daughter on her feet and give her upbringing and education. She hoped that she would never have such an experience again in her life. However, she said she would not hide it from her daughter.

I wonder what happened to this mother and her daughter? And are they together now?

Maria: “Of course, it happens in different ways. There are cases when women in a colony tremble over their children, and then go out and drink away all the children’s things. After all, if a mother and child are released from a colony, they provide the child with a stroller, clothing, and food for the first weeks. There are mothers who drink it right away. However, basically, I emphasize this word, mothers love their children very much. The child is very motivated to become responsible for his fate, because they have no other good person like this baby.”

However, let’s return to the research of psychologists at the Mental Health Center. According to their conclusions, after two to three years of imprisonment, many women, including women who are mothers, experience certain metamorphoses in their consciousness. Contrary to common sense and the innate thirst for freedom, the feeling of punishment disappears, fades - and it seems to them that prison is the only home acceptable for their existence, from which they are afraid and there is no need to go out into this world where no one is waiting for you. Someone, realizing this, reconciles and begins to integrate into this familiar ugly environment, adapts, disingenuously, while someone falls into indifference, despair, melancholy, anger at everything and everyone...

HOW DO WOMEN LIVE IN PRISON? DETAILS OF A COMPLEX LIFE
How do women live in prison? Details of a complicated life

What is a women's prison and who are the women in prison, what do they do, and how do they live with it. We will talk about this and much more in this article.
WOMAN IN PRISON - WHO IS SHE?
It's hard to imagine a woman in prison. At first glance, these two words are incompatible. Society is more accustomed to the fact that prison is intended for male prisoners.
Women's crimes differ from men's, due to the fact that women are much more emotional, so most often the victims of their violence are their husbands' mistresses or even the husbands themselves.
Women during arrest During arrest, women usually do not resist. They behave calmly while they are led to the place of proceedings. But despite this, the police treat them cynically and rudely.
Women are humiliated, insulted, and sometimes even pulled by their hair. Compared to men, women are not tortured.
If law enforcement officers use physical punishment, they are only trying to evoke emotions that make it impossible to lie.
In the temporary detention center, women and men are placed separately. After the verdict, when a woman ends up in a pre-trial detention center, it turns out that she is not at all ready for prison conditions, even though there are now enough films written and shown about women’s prisons.
Naturally, when a person goes to prison for the first time, he experiences great stress. Surprisingly, her cellmates help the woman return to normal, because communication and stories about her fate and troubles calm her down.
Relationships between cellmates develop differently, but mostly without conflict. After some time, women form groups in the form of families, within which they communicate or discuss some problems.
PRISON - FEMALE
Women in prison remain women. The women's prison is like a boutique because of the natural passion for shopping for clothes. This sounds a little strange, because there is no money or goods in prisons.
But women constantly exchange their things for someone else’s, thus imitating the acquisition of something new. Sometimes there are cases of exchanging a new thing for an old one, the goal is still the same - updating the wardrobe.
Foreign cosmetics, if given by relatives, are exchanged for domestic ones. Police officers are not against such barter relations; they themselves help transfer things from one cell to another.
Women's prisons are not equipped with psychological support facilities and are notorious for their lack of sanitary hygiene. Sometimes there are not enough personal hygiene products and clothing. There is no designated area for laundry in the cells.
Unsanitary

