Prisoners of the Mensk Correctional Colony in Chernihiv Region complain about conditions of detention

31 complaints from convicts of Mensk Correctional Colony No. 91, located in Chernihiv region, were received by the Ministry of Justice during 2023. Since the beginning of 2024, 10 such complaints have been received.

This information was provided by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine to the Public in response to a request.

Let us recall that at the end of April, during a monitoring visit to the Mensk Correctional Colony No. 91, employees of the Ombudsman’s Office recorded “unbearable conditions” in which prisoners of the maximum security sector currently live.

In particular, they were talking about mold and fungus on the walls, lack of ventilation, toilets next to sleeping places, windows that do not open for ventilation, unsanitary conditions and cockroaches in the room where convicts eat.

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote in his Telegram channel that not all convicts in this colony are kept in such conditions.

“Some, as it turned out, have privileges. So, three convicts live in proper conditions, they are kept isolated from others. The colony management provided such comfort after the former head of the Western Interregional Department for the Execution of Criminal Sentences of the Ministry of Justice was sent there to serve his sentence,” Lubinets wrote.

In a request from the Public regarding the question of staying in The Ministry of Justice did not provide a response to the Mensk colony of the former head of the Western Interregional Department for the Execution of Criminal Sentences.

Regarding the violations recorded by the Ombudsman’s Office, they responded as follows:

“The Ombudsman’s Office did not receive any reports based on the results of the monitoring visit to the institution.”

According to information on the website of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, five sectors with different levels of security have been created within the colony for the detention of former law enforcement officers. On the day of the visit, 329 convicts were held in the institution. In the first three months of 2024, the institution documented 74 cases of violations of order by convicts, for which 53 disciplinary sanctions were applied to them.