Types of visits with a convicted person, their number that a convicted person is entitled to during the year, their duration are established by the Criminal Executive Code Russian Federation. All this depends on the type of correctional institution, as well as the conditions in which the convicted person is serving his sentence. Submission procedure convicts dating
regulated by the Internal Regulations of Correctional Institutions, approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of November 3, 2005 No. 205.
A person sentenced to imprisonment is provided with two types of visits on the territory of a correctional institution:
short-term, lasting 4 hours; long-term – up to 3 days on the territory of a correctional institution with accommodation in a specially equipped room, as well as up to 5 days with accommodation outside the correctional institution. IN in this case
, the head of the correctional institution determines the procedure and location of the meeting (for example, a city hotel at the expense of the convicted person or his relatives).
And so, the number of short-term and long-term visits that a convicted person is entitled to per year depends on the type of correctional institution and the conditions in which he is serving his sentence.
If a convicted person is serving a sentence in a general regime correctional colony and is in normal conditions, then he is allowed to have 6 short-term and 4 long-term visits during the year; in easier conditions – 6 short-term and 6 long-term visits; under strict conditions – 2 short-term and 2 long-term visits.
If a convicted person is serving a sentence in a high-security correctional colony and is in normal conditions, then he is allowed to have 3 short-term and 3 long-term visits during the year; in easier conditions – 4 short-term and 4 long-term visits; under strict conditions – 2 short-term and 1 long-term visits.
If a convicted person is serving a sentence in a special regime correctional colony and is in normal conditions, then he is allowed to have 2 short-term and 2 long-term visits during the year; in easier conditions – 3 short-term and 3 long-term visits; under strict conditions - only 2 short-term visits.
If the convicted person is serving his sentence in prison for general mode, then he is allowed to have 2 short-term and 2 long-term visits during the year. In a maximum security prison, a convicted person is allowed only 2 short-term visits per year.
Convicted minors serving sentences in educational colonies are allowed to have during the year: under normal conditions - 8 short-term and 4 long-term visits; in easier conditions - 12 short-term and 4 long-term visits; under preferential conditions - an unlimited number of short-term dates and 6 long-term dates; under strict conditions - only 6 short-term visits.
Short-term visits are granted with relatives or other persons in the presence of a representative of the administration of the correctional institution. Long-term visits are granted with the right to live together with a spouse, parents, children, adoptive parents, adopted children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and with the permission of the head of the correctional institution - with other persons.
For short term or long dates No more than two adults can visit the convicted person at the same time, along with minor brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren of the convicted person.
Persons arriving on a meeting with a convicted person must have identification documents, as well as documents confirming their family ties with the convicted person: passport, military ID, identity card, birth certificate, marriage certificate, documents from the guardianship and trusteeship authorities. Persons arriving on a date, their clothes and belongings are searched. If a person arriving for a meeting refuses this procedure, he is not allowed a long meeting with the convicted person. In this case, instead of a long visit, he may be granted a short-term visit.
Persons arriving for a short-term meeting with a convicted person are not allowed to bring any products or things into the visiting room. For long dates, you are allowed to bring food (with the exception of wine, vodka and beer).
The first meeting may be granted to the convicted person immediately after his transfer from the quarantine department of the correctional institution to the detachment. A convicted person can be kept in a quarantine department from the first day of arrival at a correctional institution and up to 15 days. Subsequent visits are granted after a period of time equal to the number obtained by dividing 12 months by the number of visits (short-term and long-term) a convicted person is entitled to per year.
Upon a written application of the convicted person, he is allowed to replace a long visit with a short-term one, short-term or long-term visit - telephone conversation.
To receive legal assistance, convicts are granted visits with lawyers or other persons entitled to provide legal assistance, without limiting their number and lasting up to four hours. At the request of the convicted person, meetings with a lawyer are granted in private, out of earshot of third parties and without the use of technical means of listening.