It’s scary to imagine the conditions in which women live in prisons. If a woman has a child over four years old, he lives with relatives or in an orphanage.
Even if the child is under three years old, the mother should live in isolation and spend only a couple of hours a day walking with the baby.
As a rule, women who are in prison for longer than 3-4 years have their social perception disrupted, their psychology changing, all of this has a negative impact on their future life, which can soon return the woman back to a prison cell.
But this does not mean that all women who have served time are spoiled and do not have any good future life. Among the prisoners there are also talented individuals who dance, sing, write poetry, draw, and so on.
During their sentence, they usually continue to do what they love, developing skills, so they leave prison with great potential behind them.
General population cells All people dream of privacy, unfortunately, in women's prisons this can be forgotten. Women cannot be alone if they are serving time in a cell with 40-60 people in it.
For this reason, an irritated feeling often arises, which often leads to conflicts of a domestic nature.
All conflicts end peacefully, mostly without going further than raising one's voice. There are practically no fights in women's prisons.
If one of the inmates has to appear for a court case soon, a festive mood reigns in the cell. They try to dress the woman in the best clothes that are in the cell, and do a beautiful hairstyle and makeup.
Even in prison, they do not lose their sense of self-worth: “How can you go out into public without putting yourself in order?” Special treatment is shown to the prisoner who killed her child.
Basically, such women are ignored and considered plebeians, since the task of every woman on earth is to give birth to a child, and not to kill him.
Sometimes there is a tradition when a woman who kills children is cut bald with an ordinary razor, leaving cuts and scars on her head.
Basically, police officers punish participants in violence, although they perfectly understand the reason for such behavior. As for living conditions, there is no women’s prison in the prison, and there cannot be warm water.
Heat water using boilers. Showers happen once a week, or even once every ten days. The administration takes care of the comfortable conditions of prisoners. Now every woman has her own bed.
The cells have been redecorated, and it is not uncommon to see wallpaper in bright colors. Even if a pregnant woman goes to prison, she remains in a common cell and eats food like everyone else.
BIRTH IN PRISON
Childbirth in prison If a pregnant woman experiences her first contractions, she is immediately taken to the hospital under guard, and sometimes even in handcuffs.
She returns to work in the colony immediately after giving birth, and the child is returned to the mother after 5-6 days.
Already with the child, the woman is transferred to a separate specially designed cell.
It houses only nursing mothers or pregnant women, due to the law on detention.
The administration takes care of mothers who cannot feed their children and provides artificial nutrition for their babies.
In women's prisons, the mother is separated from her baby only when he is taken to the hospital for examination; in other cases, he is constantly with the mother, so sometimes she even gets tired.
Only after the child turns three years old is he separated from his mother. That is, in general, we can say that the conditions for children in places of detention are terrible.
For some reason, the state defense has a contemptuous attitude towards imprisoned mothers; they often claim that women give birth to make life easier for themselves in prison, and in fact they do not need children.
MOTHERHOOD IN PRISON
Motherhood in prison And yet, for such women there are certain conditions to raise a baby: walk twice a day, cook food right in the cell, receive additional baby food and sometimes diapers.
When a mother and baby arrive in a colony, the child’s adaptation method is observed.
He is taken away, supposedly because of quarantine, but in reality, in this way, the child is weaned from his mother.
Today in Russia there are approximately 700 mothers with their children under three years of age and pregnant women in women's prisons.
Of course, even with all the amenities provided, not a single mother feels comfortable, but for the same reason - lack of will.
Motherhood in a women's prison Instead of being outside for a long time with the child, they sit in cells deprived of any light except daylight, although this is prohibited by law.
Therefore, you should not think that life is much easier for mothers in prisons than for ordinary prisoners. Living conditions for women with children are not much different.
Now imagine that all women are in practically the same conditions, regardless of whether there is a child or not. Will it be easy for the mother for the first three years until the child is taken away?
We invite you to watch a film about a women's prison, about how, sometimes out of stupidity, smart and beautiful girls and women end up in prison.

This is truly a completely different reality.

In the women's detachment of colony-settlement No. 5 in Desnogorsk, Smolensk region, 14 women are serving their sentences. They live here quite freely: convicts are not required to walk in formation, they are released into the city, given visits without restrictions, and the living conditions themselves are increasingly reminiscent of a hostel with amenities, and not a penitentiary institution - ladies can use a shower, washing machine and rest room . But, of course, the local inhabitants are required to strictly adhere to the established routine. The violator, as in any other correctional institution, awaits a punishment cell.
Women remain women even behind bars - they also preen themselves, dream of love and make plans for the future.

Viburnum flowers

In recent years, according to a prison employee, among the “special contingent” there are more and more young people – 20-30 year old girls. Another trend is the growing number of people convicted of non-payment of child support.

