How former convicts are looking for work after imprisonment

The federal system of execution of punishments is depressing statistics on relapses. For example, these data in their materials are given by the Perm Institute of the FSIN: “In 2010, out of 1,111,145 people who committed crimes, 397 403 persons (35.77 %) were previously convicted <...>. In 2015, 1,063,034 persons who committed crimes were identified, of which 552 582 persons (51.98 %) were convicted <...>. The number of identified persons who have previously committed crimes increased by 16.2 %over 5 years. ” In the last year’s report of the Center for Strategic Development of Alexei Kudrin, the following data are given: in Russia the highest relapse of crimes in Europe, and more than 55 % of the prisoners “are in the zone of criminological“ non -return ”, since their period of imprisonment exceeds 5 years, which practically excludes the possibility of reintegration into normal life”. What prevents the former convicts from getting a lot and starting a new life, how they are looking for a job, what help receive from the state and volunteers, Damir Karimov, a business trainer, a listener of the non-fiction course, found out the Creative Writing School, who was conducted by Olga Beshley and Egor Mostovshchikov.

Terrible freedom

The first hero did not have to go far. Among my friends there was a history of two terms - Nikolai B. He told me that he was in prison by stupidity, but only there, finally, he was able to take up the mind: “The prison constantly checks you for strength,” said Nikolai. “Boredom is your eternal companion.” More than half of the people with whom he was sitting were illiterate, that is, they did not know how to write corny. And you need to write in the prison constantly: “Killers” (cassation complaints), “Malyava” (letters), appeal, and so on. So Nikolai became in the zone a respected person - a “clerk”, that is, those who serve the bureaucratic machine from the prisoners. He always liked to write.

After the second term, Nikolai thought what to do next. I was looking for a job that prisoners usually take: a loader, a handyman, a cleaner. But Nikolai had a feature - a quick -tempered character. He reacts very sensitively and harshly even to disrespectful notes in his voice, and even more insults - even more so. Because of this, according to him, he received both deadlines. He says that he had no problems in prison. There, direct aggression and the use of force is a sign of weakness, so most of the issues are resolved emphasized respectfully and calmly: Sidelskists know how to control themselves. Unlike incontinent managers of movers, handymen and cleaners. So Kolya was in doubt what to do at large.

But then his friend threw up the idea: there is, he says, such a profession where you need to write texts. “You are a clerk,” a comrade told him, “try to go to copywriters.” And Kolya tried. Registered on The exchange of freelancers began to receive the first orders. Now Nikolai is in the staff of a large company. It works remotely, from home, and all days do what he does best: he writes texts.

“I thank the prison for helping me to find myself. Find an internal resource that you can rely on. Take responsibility for your life, despite the severity of circumstances, ”says the former Zek.

He also told me that he has a close circle of “his” who went through the prison and were able to adapt in normal life without crime. They support each other both psychologically and financially if there is such a need. "We hold on to each other."

Examples of successful adaptation that I managed to find is surprised that everyone gets into prison according to rather standard schemes like “stole-drank”, but they come to real freedom very differently.

“There are no same birches, and there are no identical people,” Victor, a former prisoner, and now a participant in the resocialization of the Center for Social Adaptation (CSA) in Lublino, answered my question about the paths of adaptation. He looks about sixty years old. Stooped back, gray hair and beard. He sat for theft, freed himself a couple of years ago. He does not want to go to jail.

Victor says that it is scary for many to go free, that it is easier in prison, because there are clear and simple rules. And there are a lot of rules in the wild, and they are blurry. And there are more opportunities in prison. “I would not read so many books in the wild. Many are educated and even write books in prison. Here [in prison] I am a man, and there [in the wild] I don’t know anything, ”says the former Zek.

Freedom is so afraid of some, Victor notes that a person leaves prison, goes to the store, gets drunk, and then takes a brick and breaks the window, just to return back.

From prison on stage

Psychologists and social workers with whom I discussed the topic of adaptation claim that about 90 % of former prisoners are people with chemical dependence. That is, drug addicts or alcoholics. Moreover, the dependence on them on completely different substances: "What was enough for money, and so hooked."

These are the criteria for successful adaptation of freedom, or, in another way, resocialization of the released I was named by an expert in the rehabilitation of prisoners Anatoly Korsakov:

1. Three to five years does not drink alcohol/drugs; 2. Provides itself; 3. There are at least five friends from a new, non -criminal environment.

