"The system indulges in sadists"

The Russian Public Organization of Rus' Sitting and the Human Rights Center “Memorial” opened the website of the Prison Consultant, which is the purpose of which to help people and those who want to prepare in advance for the possible deprivation of liberty in advance.

“The loss of freedom is a big trouble, but not the end of the world. In prison, you can survive and live, and even study, work, make friends and make plans for the future. Knowing someone else's experience can help avoid some mistakes and errors. After all, any, even the most negative experience, can be used for the good,” the description of the project says. His target audience is the prisoners themselves, their relatives, but in fact, as the editor-in-chief of the Prison Consultant, Maria Aismont, says all Russian citizens, even those who, for some reason, think that he will never go to prison.

On the website of the Prison Consultant, you can find out how to confront extortion in places of deprivation of liberty, how to use the time of conclusion to receive education, who are “looking”, “positions”, “thieves” and how to communicate with them correctly, how to get the necessary medical care, organize normal nutrition and why communication with members of public observation commissions can benefit you, or may do it.

In an interview with Radio, Freedom Maria Eismont talks about the main rules that should adhere to the new prisoners, explains why preparations for a possible deprivation of liberty need to start as early as possible, and talks about the stories that the former and current prisoners of Russian prison consultant editors are sent.

- What is a "prison consultant"? For whom is this site intended in the first place?

- In the USA there are people called "prison consultants", this is such a profession. They are doing what they tell future prisoners that they are waiting for them behind bars, that is, they carry out some kind of educational work, explain, explain what rules, how to conduct themselves, what a prison is. The site that the “sitting” Rus, which I am doing now, is a prison consultant for those who have a prison in Russia.

- How can you find out if you have a prison? So I, for example, live an ordinary life. Do you think that this site makes sense to read to everyone or only those who are already under criminal prosecution? How wide is its audience?

- To the question "How to find out if I have a prison?" I can say: it is likely, yes. Maybe not. I do not have to know what kind of person he is doing. Whether he is engaged in business, and then he may be threatened with an economic article, some “rubber” 159th, “fraud”. Or maybe he has a bad relationship with his ex -wife, has a child? Then he may threaten a pseudo-pedophile criminal case when they can write a statement on him that he had molested someone. There are a lot of such things now, unfortunately. A person may be next to the rally and go under the article “Refine” or “attack, an encroachment on the health and life of a police officer”. You can recall a million stories. In fact, I do not want to intimidate anyone. Many people live all their lives without being in prison, but, unfortunately, no one cannot give such a guarantee for such a guarantee.

Today's news feed is almost all of the news about the arrests

If you look, today's news feed is almost all of the news about arrests, house arrests, converting to pre -trial detention centers, ships. The creative intelligentsia is worried about Serebrennikov, the case of the Seventh Studio, everyone is indignant. Human rights activists are shocked by the case of Dmitriev, absolutely fabricated, apparently. This is the leader of the Karelian "Memorial", in Petrozavodsk, who is judged for child pornography, instead of giving him a government award for what he does. We all discuss Sechin's dialogue with Ulyukaev, who is also in court - how many fingers should anyone show to be accused of a bribe. Our journalists worry about Sokolov and try to help his relatives. We are judged by Nikita Belykh, and this is not the only governor who is in court. The whole life today, if you look at the news picture, is largely filled with news about ships and prisons. You know how many acquittals we have. The vast majority of all these courts will end with a conviction.

- If your site had a slogan, it would be a Russian proverb "from prison and from Suma do not say"?

- Yes, now there is such a joke: "Be polite with your neighbors - these are your future witnesses."

-I remember that in the 90s, immediately after perestroika, in bookstores (then the Internet was not very common), books were present in abundance on how to prepare for a prison, how to behave in prison. What has changed in the Russian penitentiary system in 25 years?

- You know, I immediately want to say that I am one of the few in the "Rus' -sitting", who did not sit. I do not have my own experience, so I can speak based on the letters that we receive based on conversations with people who are freed who come to us. Something changes in the household sense, of course. Not everywhere, but there are places of imprisonment where repairs are carried out, for example. Today in Russia there is such a different situation in different colonies and prisons, everything is constantly changing. Relatively speaking, in the same Sverdlovsk region yesterday, the colony was considered torture, from there the shaft of the beating of beatings, sexual violence, and then human rights activists raised a scandal, the boss changed - and that’s it, the colony becomes normal. The boss is transferred somewhere else, and the other colony becomes torture.