“This category is not delayed - the period of their stay in captivity is 2-4 months, but many, having been released, after some time come to us again. After prison, women return to their usual lifestyle and environment, and their alimony debt only grows,” says the head of the colony-settlement detachment, Svetlana Bychkova.

It is the head of the detachment who is the first person who meets new arrivals here. Svetlana has held her position for 10 years, and despite the fact that she has a solid work experience in the penal system, she considers this area close and “her own.”

Svetlana Bychkova says that she feels sorry for each of her charges.
She comes up with competitions for convicted women and holds cultural events in which her charges gladly take part. On the one hand - entertainment, on the other - another form of re-education. On Svetlana’s initiative, five years ago the colony began holding “Kalina Flowers” ​​- a creative beauty contest for convicted women, where they not only demonstrate the ability to present themselves, but also their talents, and even erudition. And before the start of the competition, the colony is “humming”: in the corridors and rooms there is only talk about the upcoming competition.

“Not all newcomers make contact right away,” says Svetlana, “the girls are different in character, lifestyle, education, but then they slowly open up, talk about themselves and begin to share news from their personal lives - who they called (we have a landline phone for connections), who is expected on a date. Parents of convicts and their husbands are frequent guests of the institution; in most cases, men do not leave their other halves.”

If a woman is expecting a child (which is not uncommon here), she is under the constant supervision of a health worker. After birth, babies are usually taken away by their relatives; if this is not possible, then they are left with their mother, giving them a separate cell. And the newborn becomes the object of special care, which is shown by both convicts and employees, bringing toys and diapers from home.

There is a school at the colony, and if there are orders, there is a sewing workshop.

But women, regardless of status, remain women. And, according to Svetlana Bychkova, the local inhabitants spend most of their time paying attention to themselves and their appearance - trying to lose weight, spinning hoops, doing gymnastics, and making themselves beautiful. And often, when leaving the colony, the convict is so transformed that it is difficult to recognize her as the same woman.

“I feel sorry for all of them, and I am firmly convinced: “Don’t swear off money or prison,” says Svetlana. “One drowned a child in a bucket, another threw a little daughter from the seventh floor. Humanly speaking, you can have different attitudes towards their actions, but for me, all the wards are equal, each is a human being, even if she has stumbled.” Although psychologically it is not at all easy to listen to such stories. As well as daily immersion in this multi-layered atmosphere, in which there is a place for tears of joy, and repentance, and anger at the world around us.”

Women remain themselves even in captivity. Shoe shelves in a colony settlement.

Story one. Anna and the mistakes of her youth

The girl opposite is 27, I wouldn’t give it more than 21. Cheerful disposition, teenage style of clothing, ease of communication, mischievous eyes. When I find out what she was convicted of, for a second I think that I misheard, or is she cynically joking: Article 228 of the Criminal Code? Drugs?

Anya appeared in the “five” a year and a half ago - she was transferred for good behavior from a general regime colony in Orel, where she spent more than two years.

She calls everything that happened to her “before” a mistake of her youth. And, most likely, he perceives what happened as a protracted adventure. The girl was born and raised in Bryansk, and came to Moscow to study - she managed to get a pedagogical education and become a certified foreign language teacher. And then - people in uniform, detention, charges of “illegal acquisition and possession”, court, handcuffs, colony.

“I wanted to hang out,” explains Anna, admitting that she used it from time to time, “at the institute it was quite common. Mom is worried, blaming herself for missing me. And I? I dissuade her, because I know for sure that everything is my fault - I did all this with my own hands.”

Today, my mother actively supports her daughter, comes and visits. In addition to her, Anna’s loved one also visits the colony, who did not abandon the girl and assures that he is waiting. Periodically, my grandparents, who live in Odessa, send greetings. The only one of her relatives who turned away from her was her uncle; he stopped communicating with her niece.

Anya believes that, despite everything, her life is just beginning.
“At first it was very difficult, in the first year of my term I thought that life was over, faith in God helped. I think that now, as in the famous film, everything is just beginning for me,” says the girl.