Nikolay Severin
Most prisoners in Russian colonies have the right to long visits with close relatives. Their number depends on the type of regime, but no more than four times a year. Since the FSIN very often sends prisoners to serve their sentences thousands of kilometers from their places of residence, for loved ones the visit begins with a long, difficult trip. However, the physical difficulties are not comparable to the psychological and moral humiliation that the relatives of the convicted are subjected to when crossing the threshold of the colony. We publish testimonies of three women who came to visit their sons at OIK-36 (union of correctional colonies) in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Maria Petrova(name and surname have been changed for ethical reasons and for the safety of prisoners): “OIK-36 is a union of three colonies. Under one fence is a tuberculosis colony, special regime, strict regime. Rooms for long meetings are the same for everyone. From the 1st to the 10th - tuberculosis patients go. At our colony No. 5, where my son is imprisoned, visits begin from the 16th to the 30th. Nobody knows whether they treat the premises after tuberculosis patients or not. But we are all afraid of getting infected.
In all colonies of the Russian Federation, visiting rooms are signed in advance. The prisoner wrote a statement, wants to go on a date, he was allowed and they tell him the days when the date will be. He has the opportunity to call his parents and let them know. And people go, knowing that their son has permission and if the prisoner did not end up in the punishment cell, then the meeting will take place at the appointed time.
And there is no order here. Everyone arrives in unison. And I arrived exactly on the 16th, but only got a date on June 18th. There are 13 rooms, about 20 parents arrive, 13 people are let through, seven are told: “Go home.” Relatives travel for a whole week to get to this date. If you come from another city, they let you in, but they refuse to let the locals in, supposedly making some kind of concession. But this is not a way out, right?
How does all this happen? You arrive there at 6 a.m. and get in line. Around 9 o'clock the inspector comes, brings printed forms, you write a statement. Then we wait until one o'clock in the afternoon, until three o'clock in the afternoon. Although this day is already going on like a date. They are supposed to bring the prisoners at 9-10 o'clock, and we just arrived at about three o'clock in the afternoon. And you are not going empty-handed. You drag your bags there. Before you get to the visiting room, you walk into a huge room with tables and they tell you, “Get your groceries out of your bag.” And I had 13 bags. On dates, the number of products is not limited. If a transfer is required to a prisoner, then 20 kg can be taken to the zone.
You get everything, everything, everything onto the table. On this huge, long barracks table, three female inspectors simultaneously check three arrivals. I saw one mother, they launched her in front of me, and she became excited: “What are you doing, you monsters?!” Why did you turn everything upside down?” A man goes on a date for three days, he has his own items, toiletries, hygiene products, shampoo, toothpaste... And, imagine, they forced all this to be poured into plastic bags.
That is, it doesn’t matter - for yourself, for the prisoner, shampoos, creams, toothpaste, - pour everything into a plastic bag.
Moreover, you need to bring plastic bags with you; the colony does not provide them. Everyone already knows and carries a roll.
And this mother says: “What am I going to do with this shampoo?” And the employee answers her: “Well, make a hole in this plastic bag and pour it into the bottle again.” She says: “And the tooth…” - “Well, it’s okay, you can clean it through the bag.” This is what you spend money on so that they can all be dumped into bags?!
Vegetables - everything is cut. They also have some kind of wooden sticks, they use them to pierce tomatoes. Then they begin to rummage through the condensed milk with these sticks, then pour this condensed milk into bags, and pour honey into the bags too.
On the table there is a dirty rag and one board on which to cut... Soap is cut with one knife, meat is cut with the same knife, vegetables are cut with the same knife... Then the knife is wiped with a dirty rag and thrown on the table again. I had pills that I needed to take every day, so they tore this whole box apart, let her rummage through it.
I say: “Lord, is it really impossible to do an X-ray at an institution like the FSIN, where such money is found, like at the airport?!”