Riot in a colony in Kopeisk, Chelyabinsk region, 2012

Life is also quite different. Somewhere in the pre-trial detention center they have already done almost European repair and people say that they are sitting normally, the premises are ventilated. Somewhere they talk about cockroaches on the walls. Russia is a large country, and it is impossible to describe a certain prison on all, so that it corresponds to the situation in all insulators and colonies. This also applies to employees. Different stories come to us, and there are stories about good FSIN employees, about people who are trying to help people resocialize, almost from their pockets are paid for something. And there are stories about people who put a stick into the anus or are present at the same time.

You can survive the Russian prison

In general, a Russian prison can be experienced, and many people experience it. Our task is somehow, if possible, to facilitate their stay there. At least tell me what to prepare for. A huge problem, for example, with health. Because in general we have problems in Russia with medicine, this is true, but in prison it is special. In Russia, you often have to go to another region to get to at least some doctor. In prison, if you are not taken out of the camera to the doctor, then you do not receive a doctor. Therefore, it is necessary, for example, speaking of health, remember two things. First: as soon as the possibility of a criminal case looms before you or it has already been brought up on you, but you are still free, immediately go to all doctors - be sure to the dentist, to be completely checked, if possible, get certificates about the state of health, write a power of attorney to your relatives and loved ones so that they can have access to your medical documents. And remember the name of the organization - "zone of law". There is nothing good in the fact that such resources become in demand, but, on the other hand, from prison and from Suma, as you say ... Recently, Deputy Head of the FSIN Korshunov was in jail . A representative of the Moscow Komsomolets came to him, and Korshunov tells him: "Fufaika, in principle, is comfortable, I sleep in it so as not to freeze, walking around the walking courtyard in slippers." Here was the deputy chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service. We said, asked to resolve the laces, but you did not hear us! Well, now I discovered it for myself.

-Often, the life in the prison is arranged so that if you do not violate the law, that is, do not give someone a bribe, do not agree with someone informally, then you will not get the necessary medical care, you can transfer somewhere to the best conditions of the detention. Are this kind of tips also present on your site?

- We have no advice to give bribes. We do not call on any crimes, a bribe is a crime. At the same time, experience shows that, in principle, some people solve their issues without bribes. The question is what to prepare for and how it all happens. Many talk about "humanitarian assistance" to the colonies. Is it a bribe or not? This is presented as humanitarian aid when relatives brought something, for example, TV. Or the question of the organization of nutrition. In fact, on our website there are two types of materials. The first is the main information materials on different topics, how it works, and the second type is the personal experience of people who tell us how it was specifically with them in certain colonies. Because we understand that there is no universal recipe for what to do in one or another situation, there is no “universal” colony, we cannot know which colony a person will fall into and what orders will be there at the moment.

- Which of the stories sent to you hit most?

- I am most shocked by the stories of women. "The very first collision of my inspection was on Petrovka, 38. I was brought into the cage two such thick aunts, and I weighed 47 kilograms then, such a drishic was 42nd size. I divided me, I gave it through the lattice, and suddenly one of these aunts says:" Show the vagina. "I have a stupor, I don’t even understand how it can be done. Again: "Show the vagina," and now I stand naked in this cage, and then I was not even arrested, I was only detained for 48 hours.

Tan, what are you crying? They look at your ass, not you

These inspections were then constantly, each time you are taken out of the insulator through "lean, spread", and lead to "lean, spread." And every time after that I went into the camera and cried. And one woman was sitting with me in a pre -trial detention center, she asks: "Tan, why are you crying all the time?" I say: "It is so humiliating, it is so vile! Two times a day there is such a humiliation." And she told me then an amazing phrase that cured me once and for all. She said: "Tan, what are you crying? They are looking at your ass, and not you to them." Since then I have done this even with pleasure. Like - Nate! "

- People who go to jail represent a variety of layers of society, from the already mentioned Ulyukaev to no one unknown schoolchildren. The tips that can be given to the raider who committed a robbery with the murder, and the student who sat under the political article for participating in the rally - how different they will be? Or is this system universal and all faces are erased there?

