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Childbirth in prison. Women and children in Russian prisons

Childbirth in prison. Women and children in Russian prisons

25.07.2019

Maria Noel, co-author and director of the "Prison Children" program, spoke about the situation in which newborn children and mothers find themselves. This is a personal issue for Maria, as she went to prison when she was five months pregnant.

- How Small child might end up in jail?

- The only way children end up in prison is when they are born there. A child is born in prison when a pregnant defendant or convict is in a pre-trial detention center or already in a colony. A woman can also become pregnant on a date. Take yours small child imprisonment is impossible. In fact, this is feasible, but there is no law enforcement practice today. We have had cases where a mother whose child had just been born was imprisoned and they were separated.

- A child is born in prison, and what happens to him next? Does he live with his mother or in the baby's home?

- Living together in prison - this is a relative concept. There are currently about 200 places for communal living in Russian prisons. At the moment, there are 13 colonies with children's homes, the total occupancy of which is from 800 to 900 places. There are very small children's homes, there are those that are designed for 100 - 120 people. Unfortunately, our law enforcement system and judicial authorities work in such a way that these places are always filled. On average, about 800 people stay in children's homes in colonies every year.

In the case of a pre-trial detention center, as a rule, a prisoner gives birth under escort in one of the city maternity hospitals. Until now, in small towns or where there are problems with organizing a convoy, there is such a practice when a woman is handcuffed during childbirth if there are not 3 accompanying persons next to her. I know such stories. The detention center explains handcuffing as a precaution in the absence of a convoy. But there are no exact statistics. Therefore, we are now starting a study, as a result of which we plan to find out, among other things, how many convicted women were chained to beds during childbirth.

After giving birth, if the woman still remains in the pre-trial detention center, two scenarios are possible. Everywhere, of course, everything happens differently. Everywhere has its own rules. Where human rights are at least somewhat respected, the woman remains in the maternity hospital for the time necessary to recover. If the birth went well, then the person under investigation is in the maternity hospital for 3-4 days, as expected. In case of childbirth through C-section the convict remains in the maternity hospital until the stitches are removed. At this time, the child is in the room with his mother under escort. And this is the most “pleasant” scenario. Because there is another, second option, when the mother is immediately taken to a pre-trial detention center after giving birth. They are placed there in a hospital, which is actually the same prison. There's just some doctor there. The child is brought to his mother only after he has undergone all the necessary postpartum procedures. IN in this case the child is deprived breastfeeding during separation from mother.

When the mother has already been convicted and is in prison, the scenario may be slightly different. Out of 13 women's colonies located in Russia, only 2 have maternity hospitals built specifically for imprisoned women giving birth. These are colonies in Chelyabinsk and “IK-2” in Mordovia. If the colony does not provide for cohabitation, then the mother and child, after the short time that they are supposed to spend together, are separated. The child is transferred to the orphanage, and the mother returns to the detachment. The mother can go to feed 6 times a day. The separation of mother and child does not allow her to develop a feeding schedule that is convenient for her child. Due to stress and many other factors, milk may disappear. Agree, even from the point of view of breastfeeding, such a regime is not humane, but from the point of view of the act of care, the awakening of the maternal instinct, and, as we know, not everyone has it initially, it is detrimental. Naturally, this cruel system affects the child the most, since such a child is discriminated against in advance. He is deprived mother's love.

Explain what the prison cohabitation option is and who receives this privilege - live with your child in Russian colonies?

Living together is the same as living at home with a child. Mom is nearby all the time. Fortunately, a positive trend is now emerging. A very good doctor has appeared in the FSIN, who declares (and the management often supports her) a transfer maximum quantity shared accommodation places. After all, statistics and their internal studies, whatever they may be, on morbidity, on relapses, differ by 2 orders of magnitude. The incidence of children born in prison when living together is reduced by 43%. And the 200 places of shared accommodation for 800 people, which I spoke about earlier, exist. But this does not mean that mothers in any one colony live with their children all together. No. Unfortunately, only a small amount of places in each colony. In some cases there is a struggle for a place to live next to the child, in others - manipulation when a woman must prove that she is a good mother. Naturally, no one will ask the child, because he is very small. At this moment everyone somehow forgets about his rights. And it turns out that for some reason, if, for example, mom smokes, - she is automatically recognized as a bad mother and has no right to live next to the child, and the child, it turns out, has no right to her love. I'm exaggerating on purpose, but this is the meaning.

- What are living conditions when living together?

- Imagine a dorm with 8-10 rooms. This is about the same thing. The mother and child have their own room in a place fenced off from the rest of the territory and the checkpoint. You live there like in a dorm room. I can’t speak for all colonies; I saw shared living rooms only in colony “IK-2” in the village of Yavas in Mordovia and in Chelyabinsk “IK-5”. In Mordovia these are simple small rooms, without water, without gas stoves. In Chelyabinsk there is water in the room. This is just a room in which a woman has the opportunity to live next to her child. But, perhaps, more is not needed. The point is not in everyday life. For a child in his first year of life, it doesn’t matter where he is. Mom is his home during this period. He doesn't care whether there is water in the room or not.

From the point of view of critical thinking, convenience and aesthetic perception, such moments may seem important to us. Many commissions also perceive living conditions with prejudice: “Oh, they don’t have such toys. Oh, not such diapers.” This is all, sorry, nonsense. The most important thing for a child in the first years of life - this is mother and numerous acts of care. It is important that mom gets up at night, changes the diaper, washes, responds to teething, and so on. All this warmth absorbed in infancy later makes the child more stable in life.

Nobody hires women with criminal records

- What is the idea of a foster family that you began to implement as part of the “Prison Children” program?

- When a child turns three years old, he must leave the zone. If he has no relatives at large or the relatives do not have the opportunity to fulfill the conditions of guardianship, then the child is transferred to Orphanage. As a rule, if a child has gone to an orphanage, and the mother still has a long period of time left, for example, 4 or 5 years, there is a high probability that the child will remain in the orphanage. Look what happens. When a mother is released, she usually does not have a job. In general, no one hires women with criminal records. And we don’t even have any special types of work in which these women can socialize and feel like full-fledged people. There is no social rehabilitation for prisoners - psychologically former prisoners who repaid their debt and received retribution. It would seem that there is nothing further to punish for. But they turn out to be no longer even second-class citizens. These are people who simply have nowhere to go. In such conditions, you need to have enormous willpower to take the child away from orphanage. However, in order to pick up a child, you need to make sure you have certificates: about your place of residence, about your being hired. It turns out to be a vicious circle.

It’s even more terrible that the child from the orphanage is not taken on visits. A possible option is telephone conversations when the mother calls an orphanage or a family orphanage. But never, at least I don’t know of such cases, does the orphanage take children on visits with their mother. In fact, the child can see his mother very often and maintain contact with her. Short dates allowed once every two months, long-term - once every three months. That is, you can see your child many times in a year. But orphanages do not do this. Not enough staff, maybe no volunteers. And they don’t think much about it, deciding that, once inside their walls, the child belongs to the orphanage. There is no special empathy. No one bothers to maintain the connection between mother and child. For this purpose, in fact, we are actively promoting the foster family program ("foster" - from English foster - guardianship, care).