Bags are leaking. Still, they carry meat to cook during these three days, to feed the child with normal food, and to eat themselves. Starting from March, smoked sausage is not accepted, only raw smoked sausage is accepted. Raw smoked food doesn’t cost a ruble, but there are retired mothers. Then the meat is raw smoked in vacuum packages... They let them cut it all. And everything is depressurized. Plus, you’re also carrying things. And then they say: “Gather everything!” - and with his hands he pushes into one pile - clothes, bed, tomato, sausage, everything cut up. And then you stand there for an hour, figuring out what to put where. We grabbed it and carried it to the meeting room.”
Irina Sidorova: “All the products were cut - the sausage was cut in a vacuum, the cucumbers and tomatoes were pierced. They cut tomatoes, cucumbers, and sausage with one knife, and dipped wooden sticks into yoghurts and mixed them in bottles. We brought meat and raw smoked sausage. I asked about meat - yes, it can be done in a vacuum. It has a shelf life of a month, but after opening - three days. Imagine, we were there for three days. My pension is 10 thousand, my husband’s is 13 thousand. We didn’t have a refrigerator in the meeting room, and it was all gone. And all the tomatoes, cucumbers that were pierced and cut - everything was gone, worth more than two thousand products. But, excuse me, we count every penny.”
Andrey Babushkin
Human rights activist, member of the Human Rights Council
“These cutting and piercing actions of the colony staff are illegal. Yes, we can talk about random checks if there is information about the possibility of bringing in prohibited items. Total damage to objects, which leads to them losing their consumer qualities or deteriorating faster, is an abuse of right.
Maria Petrova: “While I was collecting my things, the mothers, who had already gone to the visiting rooms, shouted: “What are you doing?!” Are you completely crazy?!” I later understood why they were shouting.
We go into the meeting room. Each inspector has video recorders on his chest. The female inspector says to me: “Let’s go into the room.” Let's go to the room. She says, “Strip naked.” I say: “Please tell me, is what you are saying now legal?” She: “This is a restricted area, this is an order, this is legal. You might be bringing something in."
And she made me take off my dress, my swimming trunks, rip the pads, lift my chest, raise my stomach, let down my hair, and sit down. Other mothers said that they were forced to spread their buttocks.
In front of us, a woman was driven to hysterics. Some strange gynecologist examined her, as if he was looking for something, and then she had a heart attack, they called an ambulance. If you don’t agree to such an examination, you will be deprived of a visit.
I told the employee: “Are you searching me with the DVR turned on, and is there someone watching on that wire?” She replied: “Well, let's not argue. Take off your shoes." I'm filming. And I had very expensive shoes, and in them, where the heel is, there is a heart on the inside of the insole, it is sewn in, and it gives softness to my feet. She says: “Oh, what is this? What are you carrying?" I grabbed this shoe and let’s dig out this heart with my finger. I say: “What are you doing?! The shoes cost more than forty thousand, if you damage them now, you’ll pay.” She holds the shoe: “Yes, wow, the shoes are so expensive! Haute couture? But we also wear Yudashkin’s uniforms!” I say: “Well, you’ll wear it for life!”
Irina Sidorova: “I was subjected to such humiliation... I am 59 years old, I am a respected person in my village, and my dignity was simply trampled upon. What all this cost me, no one knows except my husband. It was June 18th. They took me into a room, and the employee patted me down. She said: “Take off your clothes.” I say: “What, should I take off my dress?” She said to take everything off and stay naked. She sat and watched me undress, how I unbuttoned my dress and took it off, like a bra, and took off my swimming trunks. Well, excuse me, of course, I use pads every day. “Show me, peel me off.” I made this gasket come off. Then she made me turn around naked from all sides, told me to lift my breasts... I suffered so much, it was such a humiliation for me. This is horror, this is horror...
I don’t know the name of the employee who undressed me. She's stocky, plump, dark hair short. She is 40 years old.
Did I tell the colony staff that their actions were illegal? When you go on a date with your son, you don’t think that you will be humiliated. They all have DVRs on their chests. I was told that this video was later watched in the colony. One grandmother, who came to visit her grandson, was forced to sit down naked, and then she could not get up.