- There are some general advice. I don’t even know how much they relate to the prison, maybe they are generally related to the human dormitory. How to be polite, for example. One of the tips is to speak less at first, to tell less, listen more. Find out the rules, take a closer look. Do not start building someone there. These tips are given by people. Then important tips about medicine: as I have already said, it is better to take care of this in advance. We must learn something to fill your time. Many say that in no case can not be degraded. Do not lose heart, follow your hygiene. Try to study something. There are books in libraries, there is an opportunity to order some books. Someone even teaches English there. There is an opportunity to try to remotely organize a higher education, it does not always work, but there are such cases, it can also be done. And general advice is not to lie, not to betray - they are probably in principle, characteristic of life in general.

- What mistake do people who are in prison most often make?

People to the last believe that "the investigation will understand"

- It is difficult to generalize, the experience is very different. I myself did not sit and think that this question, rather, should be addressed to those who write to us. There is no one such common mistake. The main mistake that we encounter in the “sitting” Rus' is when people come at a very late stage and believe to the last that "the investigation will figure it out," the court will understand. "

- How with cancer treatment?

- Something like that, yes. For example, it sometimes seems to me that already “twice two to four” everyone should know how everything is arranged for us. Such a number of materials is written about this, a whole excellent resource of the Mediazon was created. You write, the New Gazeta constantly writes. Loud affairs are literally every two to three days. Someone is planted, someone is translated, some news. But no, people come and say: well, how is the investigation to figure it out ... Okay, if they come at the investigation, but few people come to the investigation stage. Much more often come later with the hope that "the court will figure it out." And then - "You know, I will write to Putin." We say: yes, well, okay ... There is no common mistake, especially by behavior in prison. The general advice is to remain a person, to monitor health and hygiene, not to make nasty things to others. Of course, it is hard for those who have no one in the wild, it is very important to maintain old ties.

The brother of Alexei Navalny Oleg, having been in prison, draws stickers for Telegram and develops sketches of tattoos for prison themes - simultaneously passing stories about prison life and survival instructions through lawyers in the Russian colony

- Based on the array of the information that we receive from the news that you receive when you prepare such projects, as you think, is there a tendency to humanize the Russian penitentiary system? This was said a lot under the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, and we really see that such a preventive measure is more often used as house arrest, for example, but at the same time we see a huge shaft of torture reports, not only in prison, but alsoin educational institutions for minors , for example.

General Council - to remain a person

- So far, this trend is not very visible. It seems that somewhere it becomes better, but suddenly something else comes out in another place. Again, these torture colonies: in fact, there are not many of them. I would say that, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, there are fewer than colonies, where they do not try, but, of course, when information comes from the torture colonies, it overshadows everything else. And I can say for sure that obviously there is absolutely no will to hold people who organize torture. There is no such political will neither with the leadership of the FSIN or no one. A year ago, I met with the people of the colony in New Lyal, the Sverdlovsk region, the colony number 54. There, thanks to the Sverdlovsk human rights activists and at that time, the PMC members managed to open the torture colony , 150 people wrote statements that violence was applied to them, including sexual violence. All this was done with the knowledge, with the connivance and sometimes after the direct instruction of the chief or deputy chief, one of the leaders of this colony. After a large scandal, he seemed to have disappeared somewhere, he did not appear in this colony anymore, and those who did this were also transferred somewhere. The torture has stopped. At the moment when I was in this colony, I talked with people who said that it was, everything was already fine. And a person who has written almost 150 statements by hand, I still have scans of many, his last name is Zinnatullin Rafik Ravilovich. And here recently they give me a reference to the GUFSIN website in the Sverdlovsk region, and it turns out that he has already become the head of the SIZO-3 in Nizhny Tagil. A person who led the shearing of the cuttel from the shovel into the anus of the prisoners! At the same time, there are a huge number of FSIN employees who behave normally, respect prisoners, but no one remembers and does not think about them. Since the system itself shows such purposes that, in principle, this is normal - sexual violence. The man complained to the PMC, and he was put in one place with a shovel in one place. The person who led this goes to lead another place of imprisonment. We know that there are others, and many others, but such stories still score everything.

-When you prepared this project, did you consult with any of the people who are inside this system, with one of the representatives of the FSIN?

- We talked with people from the FSIN. For this project, we did not contact them, because so far we are doing this project based on the experience of "Rus' sitting." If suddenly one of them wants to chat, then we are only for. Moreover, I repeat: we will collect different stories, and I will be happy to publish stories in which FSIN employees behave humanly, such are already coming to us. But, unfortunately, we can talk about the fact that there are different cases, there are many good and decent people, there are sadists. But the system indulges in sadists.