In addition to reading classical literature, Anna became addicted to drawing in the colony - and before that she had not noticed such talents in herself.

Like all her friends, Anna is waiting for the time when she can apply for parole.

“You have a crisis there, the dollar is rising, and we live in a different reality - meetings with loved ones, competitions... Plans after release? Of course have. First of all, find a job, maybe they will hire me as a translator, although it will be difficult to get a job with a criminal record. I would no longer want to go to prison, I need to return to a normal life, start a family, I hope that everything will be fine for me,” the girl concludes.

In the colony, Anya discovered her talent for drawing.

The second story. Zhenya, her poems and hopes

Zhenya found new love, having already been convicted.

“Big, kind, beautiful eyes,

Caring gentle hands.

All this is my beloved mother,

Which is so lacking in separation.

I often remember for a moment

One tear, a barely audible groan -

That's all that the soul's confusion reveals

Forgive me, please, I beg you

My guilt before you is endless.

With one desire I now breathe

Yours to reduce severe suffering."

A 30-year-old convict from colony-settlement No. 5, Evgeniya, wrote these poems while she was already behind bars. She is half-jokingly called a local star here. Zhenya is a two-time winner of the All-Russian poetry competition among convicts “I will return my lost name.” Now she hardly writes. According to Zhenya, she is driven to creativity by negative and sad thoughts, and the state of euphoria in which she is in no way contributes to poetry. The fact is that Zhenya is pregnant, in a few months she and her fiancé are expecting the birth of a boy. And she sincerely hopes that this will happen in the wild.

Her story is quite similar to the plot of a modern melodrama. A good girl from a prosperous family with eyes wide open to the world - the only child in the family - at some point gets involved with a bad guy, marries him, and the whole exemplary life of yesterday's excellent student goes downhill.

Zhenya openly talks about the fact that her husband used drugs and also made money from it. "I? I struggled, tried to pull him out and got hooked myself. I can't even understand when, at what point everything went wrong. I thought then that they could take anyone, but not me. I think it’s all my own fault,” says the woman.

Zhenya and her husband eventually divorced. They took him, then her. The same article 228 of the Criminal Code, and the court sentence is six years in prison.

Five months ago Zhenya was allowed to go home on leave (this is the practice in the colony). She met with her ex-boyfriend, whom she had known before the wedding. Feelings flared up again.

“He is not at all embarrassed by my status. We decided to be together. My boyfriend proposed to me, and I said yes. We will definitely get married. The main thing for me now is to give birth to a healthy child,” Zhenya continues to make plans, “and to give him maximum love. And, of course, get back on your feet.”

Story three. Irina, her great love and murderous jealousy

I noticed Irina even before the personal meeting - when the head of the detachment, Svetlana, showed on her work computer photographs from last year’s creative competition among prisoners of the Viburnum Flowers colony.

“And here is our winner,” she pointed to the bright woman, without warning me why she was convicted.

“Article 105 of the Criminal Code. Murder. She killed her husband's mistress. She was sentenced to 12 years and 10 months,” Irina says calmly.

How old were you then? – I’ll clarify.
- 23 years old. And now I'm 34.

Irina ended up in a colony when she was only 23.

According to Irina, she married for great love, however, some time later she began to suspect her husband of treason. A woman’s instincts did not deceive her: one day, returning home earlier than usual, she found her husband with his mistress.

“She was the initiator of the scandal, the altercation escalated into a fight, and I hit her with a knife several times, one of the blows hit her in the heart,” says Irina. “Then she went to the police and wrote a confession. Yes, I felt sorry, and not only for the girl herself, but also for her parents.”

Irina claims that she wrote apologetic letters to the mother of the deceased and asked for forgiveness. The family estimated the moral damage from the loss of their daughter at 100 thousand, and the woman also paid this amount.

“I thought a lot about what happened, about how everything could have turned out differently. Yes, we make our own destiny, but sometimes circumstances are above us,” the woman says.