We find families who would like to take a child for a while. This is a temporary guardianship. A foster family or a foster mother must have a certain attitude. They know about the rules, the main one of which is that the child cannot be allowed to forget his mother, he must be told that his mother exists, she loves him, and constantly remind him of her. And, of course, we do not prohibit, but we recommend that the child not call the foster mother “mom.” She may be mother Natasha, mother Galya, but there is also dear mother, which has a different name. This is quite a serious decision - to understand that you will take the child and then have to give him back. Again, it is not clear under what conditions you will return it. But, for example, our first foster mother Natasha Kudryavtseva is guided by only one thing: “Is it better for him to go to an orphanage? I’ll somehow cope with this moment. I’ll better help them in the future.” Of course, foster parents are essentially volunteers.

- Are there any legal difficulties when applying for foster care? Do government agencies help you implement the program?

- There are laws that allow us to talk about success. The Law on Guardianship and Trusteeship allows for the registration of guardianship under a contract, which can be called fostering. There is also temporary guardianship. At least, all legislative and law enforcement issues allow such guardianship. Of course, there are different people in the local guardianship authorities, you have to talk to them in different ways, very often you have to involve lawyers, because it is not customary to give a child to non-relatives. We cannot talk about any dynamics yet, since so far we only have two established foster families. The fact is that it is quite difficult to obtain information from prison. Neither guardianship nor the FSIN have the right to provide us with information about which children will be left without care and which will go to an orphanage, because these children have mothers. Thus, these children cannot appear in databases of abandoned or abandoned children. And here our task of “finding out” is feasible only when we talk with the mothers themselves. Therefore, we ourselves obtain information directly from the colonies.

We have now started to conduct research. I hope that by the New Year, if we manage to visit all the colonies, we will have more or less full information. You can, of course, use the help of human rights activists, local PSCs (Public Monitoring Commission - editor's note), but, unfortunately, there are not normal PSCs everywhere. Where there is, we cooperate with them. And where not, we go ourselves. It is undoubtedly better to drive everywhere yourself. Locally they know about our program. Therefore the procedure is simple. We are going to the colony, making the usual request asking for permission to enter the colony for educational and research purposes. The work is painstaking and energy-intensive, but worth it. If this is not done, we will not have a complete picture of what is happening.

- Who are the people who decide to become foster parents? How will they find out about the program? Are these former prisoners, people “in the know”?

The fact is that we started talking about prison and motherhood in prison a year ago. That is, now more or less someone, people “in the know,” as you said, already knows about it. The general public knows nothing about this topic. Therefore, we are trying to enlist the support of people who take care of other children. We work with Lena Alshanskaya (President of the Charitable Foundation "Volunteers to Help Orphans" - editor's note). She is very interested in our foster care program. When we institutionalize fostering, we plan to work closely together.

We are also thinking about cooperation within the framework of an agreement both in psychological support and in the education of trainers, psychologists, foster parents for such children and in many other aspects. At the moment, since we still have many bureaucratic issues to sort out, we are working as volunteers. Now we are preparing the ground and conducting educational work. Of course, little has been done for educational work. One film has been made. We travel around Russia with him and show him. I write about this in the media. Colleagues write about this. But this is just a drop in the bucket. Naturally, our activities cannot yet be called a huge government program. To be honest, I wouldn’t want the state to help us much with this. After all, the state has not done anything good so far regarding children. And here we are at least a little calm. There are maternal rights, and there are mothers who are not deprived of parental rights. We can do a lot if we are not disturbed. The current active legislative assistance would most likely hinder us now.

“Several times I went on hunger strikes so that my child could be vaccinated.”

- How did the foster care program begin? Does it originate in your personal history?

- Yes it was mine personal story. I was under investigation while I was five months pregnant. As for any person who knows nothing at all about prison and arrests, it is impossible to imagine how a pregnant woman can be arrested. Considering the contracted nature of the case, the economic crime, and not murder, everything that happened was a shock to me. A difficult pregnancy along with childbirth under escort (thank God, I had a caesarean section, I was asleep, and the doctors thought that the escort - this is an abomination and savagery, and they didn’t let him into the operating room), being in a locked room, the inability to vaccinate the child on time (several times I went on hunger strikes so that the child could be vaccinated), an abrupt cessation of breastfeeding after I was transferred to a colony, because we lived separately with the child, - having endured all this and much more, I said: “Guys, it won’t be like this. It just won't happen. Sooner or later I will be released and will say and do something.”

So, after serving a sentence of 2 years and 8 months, I was released. Soon I began to communicate with Olga Romanova from Sitting Rus' (Olga Romanova is the head of the Sitting Rus' project, an informal association that protects the rights of convicts,- approx. editors). At first, our “Prison Children” program began within “Sitting Rus'”, then it separated for organizational reasons. We continue to cooperate. The co-author of the project is Svetlana Bakhmina, who, as you know, is also an insider (Svetlana Bakhmina is a lawyer, was convicted in 2006 under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Misappropriation or embezzlement”) in the framework of the YUKOS case). Since we are insiders, we know what it's like inside, and it's easier for us to talk to prisoners. We know life, customs, habits. By the way, not a single researcher will tell you whether a woman is lying to you or telling the truth. Women prisoners are not inclined to open their souls unless you know some key points. Therefore, it is easier for us in this sense. The most difficult thing was to step over the moment itself and say: “You know, I’m doing this because I experienced it.”

- I think many imprisoned women dream of leaving the zone and forgetting about what happened, like nightmare.

- It is precisely because many who are released forget about the period of imprisonment as if it were a bad dream, and everything remains as before.

- How did you reunite with youngest child, who were imprisoned in an orphanage and older children who grew up separately from you in freedom?

- I did not part with the youngest. Reunification with older children begins only now, 6 years after my release, since it is generally very difficult for a woman to fully recover after prison. Psychologically, you are absolutely no longer the same person you were before the zone. Men also notice this. But men are more adapted to extreme conditions. Life in prison is more difficult for a woman to endure.

Staying in the zone for more than a year and a half produces irreversible changes in a person. From a psychological point of view, for sure, I don’t know how from a mental point of view. For me, the time in prison was very difficult, and I remember it very well. But I don’t perceive it as some kind of horror, a nightmare. I just lived like this for a while. And you get used to this, unfortunately.

- How did you communicate with your youngest son when you were serving time in a colony?

- I was in a pre-trial detention center until he was 9 months old. We were transferred to the colony when Vadim was 9 months old. After the stage, this terrible Stolypin carriage, of course, my milk supply began to decrease. Milk is produced when the baby begins to nurse. As you know, pumping at 9 months no longer works. And there was such a filter as control pumping. Imagine, a Stolypin carriage, at 9 pm you were brought to the colony, and at 6 am you have to go for a control pumping session. In a word, my child was left without milk. Well, at least I breastfed the baby for 9 months.

