We spend more on the prison system than on the entire Ministry of Health

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On December 23, I was at the president's press conference. She sat less than twenty meters from Vladimir Putin. I wanted to ask a very painful question for many - about our prisons. Not even about torture or violation of human rights. About money. Few people know: the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) is one of the richest departments in our country. But everyone knows about his real affairs. The fact that the former head of the Federal Penitentiary Service is being tried in a corruption case. The fact that in the media there are constantly publications about torture of prisoners. About the fact that people who have not even been found guilty die from the failure to provide medical care. Because of what sanctions are imposed on our country.

I hope that I was not allowed to ask a question just because the president was not ready to answer it here and now. As he likes, with numbers and facts. And the fact that Dmitry Peskov's remark addressed to me not to raise the sign with questions high is not an encroachment on freedom of speech. And only confirmation that the president has already seen the issue. And that we will all get the answer a little later. Moreover, we have already sent a report on prison economics addressed to Peskov to the presidential administration. We will wait for an answer. And the report itself will soon begin to be published in the media in parts.

The tablets themselves were ten.

"FSIN - a black hole in the budget", "FSIN: 6th place in the budget"

In terms of budget expenditures, the Federal Penitentiary Service ranks 6th among all ministries and departments.

We spend more on the prison system than on the entire Ministry of Health and only one and a half times less than on Rosavtodor, which builds roads throughout the country.

At the end of 2015, the Federal Penitentiary Service became the only department that allowed a significant budget overrun over the planned level.

From 2003 to 2015, the budget of the Federal Penitentiary Service grew by almost 7 times, faster than the country's budget. Despite the increase in funding and huge budget spending, there has been no noticeable improvement in the prison system. Neither in terms of conditions of detention, nor in terms of the human rights situation, nor in terms of rectifying criminals. And if the money goes not for its intended purpose - for the prisoners, then where does it go?

FSIN budget per prisoner

The budget of the prison department in 2015 amounted to 303 billion rubles, 646 thousand people were held in prisons. The annual budget per prisoner is 469 thousand rubles. More than for one child born - the payment of maternity capital costs the state less.

Average monthly expenses - almost 40 thousand rubles per person. The prisoners do not see this money. This means that they settle somewhere else. And everyone knows what kind of place this is - the pockets of corrupt officials.

FSIN: no money for light bulbs?

Two weeks ago, at a meeting of the Council for Civil Society Development and Human Rights (HRC), human rights defenders complained to the president that the prison authorities would not allow them to enter correctional facilities. Putin then said: “If you start talking to them, they will probably say, you know: they will come, they will check, but we have no money to change the light bulbs. Something else like that."

I really hope that the president is really not aware of the real situation with the financing of the prison system.

Will the prisoners be fed worse?

At the end of November, the Federal Penitentiary Service announced that if the budget cuts for the penitentiary system continue, this will lead to a nutritional deficit for prisoners. If in 2015 86 rubles a day were spent on food, then from 2019 this amount will decrease to 64 rubles. It's amazing why so little is spent on food (only 7% of the budget) and why exactly these expenses should be reduced.

3 thousand rubles - the salary of convicts

The salaries of convicts remain very low - at the level of about 3 thousand rubles. per month, 10 times less than the average for the economy. The Federal Penitentiary Service withholds up to 75% of this amount, the income of a working convict is less than a thousand rubles a month. This money is not even enough for cigarettes. Not to mention saving up something for your release. And then the FSIN wonders why the convicts do not want to work.

The state gets almost nothing from using the extremely cheap labor of prisoners. Profit from income-generating activities is only about 1.5 billion rubles. That is, the FSIN pays for itself by only 5%. The rest is budgetary funds. Our money with you.

Thirty years ago, the activities of the prison department were lucrative. And the convicts received normal salaries - at the level of the average for the economy. Now there is no profit, no salaries. Don't you think that something is wrong here?

That money from the almost free labor of convicts is flowing somewhere in the wrong place?

"FSIN: 2nd place in Europe in mortality", "Prisoners: 10% - HIV, 4% - tuberculosis"

The situation in prison medicine is simply catastrophic - mortality in prisons in our country is 2 times higher than the average in Europe (per 100 thousand people). The prison system is a breeding ground for socially significant diseases - 10% of all prisoners are HIV-infected, almost 4% have active tuberculosis. All these people will come to us sooner or later. To society. No one needs to explain the threat these diseases pose. The epidemiological threshold is considered to be the disease of 5% of any social group. An HIV epidemic has already begun in the Russian prison system and an epidemic of tuberculosis is imminent.

In 2015, almost 17 billion rubles were spent on inpatient medical care of the Federal Penitentiary Service, about 25 thousand rubles. per prisoner. Given that the per capita standard for financing medical care in the country on average is only 11.6 thousand rubles. But prisoners say they are not given even the most basic drugs like paracetamol. And we all understand that the money was stolen here too.

Relapse: Russia - 50% Belarus - 25%

Funding for the Russian prison system has increased almost 7-fold since 2003. During the same period, the level of post-penitentiary crime has doubled - from 25 to 50%. That is, the system breeds repeat offenders for our own money.

In neighboring Belarus, the recidivism rate is two times lower, although incomparably less money is allocated for prisons there. Most likely, this is precisely why it is lower.

FSIN: humanization has failed

The concept of humanizing the penal policy failed because it was reduced to everyday issues. Construction of new pre-trial detention centers, repairs, purchase of household appliances. That is, the provision of material benefits, which, as you know, are easily stolen, do not reach the addressee. But she did not touch on the main thing - the normal human attitude towards people who have stumbled. Who remain our fellow citizens, and still, sooner or later, will return to society. And we need them in a society with a normal psyche, healthy and ready to lead a law-abiding lifestyle.

Well, the very question that I wanted to ask the president:

1. “When will we stop bombarding the prison system with money that goes nowhere, and will start to systematically solve the problems that have accumulated in this department?
2. And second: if the FSIN is lying even to you about the financing situation, how can we trust them on other issues? For example, about the torture of prisoners?"

Obviously, if we break the situation with extortion and corruption in the FSIN, human rights violations will disappear by themselves. There will be no torture to extort money from prisoners and their relatives. There will be no need to intimidate the prisoners so that they do not tell anyone about the flows of corruption and total theft. Always, or almost always, human rights violations have an elementary explanation - greed. The desire to steal more and better hide the stolen.

I hope that I, like the rest of the citizens of the country, will receive an answer as soon as possible. And that the situation in the prison system will begin to really change.