Marina Kleshcheva, who is now working as an actress of the DOC theater in Moscow, had two walkers. We met her in the theater before the concert. In front of me was a woman of about fifty, in a black sweater and black trousers, with gray hair and silver earrings. If I did not know that Marina had two terms for robbery and robbery, I would not have believed it. She does not drink for more than five years, but smokes like a steam locomotive, she provides herself. She has many friends from a non -criminal environment. That is, according to the criteria for the success of adaptation, Marina has a complete order.

She tells two stories of resocialization. The first, when she came out in 1994 after four years of imprisonment, is unsuccessful. And the second, successful: when she freed herself in 2004, became the winner of the "Zekov" contest "Kalina Red", and then - the actress of theater and cinema.

Marina says that in 1994 she was scared to be released, because she sat in one country, and she received her will already in another. Again, she did not want to behind bars, and she went to work as a saleswoman in the market. I traded chicken and giblets. But she accepted frozen goods in the morning, and in the evening I had to report for the goods from which the ice melted. The cost of melted ice at the price of chicken was kept from salary. In order to somehow earn money, I had to hung up buyers. And they plant for it.

Marina turned to the Center for Employment and Employment of the Population (CTZ). She began to appoint interviews, but when employers found out that she was a former prisoner, they refused. I had to give the last money for the fare, but there was no work and was not. At some point, Marina realized that the employees of the CTZ were sending her for interviews not then that she was employed, and then, in order to fulfill their plan by the number of interviews. Then Marina broke and went to the “brigade” to knock out debts from debtors. The methods that they used were illegal, and in 1998, Marina received 12 years under the article “robbery”.

In 2002, a colony of the Oryol region, where Marina was sitting, came to the colony of the vulture Galina Ruslova. She worked with especially complex prisoners and tried different approaches, including art therapy. As a result, a theater troupe was created in the colony, in which Marina played: “Everything, nothing else is needed. I forgot to eat, forgot when I ate that I ate ... I flew out somewhere far and for a long time-and still, probably, I am there ... ”.

Marina says that they rehearsed in the evenings, after a full -fledged work day, that they themselves sewed costumes, washed the floors, and did the props. The theater gave Marina both strength and the meaning of life. When she freed himself in 2004, there was no thoughts about criminal life. Was the goal of becoming an actress. Long years, Marina lived this purpose, earning a living by a seamstress, a cleaner, a saleswoman in a kiosk. All this time she was in touch with the DOC theater. If possible, she attended performances, talked with theater staff. In 2011, along with the director of the theater Varvara Fayer, she staged a performance according to the plot of King Lear and her own biography. So in 2012, the Lear-Kleshch monotion appeared with Marina in the main and only role.

The dream came true: Marina became an actress.

Sliver in the stream of life

Former prisoners in search of work can, like Victor, contact the centers of social adaptation (TsSA), or, like Marina, to the centers of employment and employment (TsTZ). There are also private funds. For example, the Foundation “In Protecting the Rights of Prisoners” - at this link you can fill out the questionnaire and receive help in employment.

Even during my study, I learned that the former prisoners turn to the church for support. I went to the closest temple to me - George the Victorious. The abbot Father Sergius explained that the church at all times helped both acting and former prisoners, but not every priest works with the prisoner, and there is a certain specialization.

Total: TsSA, TsTZ, private funds and church are the main structures on the path of adaptation and integration into a non -criminal society.

The centers of social adaptation are state* and autonomous, which exist due to the donations of ordinary citizens and business. The state former convict will temporarily provide a roof over their heads, three meals a day, medical care, assistance in employment and in some places-even a cultural and entertainment program (I could not find out what events are included in it).

If in state institutions there is a program according to which they work, then in autonomous unified standards there are no: help prisoners to the best of their capabilities.

As for employment centers - CTZ, here they can offer free advanced training courses and help with the search for work. Also, a person who applies to the CTZ can receive unemployment benefits until eighteen months. True, in 2018, the minimum amount of such a manual is 850 rubles per month.

Having heard about the activities of all these institutions, I decided to go and see how the State Center for Social Adaptation works. But it turned out that in the CSA strict orders, people from the street are not allowed. Control control. In order to get into the lists, I joined the ranks of the charity Catholic volunteer organization.

The basis for becoming a volunteer is not a religion, but the presence of a basic psychological education (I have it), a willingness to work with a complex contingent and the recommendation of one of the current members of the community. I managed to go through all the stages of selection. And when I got to the therapeutic group, they introduced me: "Damir, a specialist in adaptation of prisoners."