And the husband was searched by a male employee. He simply ran the device along the body, and that’s it. No one stripped naked. Only women were subjected to such humiliation.
Then, when at the exit everyone was indignant and demanded that the head of IK-5 colony Eremin come out, I told him, exaggerating, of course: “I had to wave a gasket in front of my nose.” Of course she was rude. There was a lot of indignation from everyone. And he stands: “I can’t do anything. We have had cases of drug trafficking. Write to Moscow." I say, “Why can’t you do anything? What do you suspect me of? An inspection is an inspection, but you carried out the search with bias. Maybe someone else can restore order here, since you can’t?”
Andrey Babushkin
Human rights activist, member of the Human Rights Council
— A full search is provided for convicts when there are sufficient grounds to believe that the person has prohibited items or items seized from circulation in the colony. The same actions against relatives are completely illegal, since relatives are not persons serving sentences. And if there is reason to believe that a relative has hidden some prohibited item on himself, for example, drugs, of course, the administration has the right to organize such a search, but this is either within the framework of an operational search activity or as part of a criminal case. There is a criminal case - there is a search. There is no criminal case or there is no information that is the basis for initiating a case - there is no search. If this is done simply as a preventive measure, no matter what happens, then in this case the actions of the administration fit either into a disciplinary offense or into a criminal offense under the article on abuse of official powers.
If everyone who came on a date was searched, then in this case there can be no question of any operational activity. This is a mockery of people.
Maria Petrova: “Now about the size of the visiting room. Two or three go on a date with the convicted person. The width of the room is 1.5 meters, the length is 2.90. There are two locally made beds with a mattress on which 150 people died: width - 60 cm and length - 1.87 meters. And how can three or four fit in there? As a result, my husband slept on the sofa in the hallway, half bent. There are bars in the room and the windows don't open at all. We were suffocating there. Instead of curtains, there are plastic curtains for the bathroom.
Photo: photoXPress People began to complain that food was spoiling because refrigerators were not working. There are only two stoves working, all the bathrooms are clogged. In the kitchen there is a huge 100-liter polyethylene tank without a lid, waste is thrown into it, and it sits there day and night. The stench is terrible.
We walked back after three days. At the exit to the zone, the prisoners' food is again checked to see who is entitled to receive the 20 kilograms. At our entrance, all these products were checked, everything was dumped on this dirty table, and the cut products that had already been checked at the entrance were cut again - here is this depressurized sausage lying in a non-working refrigerator, which is already all glued together...
Meat that has already disappeared. Honey, condensed milk, all this is pierced again, poured from bag to bag, the same procedure goes back, and the products turn into pig swill, into mush.
I watched all this and said: “Girls, what are you doing, why are you doing this? This costs money, pensioners bought it with their last money.” And they told me: “That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
Well, after our boys were released, they started checking us again. Again we have to dump everything, right down to our dirty underwear.”
Tamara Ivanova(name changed for ethical reasons and for the safety of prisoners): “The employee told me to put everything in my bag on the table. I posted it. And in a small bag I had dirty panties. She asks: “What do you have here?” I say: “Excuse me, there was nowhere to wash them, it’s dirty.” underwear" She: “Open it.” Well, I freaked out, opened it and threw it all right on the table.”
Maria Petrova: “On the way back they harassed me specifically so that I would not take a complaint from someone. I say: “Tell me what you are looking for, maybe I’ll give it to you.” She rummages through my papers and says: “Maybe you stole our dishes.” All the laundry is dirty, the pads in the box are turned over, the bottom of the bag is almost broken, every little thing, every corner is checked. Then they say: “Come into the room, we will check you. People generally went too far. Again under the camera, show again in the same way, tear the pads, spread your buttocks, lift your chest, lift your stomach, let your hair down...
You come out of there like you’ve been raped, you know, in the literal sense of the word.”
