Prison is also a university

On November 1, a series of seminars on the topic “What is bad about the FSIN system” opens at the Sakharov Center. Here is a summary of the report of one anonymous convict

Now there will be a report. And deeply scientific, about the prison. Recently, I have been reading quite a lot of interesting works on the topic of the prison economy and reforming the penitentiary system - not one was written by an employee of the penitentiary system and not one was published in a specialized publication of the Federal Penitentiary Service. For the most part, bad jokes are published there that have nothing to do with real problems, science, or the Russian language. Serious research is carried out by scientists, economists and entrepreneurs - either behind bars or working in normal human universities, that is, smart and sympathetic.

The FSIN system needs to be demolished not only because it is inhumane. This does not surprise us. But it is also extremely inefficient. That's about it in the Sakharov Center in Moscow, seminars will be held, starting from November 1.

I should warn you that I will now tell you about the first part of not the main report at all. This part describes the problems of the system. The second part, as expected, answers the questions posed and suggests solutions. So far - a summary of the first part.

“The modern penitentiary system of Russia does not correspond to the goals and objectives that both society and the Penitentiary Code set for it. There are many reasons. One of the main ones is the Gulag attitude to the work of convicts, multiplied by the inability to adapt to market realities, on the one hand, and personal self-interest, on the other.

Art. Paragraph 1, clause 1 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation begins with the words: “The penitentiary legislation of the Russian Federation has as its goals the correction of convicts and the prevention of the commission of new crimes.” All citizens who support the Federal Penitentiary Service with their own money are interested in preventing the commission of new crimes. Alas, the conditions for this are not created in the zones. After all, the main reason for most of the crimes of pioneers is insufficient wages, and this is largely a consequence of low qualifications. It would seem that the time spent in the zone can be usefully spent to work on your own skills. Especially in the era of the Internet, this is not so difficult to do. But the Internet is prohibited in the zones, as well as many other achievements of the 20th century, not to mention the 21st. They don’t try to raise a prisoner to the level of development of our society, but vice versa: they try to instill in him such skills as lying (it is encouraged here), they discourage him as much as possible from the desire to work honestly and efficiently, and teach him how to give bribes and for what. There is no doubt that, having been released, such a person will undoubtedly be socially close to our corrupt officials, and not to citizens striving to build a worthy modern country.

And it all starts with the economy of the zone. The Federal Penitentiary Service has a virtually free labor force. People working in the Federal Penitentiary Service are not adapted to creativity, this is not their forte. And milking entrepreneurs with the help of thieves, sawing budgets - this has been working for many years. This is clear to them. Policemen, with rare exceptions, cannot be engaged in production. But to date, no one punishes the heads of the zones for the inefficient use of labor. They can be punished for poor indicators of the number of people employed in the zone. Quantitative, not qualitative, indicator for this system is still the main one. Therefore, the head of almost any zone, in order to meet this quantitative indicator, will satisfy almost any application of a convict for employment. Even if the job doesn't actually exist. As a result, the zone receives good indicators, and the convict receives a salary of 15-20 rubles a month, because one salary and work will be cut between several convicts, creating the appearance of employment. The system motivates not to search for new orders and organize production, but to constant postscripts. It is much more profitable to quietly add the necessary convicts to the number of working people, who will only be listed and pay the right people for such an opportunity, than to engage in real production. In troubled waters, it is much easier for real hard workers to explain why they get a penny, although they know the cost of their products very well. Thus, by throwing a rotten bone to hard workers, you can get money from the "second end", i.e. from the sale of goods. The hard workers will remain silent, they will be issued an incentive at the Federal Penitentiary Service and promised parole. And when they are released, they will try to quickly forget about everything they saw.

It is not very clear why this is called a zone, and not a gang, and where a prisoner released on parole will go to work. No social adaptation program will convince him that he needs to live differently than in the zone, not according to the same rules. I personally saw what miracles of agricultural production were shown by convicts from Central Asia. How well and effectively it turned out to be engaged in pig breeding in the zone, and there were many other things that could keep people busy, bring real income to both the zone and them.

It would be possible to write a program for reforming the labor adaptation centers for prisoners - that is the name of the industrial part of the zone. This is not difficult to do, but does anyone need it? It seems to me that everything suits everyone.”

That's how it seems to me. And I will withhold the name of the author of the report. Let him sit still.