Then my son was transferred to an orphanage, and I was in the detachment. Six months later, I got a job as a nanny in a children's home. I saw him more often. Mothers have the opportunity to work in orphanages in colonies. I worked for free, but at that time it did not play any role. The main thing is that I was next to my son.

- What was the most difficult challenge for you during your imprisonment?

- You know, everything is complicated there. Every step there is different from normal life. At least female for sure. Take hygiene, for example. You can wash in the area once a week. Of course, women somehow get out of it. It all depends on the order. If we take living conditions, they are terrible.

- Has anything changed in terms of everyday life in women’s colonies since your release?

- Now everything is still terrible. I was in several colonies with varying degrees of horror. It's absolutely terrible in Mordovia. The most decent colony in Chelyabinsk. I personally know their medical service, which is responsible for the orphanage.

- How are you currently organizing the work of the “Prison Children” project?

- It is impossible to do all the work from Moscow. Khabarovsk is located on the other side of the world. The same applies to Barnaul and Krasnoyarsk. They are all very far away. That’s why we are now touring the premiere screenings of the film “Anatomy of Love” ( documentary about the imprisoned mother of director Natalya Kadyrova - approx. editors). I chose it out of many films because I saw that the director understood what she was talking about and understood the problem. The idea of the film is very simple. You cannot deprive a child of the opportunity to be close to his mother. There is no need to think about anything other than him during this period. And even if for this he needs to be placed with someone who seems to be a bad mother, then it’s worth it. Because the person is mom - changes before our eyes. Throughout the film, you can see what changes happen to the main character.

When we show this film, we invite everyone who deals with people in difficult situations one way or another: local volunteers, everyone who is interested and cares about our topic. We set them the task of creating a community to search for foster families there, in the regions. If you look demographically, the people in Khabarovsk are from the Khabarovsk Territory. Let's say a foster takes a child from Khabarovsk to Moscow. And there will be no visits with mom. Tickets cost a lot of money. You can, of course, organize all this, but why, if it is possible to find a foster family on the spot.

In the region where the colony is located, we organize a working group that can act with our help. It is different in all regions of the country. Somewhere the municipal authorities are ready to help one way or another. Not everything is as bad everywhere as it seems from Moscow.

Our project "Prison Children" - This is a powerful solution to the issue of crime, not just juvenile crime. As a rule, most children are in the "young age" - juvenile prison - they end up from orphanages, and then, again, as a rule, they end up in an adult prison, because this is an experience that is not absorbed with mother’s milk, it is something that is brought up by the environment. In 60% of cases, an orphanage child ends up in a juvenile colony. And in 20 years we can see what we have achieved. This is an experiment in dynamics. Its results cannot be predicted. They depend on how the life of this particular child will work out, how his mother’s life will work out. Our mission - make sure that there are no orphanages at all. If we consider a child living with his mother in a zone, a population of 10 to 50 children can be considered normal, provided that they live with their mother, but not today’s 800 children annually, who are mainly in orphanages in colonies.

- Who is your project currently helping and how many children and mothers have you already managed to help?

- We want to finish the work on the Khabarovsk colony. It turned out that while showing a film there recently, we were unable to visit the colony due to certain organizational problems. Therefore, we are now planning to fly to Khabarovsk again and finish what we started: to carry out an educational task in the colony, to publish a series of interviews in the press. In Khabarovsk, by the way, there is a branch of the Red Cross that helps women in colonies. Perhaps they were the only ones who worked there before us.

We are currently working with 3 families. One family is just the daughter of the heroine of the film “Anatomy of Love”. The second family is a family in recovery. Mom Nadezhda Maltseva, who was released and is undergoing rehabilitation. And there is a boy - Yaroslav Gurov, he is in Chelyabinsk, he is already 7 years old, - I need to go to school. He survived more than all the children mentioned: he was born in prison, then he was with his mother, she had a short prison sentence. Mom was imprisoned again, Yarik was placed in an orphanage. He was placed under guardianship from the orphanage and then returned again. This case is the most difficult for us.

- How do you think the life of a mother and child should be structured while in prison and after release?

- Birth of a child in prison - This is a very paradoxical chance. And I am very surprised that the FSIN employees do not understand this. In general, saying that they understand something or not in relation to prisoners is already a euphemism. But the FSIN employees treat the mother and child in prison with sympathy. Of course, there are cases of abuse of mothers, since women in the zone are perceived primarily as criminals. However, there is overall sympathy for the topic. And that is why I am surprised that the FSIN has not yet reached the idea that re-education, correction of a female prisoner with the help of the small part of her family available is a very powerful and effective element of not just manipulation, but education, further socialization, and prevention of relapse. A born child is a prisoner’s family, albeit a small one. Everyone else in the zone is deprived of family and close, intimate communication, and the fact that someone has a warm little bundle to snuggle up to and take care of causes great envy.

If a mother who gave birth in prison becomes attached to her child, she will forget about everything in the world. I have wards who have served their sentences and are now in a state of rehabilitation and family restoration. One of them gave birth in prison and lived in the zone with her child, separated from him for a while, but has now been released. She is ready to fight for her child. She will forget about everything in the world. For her, family comes first.

We would like this strong resource - awakening the maternal instinct - was used. Our main goals are: firstly, so that the child lives with his mother, secondly, so that he does not go to an orphanage, and thirdly, so that they are reunited if they had to separate. Believe me, two big differences: a woman who did not live with her child, and a woman who, while in prison, was always with her child.

“In freedom they cry from fear - they don’t even know this air.”

All children love and wait New Year. Decorated Christmas trees, cheerful lights on the streets, Santa Claus, carnival costumes, present...

But there are children who have never seen Santa Claus and have never seen any cities either. They had never attended matinees at the House of Culture or the theater. These kids live behind three fences with barbed wire. No, they are not criminals, they are just in prison with their mothers. But even there, behind bars, they are waiting for a holiday.

Children living behind bars are also looking forward to the holiday. With father Kosma, Alexander Gezalov and puppet theater artists.

Well-known public figure Alexander Gezalov is involved in helping children with difficult fates. Orphans, disabled people, children from dysfunctional families... And also to children of imprisoned mothers.

I’ve been working with the Golovinsky women’s colony in the Vladimir region for a long time, probably 5 years already. This is one of the few zones where there is an orphanage, which means that children under 3 years old are also kept there along with their mothers. Then, if the mother remains to serve her sentence, the child is taken away either by relatives or by an orphanage. Well, these first 3 years they sit together like this. I go there regularly and always return with a heavy heart. After all, children should not be behind bars...

This time they were able to collect a substantial humanitarian cargo: a six-month supply of diapers, baby onesies, women's clothing. And also a huge bag of lace bras:

“Oh, the nurses will be happy,” Gezalov laughs, “by March 8 we already brought underwear. The prison staff called me later and thanked me very much. They say the girls were already squealing with delight. A woman, she is also a woman behind bars. Perfumes, creams and all these other ladies' things are very necessary in prison.