We sat in a circle at the table. On the table tea and cookies. All on you. On equal terms. We work on the principle of twelve -step groups - as in the program of “anonymous alcoholics”. The participants are presented, for example: "I am Eugene, paradoxes friend, wanted to be an engineer, but became an artist." The next participant, a gray -haired man in a crumpled checkered shirt, is called Alexander and then all the time pronounces only one word: “hot”.

Victor, 60 years old. Since 1993 he has been living on the street. He served 10 years. He says that there is spatial freedom, but there is spiritual. A spatial prison deprives, but the spiritual can be found. In his case, it happened. Evgeny had a son, studied in Baumanke, then went to the theological seminary, received the dignity of a priest. At 34, he hit the accident (the culprit of the accident was a man in drug intoxication) and died. At this time, Victor was in prison. The experience of the loss brought him to the prison church, he participated in the construction of the prison temple. Then he served there. Now I received an invitation to work in the temple and in the near future leaves the CSS.

*In total in Moscow and the Moscow region there are 20 CSA, in other regions of Russia-about 50 CSA of different calibers: from the CS in St. Petersburg for 120 seats to the CS in Balakovo for 25 beds.

"They always have a loophole to outwit you"

Dmitry, a long, clumsy man of about 45–50 years old. The largest negative, say psychologists. To the question about what specific steps he takes in order to integrate into society, gives evasive answers. He says that the system is always against him, that he is a sliver in the stream of a river. He says that he went to interviews hundreds of times, but even where they were first happy to see him, then, looking at his passport without a residence permit, they refuse.

Once he got a job as a conveyor on the assembly of New Year's gifts. He says that the employers were scammers. They promised a separate room, but the hostel in Podolsk turned out to be. They promised corporate transport to work, but they did not give it. They promised to feed, but there was no organized nutrition in production. Thousands of sweets passed past the hungry Dmitry a day, but at least for one of the candy eaten a fine of 5,000 rubles threatened. Dmitry left this work without waiting for the first salary.

“They always have a loophole to outwit you,” he says in a drooping voice.

"So in the end did you give up or gain strength for a new attempt to get a job?" - I ask him. “I am all entangled with circumstances, I am a sliver in the stream of life,” I hear in response.

"Do everyone agree that they are chips?" - asks the leading psychologist of the meeting.

"No! - The group cheerfully answers. - The person decides what to do! "

“And give examples, specific examples,” I ask.

Here Oleg turns on. A strong man of about thirty -five with combat abrasions on the nose. He replies that he deliberately did not go to the company's birthday, because he does not want to go again according to the script "drank - to the street - to prison." He wants to get a job in life. Therefore, I did not go to drink, but remained in the adaptation program by the "strong -willed solution of a mature person."

At the end of our meeting, the former convict Victor, a person who successfully completes the adaptation program and goes to serve in the temple, remarks: “Freedom itself does not give harmony or happiness. Because in the wild, people, like sheep, only imitate each other. And in order to find harmony and happiness, you need to not be a sheep or a shepherd. To do this, you need to be yourself. ”

Helpers

Another example of a person to whom the prison did not break his life is the founder of the Gulag.net project Vladimir Osechkin. He was convicted of seven years under Art. 159 hours 4, Art. 160 hours 4 and part 3, and Art. 174-1 of part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale, large embezzlement with the subsequent legalization of funds). I went out ahead of schedule. At large, he began to protect the rights of prisoners, created a social network for convicts.

Vladimir has many ideas and suggestions on how and what needs to be changed in the system to successfully adapt former convicts in the wild - it would be enough for an article. For example, he believes that it is necessary to deal with the thieves' subculture in prisons and colonies, which does not allow people to embark on the path of correction. But nevertheless, he calls the main condition for the return of a person to normal life and social ties.

“The most important force that will return a person to a normal life is a family,” says Osechkin. - If he has a loved one at large, shelter over his head, the people who are waiting for him, then he has a very big chance of living normally. If a person came to nowhere and no one is waiting for him, then why is it surprised that he is returning to a criminal life, goes to the gangs? It is necessary to stop punishing, breaking social ties. ”