Irina Sidorova: “When we came back, we also shook everything up, shook out every rag, shook out all the documents. My son received a document from the European Court English language. He says: “Mom, I know what is written here, but I need a literal translation,” and he gave me this paper. They took it from me and said: “It’s in a foreign language, I can’t give it to you.” I say: “Will you take it for yourself?” - She: “Yes, I’ll leave it here.” It’s strange: it means that since it’s a foreign language, I can’t stand it? I gave it to them."
Well, roughly speaking, can a police officer shoot? Maybe. But when a killer with a machine gun comes at him. And if he sees a boy in the sandbox who has spilled sand past the sandbox and refuses to remove the sand, he cannot shoot at him...
Afterword
The Krasnoyarsk zones are not unique in their desire to humiliate women who come to visit their relatives. Visitors were subjected to biased searches in colonies Sverdlovsk region and Udmurtia. One of the women, who went through a humiliating body search in Udmurtia, turned to local human rights activists in January of this year and wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office. In his response, the prosecutor fully justified the actions of the colony employees, referring to a certain order of the Ministry of Justice dated March 20, 2015 No. 64-dsp “On the procedure for conducting searches and inspections in correctional institutions of the penitentiary system and adjacent territories where security requirements are established,” according to before a long visit, a full search is mandatory. “A full search is carried out with the removal of clothing (with the exception of underwear, which is subject to inspection without its complete removal), headdress and shoes,” the prosecutor said in the response, citing the order of the Ministry of Justice.
Human rights activists refer to another order of the Ministry of Justice - No. 268-dsp of August 25, 2006, which allows personal searches of relatives who have arrived for a long visit only if they are suspected of bringing prohibited items into the zone. In addition, employees who made the decision to conduct an inspection are required to draw up an inspection protocol.
Krasnoyarsk jailers are not just carrying out a secret order of the Ministry of Justice of 2015, violating the state’s constitutional guarantees to protect the dignity of the individual, they have improved this order: they are conducting searches, not inspections. Why should relatives of prisoners take off their underpants down to their knees when they can be taken off completely?!
Andrey Babushkin
Human rights activist, member of the Human Rights Council
“We have been fighting with the Federal Penitentiary Service for 20 years now so that they stop the wholesale search of relatives who come for long visits. “But the actions of the FSIN directly depend on what is happening in the state: if democratic processes are underway in the country, then searches are reduced to a minimum, and if the screws are tightened, one prohibitory law after another is adopted, then searches become total.
Human life is unpredictable. It also happens that one of your relatives or friends ends up in a pre-trial detention center (SIZO) or a correctional colony (CI). In this article, we will look at how to get a date in a pre-trial detention center or correctional facility and what needs to be done for this.
Dating as a legal term
A meeting is a meeting of a suspected or convicted citizen with relatives or other people with the official permission of the institution where the specified citizen is located. The right to a visit is spelled out at the legislative level - in Article 395 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) of the Russian Federation.
Types of dates
Visits with a detained citizen can be of 2 types:
- Short term, lasting up to 3 hours in a pre-trial detention center, and up to 4 hours in a correctional institution. In a temporary detention facility (IVS), visits are not allowed in principle. The meeting is permitted on any day other than the one designated by the sanitary officer at the given institution.
- Long-term visits can be granted to a citizen only after a court has passed a verdict. Therefore, this type of visit can take place either in a pre-trial detention center, with the permission of its head, or in a correctional institution (PI). A long visit to a correctional institution is granted for 3 or 5 days, depending on the permission obtained.
List of persons who are allowed visits
Visits with a convicted person in a pre-trial detention center are allowed to a limited number of persons:
- lawyer;
- close relatives, no more than two at a time. It is worth noting that minor relatives are also allowed to visit, provided that they are included in the official permission to visit from an authorized official;
- a notary, if necessary, to prepare any documents.
According to the internal regulations of pre-trial detention centers and correctional institutions, the following persons are not allowed to visit:
- under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
- not having an identification document with them;
- not specified in the official permission to visit.