TO New Year's holidays They also took several boxes with sweet gifts. They were collected for the children by monks from the Social Center of St. Tikhon of the Donskoy Monastery. And they didn’t just hand it over, but delegated the load to Father Kosma, so that he would personally distribute it to the children and tell the women a couple kind words. And there was one more New Year's gift a puppet show for little prisoners and their mothers.

Children go to prison only one way - if they are born there

It happens that they imprison a pregnant woman,” explains Alexander. - Or, while already serving her sentence, the convict became pregnant after a meeting with her husband. I know cases when more than one child is given birth in a zone. Well, what to do, life goes on. Some convicts even get pregnant on purpose in order to be transferred to another colony and be in milder conditions for at least some time.

- How is childbirth going? Right in prison?

No, in a regular maternity hospital. The woman in labor is brought under escort, and she is also guarded during the entire process. I know that human rights activists have recorded cases where women giving birth were handcuffed to the bed so that they would not escape. Of course, complete savagery. But this is in those prisons where there are not enough guards. Here, in the Golovin colony, everything is fine. And, you see, they let us in, and they allow us to bring children’s performances. The leadership of the colony is very humane.

In the whole of gigantic Russia there are only 13 colonies with orphanages. In the one we are going to, there are 800 women and 25 children. There are more children. The main thing is that Golovin provides for the possibility of mothers and children living together - when a woman who has given birth can be with her baby around the clock.

The prison has its own rules, and immediately after the birth the child is transferred to the orphanage, and the mother goes back to the barracks. She has the right to come to her baby, feed him, push him in a stroller along the fence, and then return to her cell. Thus, a mother spends no more than two hours a day with her newborn baby. And the child is practically all the time with strangers - nannies. This situation is dangerous because the young woman’s maternal instinct simply will not awaken. Well, she gave birth and gave birth, and then she seemed to be on her own, and the baby was on his own. I know that some such unfortunate mothers go to the orphanage to see their child under pressure. They are literally forced. But there are even more cruel cases when a woman is released from prison, but does not take her child. “Let him stay here for now, I’ll arrange his life and take him away.” So living together is the most favorable option. First of all, of course, for the child. Because he has a mother! The real one, who is always there, rocks her, gives her a pacifier, changes her diaper at night, and presses her to her chest. After all, by and large, a small child does not care where he is, at home or in prison. One thing is important to him - that his mother is nearby. And preferably 24 hours a day. But it doesn't always work out that way.

It is clear that living together with your child is a privilege for convicts. This will be allowed only to those women who have proven their reliability: they behave well, do not smoke, and do not violate the regime. Motherhood in prison is generally a sad song. After all, it’s not the baby’s fault that he was born in such conditions. There is another undeniable advantage from living together - raising a convict. For women who are lost in life, a child can become the straw that they can grab onto and, already being free, try to improve their lives, and not go into all the trouble again. However, the FSIN system often neglects such a unique tool of re-education in its correctional institutions.

After the performance, the kids couldn’t tear themselves away from the dolls.

All this, of course, if we talk about the ideal. In general, it’s not bad that a child is with his mother, even if only for a couple of hours a day,” says Gezalov. - This is already a lot, and it is much better than an orphanage.

A very big problem is that after the age of 3, many children are sent to an orphanage. This is when the mother has no free relatives who are ready to take custody of the child. Formally, the room is temporary while the mother is sitting. But in fact - forever. Over the years, the woman becomes weaned from the child, but they do not see each other and do not communicate. Purely theoretically, visits are allowed, but there is no one to take the child to prison, and there are already not enough staff in orphanages. And then, the woman is freed, but she has nowhere to go. No work, no housing. There is no time for education here.

Civil activists are trying to establish a system of so-called foster families in Russia. Such as when the child of a convicted person is taken in by strangers, not blood volunteer families. They are ready to take care of the baby while the mother sits, and after release, give him back to her. The foster families program is very young; it was launched by the Sitting Rus' Foundation just a few years ago. The first woman to decide on such temporary guardianship was Muscovite Natalya Kudryavtseva. She took care of the little girl for several years, and then gave her to her mother. Now the women are communicating, Natasha is helping a family reunited after prison, because everything in their lives is not easy. They live in a dilapidated house in a remote Kaluga village, no work, no money. Mom Natasha helps with money, clothes, and food.

Of course, all this is not very simple. And paperwork, and psychological aspects. After all, few people are ready to accept a child into the family for a while. Such simple heroines, in my opinion, says Gezalov,

An island of warmth and comfort in a “cold house”

So we come to the colony to talk. IR is the largest building in a remote village. But not the most joyful thing. Observation towers, five-meter fences with barbed wire, guards with machine guns... And right in front of the checkpoint there is a large and beautiful temple. He's like foreign body, like a fabulous, cartoonish and therefore unreal object among the gray, gloomy prison fences.

The puppet theater artists turned out to be ordinary women- saleswomen of a large retail chain of children's goods. Theater is their hobby, this is corporate team building. With their simple performances they travel to distant villages and orphanages. First time in IR. And it seems that they have little understanding of where they have come.

What, you can’t take your phones there with you? Like this? Is this even legal?

We have instructions, it’s not allowed! - Olga Anatolyevna, deputy head of the colony, insists. - Even I hand over my phone when I go there, although I am an employee on duty.

But my child is sick, how can I call him?

Silence in response. How how? No way! I went behind bars, and there was nothing familiar there anymore. And there can be no exceptions.

Father Kosma from the Danilovsky Monastery was also in such an institution for the first time. Before leaving the gate, he invites us all to pray.

Well, with God!

We pass the checkpoint. They launch strictly three people at a time. They are carefully inspected. They warn you not to come into contact with prisoners, not to take anything from them and not to transfer anything yourself. Cigarettes are taken away from smokers - they are like currency in the zone.

How? But I smoke! I can't live that many hours without nicotine! - the artist-seller makes a scandal again.

It is forbidden! Smoking is strictly prohibited on the territory of our orphanage.

I see that the Federal Penitentiary Service is already starting to get irritated by disobedient artists.

Have you not explained to people where they are going? - the deputy chief addresses Alexander Gezalov.

Explained. But whatever you want, they have never seen a prison.

It took about an hour for our delegation of 30 people to enter the zone. The decorations were carried through for some time, they were also carefully inspected. There, behind bars, they were already waiting for us. Curious children's faces look out from the windows of the second floor of the orphanage.

The children's home looks like an ordinary, typical kindergarten. There are swings and carousels at the entrance. True, there is a solid iron fence around its entire territory. It turns out, as it were, its own strictly protected territory inside another strictly protected one.

Back in the summer, Alexander Gezalov raised money, found artists and, having agreed with the authorities of the colony, brought them here to paint this gloomy fence. There was only enough money and paint for a small part of it.

Painting everything is very expensive. The artists worked for free, of course, but a lot of cylinders of color were spent. But the kids love it! And mothers are happy. With such colorful drawings, of course, it became more fun. The little girl spends a long time spinning around this painted wall, looking at it.