So that a person in prison remains a stable connection with the will, according to Osechkin, it is necessary to deprive the court and a consequence of the opportunity to manipulate with dates. “Now, if one of the defendants complains, writes, the nerves of trembling, the judge refuses him to date with his family. And it turns out that a person is sitting before the colony for a year or two in a pre -trial detention center, and the security forces and judges will not give him to see loved ones. ” Secondly, according to Vladimir, rooms for long-term dates should be created in the pre-trial detention center-now only short-term ones are allowed. “It turns out that if you got a deadline, sit in a colony, then every three months you go on dates with your wife. And if your fault is not proven, then you are innocent in fact, but you sit in this status for three or four years in a pre-trial detention center. And according to the law, there are no long dates in the pre -trial detention center. ”

The theses of Vladimir Osechkin about the importance of social ties and the fact that adaptation should begin at the moment when a person was in prison, and not when he came out of it, Anatoly Korsakov, who has been working with the prisoners, also supports it. Anatoly with other volunteer psychologists led a group of psychological support in one of the colonies of strict regime in the Moscow region. It was his criteria for successful adaptation that I cited at the beginning.

In his work, he and his colleagues used a model of twelve steps, which I already wrote about above. Since many prisoners are alcoholics and drug addicts in a forced tie, the program, according to him, fell on the right soil. Anatoly says that participation in the therapeutic group brought to the convicts a lot of benefit. Firstly, they had a space where they could talk in a trusting atmosphere about what they had in their souls. Secondly, the participants in the meetings supported each other and outside the group. В-третьих, у людей в программе выработался некий внутренний этический кодекс — например, участники группы старались очистить речь от брани, не воровать и так далее.

Когда заключённый с опытом участия в такой группе выходит на волю, то у него есть место, куда он может смело идти: это группа анонимных алкоголиков на воле. Ему известны правила поведения там. Люди в группе АА могут помочь и психологически, и материально, и рекомендациями по трудоустройству. Кроме того, участие в группе АА помогает человеку преодолеть соблазны химических зависимостей, а это один из главных факторов риска. «Помните знаменитое: „украл — выпил — в тюрьму“? Разрушается центральное звено — и рушится вся цепочка», — объясняет психолог.

Анатолий говорит и о том, что в адаптации нуждаются не только заключённые, но и родственники таких людей. Многие банально не знают, как общаться с бывшим зеком. Испытывают тревогу от предстоящей встречи. А неграмотное поведение может стать причиной рецидива. Поэтому группа психологов за полгода до ожидаемого выхода заключённого начинала работу с его семьёй — для того, чтобы социальные связи становились фактором успеха адаптации, а не наоборот.

Ещё один эксперт, с которым я обсудил проблему, — психолог Мария Стромнова, которая уже четыре года помогает людям устраиваться на свободе после тюрьмы. Её опыт согласуется с тем, что говорят Осечкин и Корсаков. Правда, если вернуться к критериям успешной адаптации Корсакова (длительная завязка от алкоголя и наркотиков, самообеспечение и минимум пять друзей из некриминальной среды), то, по её мнению, у каждого человека они свои. Например, для интровертов два-три новых друга из некриминальной среды — это уже индикатор успеха. Она также отмечает важность семьи: социальные работники радуются, когда их подопечный обретает семейный статус, так как это событие качественно повышает шансы на то, что человек будет вести честный образ жизни и вновь не пополнит ряды заключённых.

«Психолог в программе адаптации помогает выстроить, взрастить внутренние опоры зрелой, взрослой личности. Мы ищем то живое, на что можно опереться. Мы помогаем сформировать систему здоровых общечеловеческих ценностей», — говорит Стромнова.

Что касается участия государства во всей этой истории, то на сегодняшний день оно недостаточно. Даже если человек на зоне получил новую профессию, выучился на местном производстве, то с удостоверением о профессиональной квалификации, заверенным печатью ФСИН, идти ему некуда. Потому что эта печать, по словам бывших зеков, как черная метка для потенциального работодателя.

На сегодняшний день существует Концепция федеральной целевой программы «Развитие уголовно-исполнительной системы на 2017–2025 годы». Одна из основных её целей — сокращение рецидива преступлений «за счёт повышения эффективности социальной и психологической работы в местах лишения свободы, проведение в местах лишения свободы мероприятий в целях адаптации в обществе освободившихся осуждённых, в том числе с участием гражданского общества; гуманизация условий содержания осуждённых и лиц, заключённых под стражу, повышение гарантий соблюдения их прав и законных интересов в соответствии с международными стандартами».

Конечно, хорошо, если эти меры будут реализованы. Но, как сказала мне про одного из своих подопечных старший специалист по социальной работе Центра социальной адаптации Светлана Краснокутская, «главное, чтобы бухать перестал. Тогда всё будет как у людей».