Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

April 10, 2019

Russia: detienen las clases de yoga en las cárceles por 'crear' presos homosexuales

News

Asia Europe Russia

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish

March 11, 2019

Russia: allegations of torture in the Northern Caucasian region

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has today issued a public statement on the Russian Federation urging the Russian authorities to take decisive action to eradicate the phenomenon of ill-treatment by law enforcement…

January 7, 2019

Russia: prison guards suffer from 'moral fatigue,' officials says

News

Asia Europe Russia

Amid a continuing debate about the dire conditions in Russian prisons and repeated cases of torture there, a top official from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) says its workers are suffering from “moral fatigue” as a result of low wages and daily contacts with inmates who sometimes atta…

December 24, 2018

Russia: le directeur d'une prison suspendu après des cas de travaux forcés

News

Asia Europe Russia

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

December 17, 2018

Russia: notorious 19th-century Moscow prison will be closed

News

Asia Europe Russia

Russian prison officials have announced plans to close the infamous Butyrka prison in central Moscow and relocate its inmates to the city’s outskirts.

December 9, 2018

Russia: prison torture victim 'brought back to life four times'

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

Former inmate Yevgeny Makarov describes how guards choked him with a towel and poured water into his mouth to suffocate him.

December 7, 2018

Russia: inmates In far East launch hunger strike to protest prison conditions

News

Asia Europe Material conditions Protest Violence Russia

Eight inmates in Russia’s Far Eastern Sakha-Yakutia region have launched a hunger strike to protest conditions at the prison where they are being held, the head of a regional human monitoring group says.

August 21, 2018

Jailed filmmaker Oleg Sentsov on day 100 of Russia hunger strike

News

Asia Europe Russia

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov on Tuesday entered day 100 of his hunger strike, as he languishes in a Russian Arctic prison on terror charges with little hope of release.

August 13, 2018

Beaten, not broken: the Russian ex-inmate covering the torture trial of former jailers

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

Ruslan Vakhapov says ‘desire for revenge in a legal way’ led him to expose brutality in prison system. He recognised all the prison guards on trial last month for the brutal torture of an inmate in a Yaroslavl prison. They used to be his jailers too.

August 13, 2018

Russie : "Oleg Sentsov est en train de mourir dans une prison parce qu'il dit des choses qui dérangent", affirme Françoise Nyssen

News

Asia Europe Russia

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

August 7, 2018

Russia: widespread torture, extortion detailed in St. Petersburg prisons

News

Asia Europe Torture Violence Russia

Allegations of torture in correctional facilities across Russia have gained national attention after a leaked video showed the violent beating of an inmate at a prison in Yaroslavl. A number of prison guards and wardens have since been detained and some convicted, while the Federal Prison Service v…

August 3, 2018

Russian ex-prisoners speak out over torture after leaked video

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

Alexander Zarechnev is one of a growing number of Russians to break their silence over violence and torture in Russian prisons after a widely shared video of guards beating an inmate shocked the country.

July 24, 2018

Russia: guard accused of suffocating inmate to death

News

Asia Europe Russia

A prison guard in western Russia’s Bryansk region has been detained on suspicion of suffocating an inmate to death by binding his face with a piece of cloth.

July 24, 2018

Russia: rare witness to horror of Stalin's Gulag prisons dies

News

Asia Europe Russia

A rare survivor of the harshest Stalin-era labour camps has died aged 89 in Russia’s far east.

July 23, 2018

Six arrested in wake of leaked Russian prison torture video

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

Six prison employees have been arrested and at least 17 fired following the release of a 2017 video showing a detainee being tortured at a prison outside Moscow.

June 20, 2018

Russia: lawmakers finally move forward with legislation that could release 100,000 prisoners

News

Asia Europe Russia

After 10 years, the State Duma has adopted a second reading of legislation that would mean less time behind bars for Russians convicted of many crimes.

May 23, 2018

Russia: security forces in Ingushetia on trial for torture

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

The trial is practically unprecedented in Russia - torture and even the murder of detainees is a common pheonomenon.

April 14, 2018

Russia: detainees who had rebelled against systematic torture sentenced to heavy sentences

News

Asia Europe Torture Russia

At the end of a lengthy trial, 17 participants in a protest that took place in the Kopeysk penal colony (Ural Region) in November 2012 in response to systematic torture practices were sentenced to up to 5 years of prison by the Chelyabinsk Regional Court for “mass riots.”

January 17, 2018

Russian prisoners : backtracking

Investigations

Europe Russia

— Published 9 February 2018.¶ A shortage of medical assistance, abusive convictions…Russia continues to violate the law in its prison system. By excluding activists from prison visiting commissions, the government has taken another step toward illegal and inhumane practices. The famous and brave j…

December 12, 2017

In Russia, the prisoners are dragged around

Analysis Report

Asia Europe Overcrowding Torture Violence Russia

6,000 km, silenced journey, utmost opacity.

September 15, 2017

Russie : Une membre des Pussy Riot raconte les traitements subis dans une prison pour femmes

News

Women Asia Europe Russia

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version

July 24, 2017

How the gulag lives on in Russia's prison economy

News

Asia Europe Russia

In Russia, running a prison is a business, Olga Romanova writes for the Carnegie Center.

July 24, 2017

How the gulag Llves on in Russia's prison economy

News

Asia Europe Russia

In Russia, running a prison is a business. The Soviet gulag may have transformed into Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), but its essence arguably is unchanged. With 434 prisoners per 100,000 people, Russia has the highest incarceration rate in Europe. It’s 143 in the UK, 101 in France, a…

June 5, 2017

Russia : Russian Interior Ministry ordered to pay $1,200 to man tortured by police

News

Asia Europe Torture Violence Russia

The Supreme Court of Tatarstan has ordered Russia’s Interior Ministry to pay 70,000 rubles ($1,200) to a man tortured in a police office, lawyer Andrey Suchkov told RAPSI on Monday.