Not only the drawings appeared in the prison orphanage through the efforts of Alexander Gezalov and his friends. Sasha gathered, as they say, from the world a little bit and equipped a sensory room in the orphanage in Golovinskaya IK, bringing strollers, cribs, toys here:

Where there are children, there is always something needed. I already know, I’m a father of many children.

The inside of the children's home is very cozy, just like home. This is such a small island of warmth and comfort. It smells like a kindergarten here - delicious food, carpets on the floors, cheerful, children's furniture.

The kids were waiting for us impatiently: the girls elegant dresses, bantah. Boys in shorts, washed and combed. The first to roar at the top of his voice was the one-and-a-half-year-old curly-haired baby doll. And immediately after him, everyone else.

I didn’t even understand what was going on until I turned around and saw that such a reaction from the children was caused by the appearance of Father Kosma in a floor-length black cassock and with a huge cross.

Yes, children, this is not Grandfather Frost! - we laughed together.

Immediately the little girl Valya clung to me as if she were her own. The black-haired woman watched us a little apart, Oriental beauty, Uzbek girl Malika with a huge bow on the very top of her head.

Mother! Mother! “My mother has come,” 3-year-old Antoshka shouted joyfully throughout the room. - Mommy, come and sit with me.

This couple immediately seemed to me the most joyful. Later I found out that after 3 months they were going home and that Anton was the oldest here (he was already over 3 years old, but he was not transferred to an orphanage, deviating slightly from the rules so as not to separate mother and son).

Soon all the other mothers joined in. The children immediately sat down in their arms and watched us from above. Everything is as usual kindergarten, if you don't look out the window....

How long have you been here? - Having violated the ban, I turn to one of the prisoners, the mother of a two-year-old boy.

Already seven years. Five more to sit.

- Where is he going?

Dad will pick it up.

But for Malika’s mother, the question of where her child will go when he turns three is not yet clear.

Oh, I have two more years to sit. And I hope my sister will take the girl. She must come from her homeland. If everything goes well with the money, she will definitely come, she promised.

The senior teacher at the orphanage, Tatyana Ivanovna, has been working here for 35 years. When I arrived after college as part of my assignment, I stayed there.

When I went, I didn’t even know where I would work,” she recalls. - I arrived at the place, and they told me, welcome to the Golovinsky correctional colony. I almost fell. And then nothing, it worked out.

Children's doctor Vera Ivanovna has been working here even longer, for 42 years now. She also treats children in the village itself, that is, in the wild.

Yes, both here and there,” she sighs. - There is no one else. So I have a lot of patients.

- What are they basically sitting here for? Are there any with long deadlines?

The longest sentence we have for one prisoner here is 25 years. I've already served 20 years. Just imagine, when she came to us here, her small children remained free. And now she is already a grandmother. But they don't visit her at all. We used to go, but now we don’t. It's expensive, and there's no time - they're from another region.

- Lord, what did she do that took her so long?

I don't know. In general, the most common article now is 228, drugs. It is also called folk, most people sit on it. And before, when I came to work here 42 years ago, we didn’t even know the word - drugs. At that time, the “folk” article was parasitism, the spread of venereal diseases (refusal of treatment), and petty theft. I remember two milkmaids we had here were imprisoned for stealing a bag of feed from the collective farm. And now there are drugs, nothing but drugs.

Are mothers any good now? Shouldn't anyone be forced to visit their children? - I ask the senior teacher of the orphanage.

No, no one. All are good. But we now have difficult cases; several children will soon go to an orphanage. We are already experiencing such a tragedy. Moreover, one has a grandmother, others also have some kind of relatives. But they don't want to take it. I’ve seen enough in 35 years and I know that without relatives in orphanages, children immediately change: they stop talking, they lag behind in development. Six months ago we took Seryozhka to the orphanage, he read poetry to us all the way. And recently I was there, looked in on him, he stands like a statue, as if he doesn’t understand anything. I tell him Serezhenka, Serezhenka - he is silent. The orphanage teachers say that he doesn’t speak to them at all. Oh, it's a disaster, of course. Such broken destinies for children.

The performance was a great success. The children did not let the artists go for a long time. Not living ones, but puppet ones. They examined the Snow Maiden and the bear, touched Baba Yaga’s hooked nose. In general, everything is clear with sweets; children have no competition for them. And then we left, and they stayed. To be honest, as soon as you are released and the last steel doors slam behind you, it becomes easier to breathe. At least I personally breathed a sigh of relief. And the teachers told me that children who are released from the colony cry out of fear. They have never been free in their little lives, they don’t know this air.

Annotation:

There is no social rehabilitation of prisoners - psychologically former prisoners who have repaid their debt and received retribution. There is an opinion that women deliberately give birth to children in prison because they know that this will improve the conditions of their detention. The Criminal Executive Code regulates what to do with expectant and established mothers who find themselves behind bars.

There is no social rehabilitation of prisoners - psychologically ex-prisoners who sacrificed debt receiving retribution. There is a perception that women are having children specifically in prison, because they know that it will improve their living conditions. Penal Code regulates what to do with the future and has already taken place moms who were behind bars

Keywords:

children, woman, social rehabilitation of prisoners

children, women, social rehabilitation of prisoners

UDC 34, 504

For the first time, the Council Code mentioned a pregnant woman behind bars in 1649. This Code is the prototype of the current Criminal Code. According to it, a woman expecting a child could not only be arrested, but also executed. By the way, it was in connection with pregnant women that for the first time in Russia the concept of deferment of execution of a sentence appeared. So, according to the ancient law, it was possible to execute a woman, but with a delay until childbirth. And after the baby is born - please. In that Code, execution was generally provided for six dozen crimes.

The only way children end up in prison is when they are born there. A child is born in prison when a pregnant defendant or convict is in a pre-trial detention center or already in a colony. It happens that women commit a crime while they are already pregnant, sometimes they become pregnant while long date(such are allowed between official spouses), most likely to receive parole. As a result, the population of the colonies grows without any decision from the courts.

At the moment, there are 13 colonies with children's homes, the total occupancy of which is from 800 to 900 places. There are very small children's homes, there are those that are designed for 100 - 120 people. On average, about 846 people are kept in children's homes in colonies every year.

For each newborn, a social worker collects documents and goes to the registry office, where a birth certificate is issued. The child immediately receives a medical insurance policy. After giving birth, if the woman still remains in the pre-trial detention center, two scenarios are possible. Everywhere, of course, everything happens differently. Where human rights are at least somewhat respected, the woman remains in the maternity hospital for the time necessary to recover. If the birth went well, then the person under investigation is in the maternity hospital for 3-4 days, as expected. At this time, the child is in the room with his mother under escort. The second option is when the mother, after giving birth, is immediately taken to a pre-trial detention center, where she is placed in a hospital, which is actually the same prison, but there is a doctor there. The child is brought to his mother only after he has undergone all the necessary postpartum procedures. The mother can go to feed 6 times a day. In this case, the child is deprived of breastfeeding during separation from his mother. The separation of mother and child does not allow her to develop a feeding schedule that is convenient for her child. Due to stress and many other factors, milk may disappear. Agree, even from the point of view of breastfeeding, such a regime is not humane, but from the point of view of an act of care, awakening the maternal instinct, and, as you know, not everyone has it in the first place. Milk is replaced with kefir (it happens that kefir is made in the colony itself). Each child has his own daily feeding norm. For those above average age 200 grams, for average age 150 grams, 100 grams for the youngest, along with potatoes.