Visit in pre-trial detention center before trial
Until a citizen is found guilty, he awaits a court decision in a pre-trial detention center. Visits in this institution are allowed only with relatives, a lawyer, and a notary. In accordance with paragraph 139 of the internal regulations of the pre-trial detention center, meetings can only be short-term and no more than 2 times a month.
note
Prison in Russia differs in the conditions of detention of convicts - general, special and strict regime. Those, in turn, are divided into light, normal and strict conditions of detention. You can compare the difference in this
Permission to visit a pre-trial detention center can be given by the following officials:
- investigator, if investigative actions have not yet been completed;
- a judge, if the investigation is completed and the case is transferred to court (clause 18 of Federal Law No. 103-FZ of July 1, 1995);
- the head of the pre-trial detention center when the court has already passed a sentence;
- the appeal board, if the case is referred for appeal (by the way, you can read about the time frame for considering an appeal)
After receiving permission, the citizen who requested a visit must appear at the pre-trial detention center with permission and his passport. It is worth noting that pre-trial detention center employees have the right to inspect a person who comes to a meeting with a prisoner.
Directly at the pre-trial detention center, visits are granted on a first-come, first-served basis. You can sign up for this queue via the Internet through the electronic queue website, or during a personal visit to the pre-trial detention center through the terminal. If this institution does not have such technical equipment, then in this case you need to take a place in the live queue.
Procedure for obtaining permission
To obtain permission to visit a pre-trial detention center or correctional facility, you must write an application. When a detainee is in a pre-trial detention center, the application must be addressed to the person in whose jurisdiction the detainee is currently located, as stated in the previous paragraph. If the convicted person is already in the colony, the application for a long visit to the colony must be addressed to the head of the colony.
The application for a date must contain:
- position and full name of the addressee;
- Full name and passport details of the applicant;
- Full name and prisoner, indication of the degree of relationship or the nature of the social connection, for example, if a meeting is required to draw up documents with the help of a notary;
- request for a visit;
- contact information to receive a response to the application;
- date of application and personal signature.
After submitting an application for a short-term visit to a pre-trial detention center, or a short-term or long-term visit to a correctional facility, you must wait for a written response. The answer can be either permission to date or refusal. If investigative actions have not yet been completed, the refusal may be motivated by the interests of the investigation.
A visit permit is a document certified by an official seal, which specifies who can come on a date and what conditions must be met.
Application methods
An application for permission to visit a pre-trial detention center or a correctional facility can be submitted in several ways.
Personally
Through the reception area of the pre-trial detention center or correctional facility. The fact of filing an application must be recorded in a special journal of incoming correspondence.
by mail by Russian Post. The shipment must be submitted with the option of notification of delivery to the addressee.
Online
Through the official website of the GUFSIN (Main Directorate federal service execution of punishments) of the Russian Federation of the region where the convict is located. You can send an electronic request for a meeting via e-mail or using the site’s option for ordering meetings with convicts. Important: not all pre-trial detention centers and correctional institutions operate this service.
To find out if you can make a request for a date at a particular institution via the Internet, you need to:
- go to the official website of the GUFSIN of the desired region,
- In the menu on the left, select the “Subordinate institutions” index,
- in the page that appears, find the desired pre-trial detention center or correctional facility,
- view information about the electronic services provided by this institution.
Typically, the page will include a downloadable application form and/or an option to apply for a date, information about work hours, and contact information.
Citizens who have received the certificate also have the right to a visit. Watch the video to see how it goes:
After applying for a date using one of the selected methods, you need to wait for a response. The answer can be given using any means of communication, but must be confirmed in writing. If a citizen who wishes to receive a visit is in the same locality as a pre-trial detention center or correctional facility, then the optimal method of application is personal. If the prisoner and the citizen who wants to see him are located at a territorial distance, then the more convenient option would be to mail or submit an application through the GUFSIN website.
Any questions you may have can be asked in the comments to the article.
The general rules for granting convicts the right to visits are prescribed in Art. 89 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, which says:
"1. Those sentenced to imprisonment are granted short-term visits lasting four hours and long-term visits lasting three days on the territory of the correctional institution. In the cases provided for by this Code, convicts may be granted long-term visits with accommodation outside the correctional institution lasting five days. In this case, the head of the correctional institution determines procedure and place of the meeting.