In captivity, Irina took part in amateur performances with pleasure, and, as in childhood, began to enjoy performing and playing on stage. In the Vladimir colony, where she spent nine years, she took part in performances for children from an orphanage, and in Desnogorsk she became the best in a creative competition and received the crown of winner.

Ira believes that she will meet love again.
By the way, she divorced her husband. And a few months ago, after leaving the colony, I met another man. Some time later, Irina realized that she was pregnant, her beloved was at first happy, began to make plans for the future, and then disappeared.

“I think everything will work out for me and I will still meet my man. I won’t hide my past from him, I don’t see the point. I need to choose a person who will perceive me as I am,” concludes Irina.

Reference

According to official data, there are 35 women’s colonies in Russia, where about 60 thousand people are kept. There are no strict regime colonies for the fair sex - murderers and other people convicted of serious crimes are sentenced to a general regime, from where, for good behavior, they can be transferred to a colony-settlement, where they serve their sentences, as a rule, for theft, non-payment of alimony, and causing minor harm health.

Let's understand the concept of "women's prison". Today, on the territory of the Russian Federation, women are serving sentences of imprisonment in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation only:
1. In colony settlements: for crimes committed through negligence, as well as crimes of minor and medium gravity, who have not previously served imprisonment (clause 3 of article 74 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation; clause “a” of part 1 of article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ).
2. In general regime correctional colonies: for committing serious and especially serious crimes, including any type of recidivism (clause 4 of article 74 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; clause “b” of part 1 of article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Many people who do not understand the basics of criminal and criminal-executive law, as well as legislation, do not know how to distinguish between the concepts of “prison” and “colony”, so at the everyday level you can often hear the concept of “prison”, which applies to all categories of convicts and it is, in a way, a substitute for all types of correctional institutions.
Why not a prison, but a colony? In Russia, there is a policy that is incomprehensible to me and many, according to which women (they rely on statistics) commit many times fewer and less serious and especially serious crimes compared to men + the principle of humanism, and from this the conclusion follows that it is impossible to apply more severe punishment to women prison mode.
Let's get back to the order.
No matter what women are free, the colony changes everything.
In women's colonies, as well as in men's colonies, there is a hierarchy. Women are kept in cell-type rooms. Each cell has a “cell leader”: this is either a woman who has been convicted several times, or the most influential woman chosen by the entire cell. As a rule, such women are divided into two types: 1) a woman who has been repeatedly convicted, who, despite the terms of imprisonment, has retained human qualities, prohibits violence, helps newcomers in adaptation, and monitors peaceful relations in the cell; 2) a woman who has been repeatedly convicted, who supports violence, bends all her cellmates to herself, and regulates their life in the zone.
There are also “old timers” - those who are serving a long term and are familiar with all the rules.
Those convicted of economic crimes enjoy some respect, since among them there are quite a few educated and intelligent women.
The lowest caste is child killers, they are beaten and humiliated.
As for drug addicts, women with diseases, they are not very liked, since drug addicts are not true “friends,” and as for patients, there is a chance of getting infected, so they are not touched.
All convicts are on duty in the cell, according to the schedule and schedule. But duty can be sold: cigarettes, food, hygiene products. The head of the cell has several assistants who help her. They eat separately, exist separately and have great rights to distribute the responsibilities and lives of the rest of the inmates. The days of washing, eating, and rest are regulated.
Inmates live in so-called “families” - an association of convicts based on similar interests and economic benefits (common food, products, conversations and communication). This helps to survive serving time, to have support, protection, food.
They also celebrate any holidays with their families: they prepare dishes, give gifts from what is available: sweets, hygiene products. But the whole camera puts on skits, concerts, etc. for each other.
It should be noted that despite the fact that, according to statistics, women commit fewer and less serious and especially serious crimes, in the colonies they behave very cruelly. Not all, but for the most part, the prisoners are very aggressive. This is manifested in the fact that they show cruelty to those who are about to leave, or to those who have greater means and benefits.
Violence against women is often committed by women. Not only physical, but also sexual. Some people cohabit with their cellmates, but this is rather rare.