Specialists: pediatricians, speech therapists, psychologists work with children from the first days of their lives in the Children's Home. During the day, a teacher is always with the children, and at night - a nurse. Children regularly undergo medical examinations and tests are done free of charge at the city clinic.

Living together between mother and child is the same as living at home with a child. After all, statistics and their internal studies, whatever they may be, on morbidity, on relapses, differ by 2 orders of magnitude. The incidence of children born in prison when living together is reduced by 43%. But this does not mean that mothers in any one colony live with their children all together. No. Unfortunately, only a small number of places are allocated in each colony. The mother and child have their own room in a place fenced off from the rest of the territory and the checkpoint. They live there like in a dorm room.

Living conditions for newborns in “Children’s Homes” on prison grounds are very deplorable. The “Children's Home” is a dilapidated, peeling barracks with cracked walls. Apathetic babies lie in small iron beds. They look fragile, their faces have a grayish tint. One of them has hepatitis, and the others were born to HIV-infected mothers. Since there is clearly not enough space, several small beds are placed in the kitchen. Room temperature in winter rarely rises above 8 °C; sometimes it drops to zero. The bedrooms are crammed with beds, making it difficult to walk between them. In many small beds, children sit on bare oilcloth because there is not enough bedding for everyone. “Game rooms” I can’t even dare call it that. These are just empty rooms in which there is not a single piece of furniture or a single toy. The teacher explains to us: “We sit all the children on a wide windowsill and talk to them or tell them fairy tales.” The teacher herself is a prisoner. Raising children is hers workplace in the zone. In the hospital ward at home infant, there are children with pneumonia, sore throat, kidney disease and other diseases. Prisoners furnish their own bathrooms. Those who worked during pregnancy from their small salary. Children under three years old who live without their mothers are woken up at five in the morning and forced to sit on the potty. To prevent the nannies from getting up, they tie the children to the potties with tights. It turns out that children are also serving their sentences. Their walks take place behind bars. Children simply do not see life outside the zone. Children who are two or three years old begin to adopt the habits of prisoners. They begin to utter words such as “shmon”, “attention, police!”, They are afraid of people in uniform.

There is an opinion that women deliberately give birth to children in prison because they know that this will improve the conditions of their detention. The Criminal Executive Code regulates what to do with expectant and established mothers who find themselves behind bars. Everything is described there, down to the smallest detail: “In places of detention, improved living conditions are created for pregnant women and women with children, specialized medical care is organized, and increased food and clothing standards are established. There is no limit on the duration of daily walks. Placement in a punishment cell cannot be used as a penalty...” But what does this improvement mean? real life? The woman will receive three hundred grams of cottage cheese and an additional egg per week. That's all the privileges for a pregnant and nursing mother in prison. It is almost impossible to buy anything in prison stalls, the food there is of such poor quality, and it is simply unacceptable for nursing and pregnant women. Salaries are very low, minus payment of claims and deductions, payment of uniforms.

Only children born in prison live in the orphanage on the prison grounds. Until release, mother and child are estranged from each other, but the difficulties do not end with release. If the mother has no relatives at large or the relatives are unable to fulfill the conditions of guardianship, then the child is transferred to an orphanage. As a rule, if a child has gone to an orphanage, and the mother still has a long period of time left, for example, 4 or 5 years, there is a high probability that the child will remain in the orphanage. When a mother is released, she usually does not have a job. Achieve normal social rehabilitation after release (according to the website audit-it.ru, today a released woman with a child receives severance pay in the amount of 762 rubles. No housing, no work, no psychological assistance). In general, no one hires women with criminal records. And we don’t even have any special types of work in which these women can socialize and feel like full-fledged people.

There is no social rehabilitation for prisoners - psychologically former prisoners who repaid their debt and received retribution. It would seem that there is nothing further to punish for. But they turn out to be no longer even second-class citizens. These are people who simply have nowhere to go. In such conditions, you need to have enormous willpower to pick up a child from an orphanage. However, in order to pick up a child, you need to make sure you have certificates: about your place of residence, about your being hired. It turns out to be a vicious circle. As a rule, most children end up in juvenile detention from orphanages, and then, again, as a rule, they end up in adult prison, because this is an experience that is not absorbed with mother’s milk, it is something that is brought up by the environment . In 60% of cases, an orphanage child ends up in a juvenile colony. And in 20 years we can see what we have achieved. This is an experiment in dynamics. Its results cannot be predicted. They depend on how the life of this particular child will work out, how the child’s life will work out.

After the release of mothers whose children were once transferred (after they reached the age of 3 or 4) to ordinary orphanages, not many remember their children. Typically, women who are released plan for this - but with the expectation of “later,” for the time when they are settled in freedom. However, this “later” often never comes.

We believe that places of deprivation of liberty where children live should have the widest possible access of public observers, volunteers, and concerned people. There should be more sponsorship money so that children have more toys, different food, better medical care, trips outside the zone. In practice, Art. 82 of the Criminal Code Russian Federation, which provides for a deferment of the actual serving of a sentence until the child reaches the age of fourteen, a pregnant woman, a woman with a child under the age of fourteen, except those sentenced to restriction of freedom, to imprisonment for crimes against the sexual integrity of minors under the age of fourteen, to imprisonment freedom for a term of more than five years for grave and especially grave crimes against the person.

Bibliography:

1. Kozlova N.A. Born in captivity // Rossiyskaya Gazeta - 2012. Internet portal " Russian newspaper» registered with Roskomnadzor on June 21, 2012. Certificate number EL No. FS 77 - 50379.
2. “Criminal Code of the Russian Federation” dated 06/13/1996 N 63-FZ (as amended on 07/23/2013, as amended on 10/10/2013) (as amended and additionally entered into force on 09/01/2013)
3. “Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation” dated 01/08/1997 N 1-FZ (as amended on 07/23/2013) (as amended and additionally entered into force on 10/02/2013)

Reviews:

02/3/2014, 11:34 Kuznetsova Olga Vladimirovna
Review: The article touches on a fairly pressing problem that needs to be resolved. The article may be recommended for publication.

Maria Noel, co-author and director of the Prison Children program, spoke about the situation of newborn children and mothers. This is a personal issue for Maria, as she went to prison when she was five months pregnant.

– How can a small child end up in prison?

– The only way children end up in prison is when they are born there. A child is born in prison when a pregnant defendant or convict is in a pre-trial detention center or already in a colony. A woman can also become pregnant on a date. It is impossible to take your small child to prison. In fact, this is feasible, but there is no law enforcement practice today. We have had cases where a mother whose child had just been born was imprisoned and they were separated.

– A child is born in prison, and what happens to him next? Does he live with his mother or in the baby's home?

– Living together in prison – this is a relative concept. There are currently about 200 places for communal living in Russian prisons. At the moment, there are 13 colonies with children's homes, the total occupancy of which is from 800 to 900 places. There are very small children's homes, there are those that are designed for 100 - 120 people. Unfortunately, our law enforcement system and judicial authorities work in such a way that these places are always filled. On average, about 800 people stay in children's homes in colonies every year.

Woman in prison.jpg

After giving birth, if the woman still remains in the pre-trial detention center, two scenarios are possible. Everywhere, of course, everything happens differently. Everywhere has its own rules. Where human rights are at least somewhat respected, the woman remains in the maternity hospital for the time necessary to recover. If the birth went well, then the person under investigation is in the maternity hospital for 3-4 days, as expected. In the case of a birth via caesarean section, the convict remains in the maternity hospital until the stitches are removed. At this time, the child is in the room with his mother under escort. And this is the most “pleasant” scenario. Because there is another, second option, when the mother is immediately taken to a pre-trial detention center after giving birth. They are placed there in a hospital, which is actually the same prison. There's just some doctor there. The child is brought to his mother only after he has undergone all the necessary postpartum procedures. In this case, the child is deprived of breastfeeding during separation from his mother.

When the mother has already been convicted and is in prison, the scenario may be slightly different. Of the 13 women's colonies located in Russia, only 2 have maternity hospitals built specifically for incarcerated women giving birth. These are colonies in Chelyabinsk and “IK-2” in Mordovia. If the colony does not provide for cohabitation, then the mother and child, after the short time that they are supposed to spend together, are separated. The child is transferred to the orphanage, and the mother returns to the detachment. The mother can go to feed 6 times a day. The separation of mother and child does not allow her to develop a feeding schedule that is convenient for her child. Due to stress and many other factors, milk may disappear. Agree, even from the point of view of breastfeeding, such a regime is not humane, but from the point of view of the act of care, the awakening of the maternal instinct, and, as we know, not everyone has it initially, it is detrimental. Naturally, this cruel system affects the child the most, since such a child is discriminated against in advance. He is deprived of his mother's love.

– Tell us what the option of living together in prison is and who receives this privilege – live with your child in Russian colonies?

– Living together is the same as living at home with a child. Mom is nearby all the time. Fortunately, a positive trend is now emerging. A very good doctor has appeared in the FSIN, who declares (and the management often supports her) to transfer the maximum number of places to shared accommodation. After all, statistics and their internal studies, whatever they may be, on morbidity, on relapses, differ by 2 orders of magnitude. The incidence of children born in prison when living together is reduced by 43%. And the 200 places of shared accommodation for 800 people, which I spoke about earlier, exist. But this does not mean that mothers in any one colony live with their children all together. No. Unfortunately, only a small number of places are allocated in each colony. In some cases there is a struggle for a place to live next to the child, in others – manipulation when a woman must prove that she is a good mother. Naturally, no one will ask the child, because he is very small. At this moment everyone somehow forgets about his rights. And it turns out that for some reason, if, for example, mom smokes, – she is automatically recognized as a bad mother and has no right to live next to the child, and the child, it turns out, has no right to her love. I'm exaggerating on purpose, but this is the meaning.

Maria Noel With wards V colonies V village Yavas_.jpg

– What are the living conditions like when living together?

– Imagine a dorm with 8-10 rooms. This is about the same thing. The mother and child have their own room in a place fenced off from the rest of the territory and the checkpoint. You live there like in a dorm room. I can’t speak for all colonies; I saw shared living rooms only in colony “IK-2” in the village of Yavas in Mordovia and in Chelyabinsk “IK-5”. In Mordovia these are simple small rooms, without water, without gas stoves. In Chelyabinsk there is water in the room. This is just a room in which a woman has the opportunity to live next to her child. But, perhaps, more is not needed. The point is not in everyday life. For a child in his first year of life, it doesn’t matter where he is. Mom is his home during this period. He doesn't care whether there is water in the room or not.

From the point of view of critical thinking, convenience and aesthetic perception, such moments may seem important to us. Many commissions also perceive living conditions with prejudice: “Oh, they don’t have such toys. Oh, not such diapers.” This is all, sorry, nonsense. The most important thing for a child in the first years of life – this is mother and numerous acts of care. It is important that mom gets up at night, changes the diaper, washes, responds to teething, and so on. All this warmth absorbed in infancy later makes the child more stable in life.

Nobody hires women with criminal records

– What is the idea of a foster family that you began to implement as part of the “Prison Children” program?

– When a child turns three years old, he must leave the zone. If he has no relatives at large or the relatives are not able to fulfill the conditions of guardianship, then the child is transferred to an orphanage. As a rule, if a child has gone to an orphanage, and the mother still has a long period of time left, for example, 4 or 5 years, there is a high probability that the child will remain in the orphanage. Look what happens. When a mother is released, she usually does not have a job. In general, no one hires women with criminal records. And we don’t even have any special types of work in which these women can socialize and feel like full-fledged people. There is no social rehabilitation for prisoners – psychologically former prisoners who repaid their debt and received retribution. It would seem that there is nothing further to punish for. But they turn out to be no longer even second-class citizens. These are people who simply have nowhere to go. In such conditions, you need to have enormous willpower to pick up a child from an orphanage. However, in order to pick up a child, you need to make sure you have certificates: about your place of residence, about your being hired. It turns out to be a vicious circle.

It’s even more terrible that the child from the orphanage is not taken on visits. A possible option is telephone conversations when the mother calls an orphanage or a family orphanage. But never, at least I don’t know of such cases, does the orphanage take children on visits with their mother. In fact, the child can see his mother very often and maintain contact with her. Short visits are allowed once every two months, long visits - once every three months. That is, you can see your child many times in a year. But orphanages do not do this. Not enough staff, maybe no volunteers. And they don’t think much about it, deciding that, once inside their walls, the child belongs to the orphanage. There is no special empathy. No one bothers to maintain the connection between mother and child. For this purpose, in fact, we are actively promoting the foster family program ("foster" – from English foster – guardianship, care).

Child in prison.jpg

We find families who would like to take a child for a while. This is a temporary guardianship. A foster family or a foster mother must have a certain attitude. They know about the rules, the main one of which is that you cannot allow the child to forget his mother, you must tell him that his mother exists, she loves him, and constantly remind him of her. And, of course, we do not prohibit, but we recommend that the child not call the foster mother “mom.” She may be mother Natasha, mother Galya, but there is also her own mother, whose name is different. This is quite a serious decision - to understand that you will take the child and then have to give him back. Again, it is not clear under what conditions you will return it. But, for example, our first foster mother Natasha Kudryavtseva is guided by only one thing: “Is it better for him to go to an orphanage? I’ll somehow cope with this moment. I’ll better help them in the future.” Of course, foster parents are essentially volunteers.

– Are there any legal difficulties when applying for foster care? Do government agencies help you implement the program?

– There are laws that allow us to talk about success. The Law on Guardianship and Trusteeship allows for the registration of guardianship under a contract, which can be called fostering. There is also temporary guardianship. At least, all legislative and law enforcement issues allow such guardianship. Of course, there are different people in the local guardianship authorities, you have to talk to them in different ways, very often you have to involve lawyers, because it is not customary to give a child to non-relatives. We cannot talk about any dynamics yet, since so far we only have two established foster families. The fact is that it is quite difficult to obtain information from prison. Neither guardianship nor the FSIN have the right to provide us with information about which children will be left without care and which will go to an orphanage, because these children have mothers. Thus, these children cannot appear in databases of abandoned or abandoned children. And here our task of “finding out” is feasible only when we talk with the mothers themselves. Therefore, we ourselves obtain information directly from the colonies. “Volunteers to help orphans,” - approx. editors). She is very interested in our foster care program. When we institutionalize fostering, we plan to work closely together.

A newborn may remain with his mother in prison until he reaches three years of age. Then the child will be handed over to relatives, and if there is no one, then to an orphanage. As a rule, he will stay there until he comes of age. Pravda.Ru tried to understand what to do with those women who gave birth in prison and why sometimes freedom is worse than a high fence.

In 2011, a photograph and its accompanying story went viral on the Internet. The photo shows a five-month-old girl in a coffin. In history - the causes of death of a child. The baby’s mother was kept in the correctional colony of the FBU IZ 50/10 Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Moscow region. Maria Shilinskaya gave birth to twins while in prison, but FSIN officers decided to separate the mother and two children. The woman went to pre-trial detention center 10, the newborns to the Mozhaisk colony in the Moscow region. And this despite the fact that the children had a father in the wild who tried to take them away to no avail, but the newborns were kept in captivity, in the so-called orphanage at the colony.

Needless to say, the management of the institution, unlike the parents, looked after the kids with nomenclature precision, but with the same nomenclature indifference. Shilinskaya's five-month-old daughter was left unattended. The child became ill—possibly poisoned—the girl began to vomit and she suffocated on the vomit. The cause of death in the certificate issued on September 14, 2011, says: “Aspiration of gastric contents.” That is, if the mother or employees were next to the child child care facility with a colony, the tragedy could have easily been prevented. The parents' attempts to figure it out and find the culprits led nowhere. According to Pravda.Ru correspondents, the management of the children's institution where the girl died not only did not appear in court, but also has not lost their job to this day.

The topic of mother and child in prison is perhaps not often touched upon when legislators, human rights activists, or just ordinary people start talking about the shortcomings of the penitentiary system. Nevertheless, this is an important and difficult topic. A topic that needs to be discussed, because unlike mothers who are sent to serve their sentences, a child in captivity is both an instrument of influence and a complex social organism that may not be able to survive encounters with the will in the same way as happens to children born under normal circumstances.

In the FSIN system of the Russian Federation there are 46 penal colonies for women - this is for the whole of Russia. Only 13 of them have created conditions for convicts with children, for “mothers,” as the prisoners themselves say. According to data for last year, now 775 children are serving their sentences with their mothers. All these kids will leave the “zone” when they turn three years old and go to orphanages if there is no way to hand them over to guardians.

Moreover, according to the law, children born free, even if their mother was already under investigation, will remain free. Those who were born in a correctional facility or pre-trial detention center will remain behind bars. This is the truth of life. Everything is like in adults, only from childhood, from the first day.

Needless to say, conditions in pre-trial detention centers are often far from ordinary human norms and are difficult for adults. A newborn ends up in cells without amenities, hygiene products or basic warmth. However, according to the head of the Public Monitoring Commission Anton Tsvetkov, specifically on the territory of pre-trial detention centers in Moscow, those in custody do not experience such a plight.

Tsvetkov does not talk about the rest; all of Russia is not his competence. “I can say that we are closely dealing with the problems of women who are under investigation in a pre-trial detention center. Pregnant women and those who have given birth,” says Tsvetkov. “I assure you that their conditions of detention are easier and such a contingent is in special cells. For example, the beds there are not bunk beds - ordinary ones. Secondly, this category of arrested persons is entitled to various privileges that others do not have."

Perhaps so. However, when stories written by women with children in captivity seep into blogs or the media, opinions increasingly arise: those who have children, especially those who gave birth in a colony or pre-trial detention center, should be immediately released, or their punishment should be lightened as much as possible. However, the presence of minor children, according to current laws, is already a mitigating circumstance. But the courts, in order not to go against the law, simply stipulate in the verdict that the circumstance was taken into account by the court, but in fact, this has almost no effect on the term of imprisonment.

“I do not believe that the presence of a child, including one held in captivity with the mother, should be a circumstance for immediate release or reduction of the sentence by several times,” continues Anton Tsvetkov. “I think that the court should take this into account, but based on the specific criminal case, the social danger of the act and, of course, examining each specific case individually. Including, depending on the personality of the convicted person.”

The “Prison Children” movement was organized by journalists, social activists and social activists. As the name suggests, the movement deals with the problems of mothers who are imprisoned along with their children. According to one of the leaders of “Prison Children”, Maria Noel, a norm that would allow pregnant women and those who gave birth in captivity to shorten their stay in prison is necessary and, most importantly, it is necessary to put into practice what is prescribed or will be adopted in the legislation.

“The whole situation of motherhood and childhood in prison and everything after... This whole situation is quite “crooked,” says Maria Noel. “I mean the problems of psychological and social nature. Children who are separated from their mothers in the first years of life subsequently feel very bad and adapt poorly to life. If relatives do not take such children from mothers who find themselves in prison, they end up in orphanages, then everything is clear. It's hard to explain, it's huge, deep problem. When a child died in prison and it was covered in blogs and the media, when the leadership of the orphanage at the colony was not punished... This incident taught no one anything. I spoke with the representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Irina Illarionova, and asked how the investigation was going. She answered, but there was no effect. When the employees of an orphanage at a colony have, say, ten children, all of them crying, then they stop reacting. Let him cry - let him cry. It is this negligence that leads to tragedy.

Regarding whether it is necessary to release those who have given birth or pregnant women... In our country, parole is not applied to such convicts due to the presence of children. The fact of having a child in Russia is not a reason for imposing a sentence below the lowest limit. I think that if it were the other way around, it would be very cool. But women are different, with different living conditions, and they all need comprehensive help so that there are people who are interested in their fate. I know such volunteers who are loyal to mothers in prison. U social services no motivation at all. But you can’t punish all the time! When they are released on parole, life will be very difficult for them and they always need help.”

It is difficult to say how many children born in captivity, placed in an orphanage, or simply having such a “background” end up in prison themselves. There are no statistics. And sometimes it is difficult to answer the question of what is better: an orphanage, a high fence, or something else in the absence of other life options. Nobody asked them, they didn’t do anything, but they are serving their time due to the fault of someone else. But by and large, they are guilty without guilt.