2. Short-term visits are granted with relatives or other persons in the presence of a representative of the administration of the correctional institution. Long-term visits are granted with the right to live together with a spouse, parents, children, adoptive parents, adopted children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and with the permission of the head of the correctional institution - with other persons.
3. Convicts, at their request, are allowed to replace a long visit with a short-term, short-term or long-term visit with a telephone conversation, and in educational colonies, a long-term visit with accommodation outside the correctional institution with a short-term visit with going outside the educational colony.
4. To receive legal assistance, convicted persons are granted visits with lawyers or other persons entitled to provide legal assistance, without limiting their number, up to four hours. At the request of the convicted person, meetings with a lawyer are granted in private, out of earshot of third parties and without the use of technical means of listening."
The procedure for providing convicts with visits is described in more detail in Section 14 of the Internal Regulations of the penitentiary institution:
Convicts, as a rule, are released from work for a period of long visits followed by subsequent or previous service (clause 69 of the Rules);
The first meeting may be granted to the convicted person immediately after the convict arrives from the quarantine department to the detachment, regardless of whether he had a previous meeting in places of detention. If there is a right to short-term and long-term visits, the type of the first is determined by the convicted person. Subsequent visits are granted after a period equal to the quotient of twelve months divided by the number of visits of a given type entitled to a convicted person per year (clause 70 of the Rules);
The duration of visits may be reduced by the administration at the insistence of the persons on the date. Combining dates or splitting one date into several is not allowed (clause 72 of the Rules);
The convicted person is allowed long-term or short-term visits simultaneously with no more than two adults, together with whom may be minor brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren of the convicted person (clause 74 of the Rules);
Persons arriving on a meeting with convicts are not allowed to bring any products or things into the short-term visiting rooms. For long visits, it is allowed to bring food (with the exception of wine, vodka and beer) (clause 80 of the Rules);
To receive legal assistance, convicts are provided with meetings with lawyers or other persons entitled to provide legal assistance. At the request of the convicted person, visits are granted in private, out of earshot of third parties and without the use of technical means of listening. Such dates are not counted among the number of dates established by law, their number is not limited, they last up to 4 hours and only during the hours from getting up to lights out (clause 83 of the Rules).
One day in the summer, either a camel on its hump, or a magpie on its tail, brought news that in one correctional center one person was allowed to paint. That is, a short-term meeting with a convicted person.
Short-term date, this is a date for four to five hours with communication through bars. There are also long-term ones, for three days. The creator has had mercy on me from the last ones, for those who have been there say it’s still tough. They lock you in a room for three days, and all this time the prisoner and those who come on a date sit within four walls. It may not be a big deal for someone who is sitting there, but it is a little stressful for those who have arrived. Well, okay, I wasn’t there and that’s good. But in a short time I’ll tell you how it feels.
Correctional Facility. Harsh and not glamorous
In order not to go empty-handed, you need to buy food. The permitted limit is 20 kg. There is a lot that can be transferred, but there are also limitations. For example, it’s not allowed in iron cans, so we took condensed milk in plastic. If you are carrying a watermelon, then (depending on what shift) they can cut it and see what’s inside. Same with big pieces cheese, butter, whatnot. The girls were standing behind me, and they brought five boxes of Borjomi in glass. I really don’t know whether they accepted it or not.
You don’t have to take the products with you, but buy them at a local store. True, there isn’t much choice there, but you don’t have to drag it anywhere. I paid, gave the saleswoman a piece of paper with permission to transfer and that’s it. They will then deliver everything to the prisoner themselves.
Local store
Each bag, bag, and packaging is carefully inspected and further allowed or not. If “no”, then no one argues, they silently take it back.
The room near the transfer window is a tiny room chock full of people, bags, packages and boxes. There are few seats, so some people stand, others sit on their trunks.
While I was standing in line, I filled out the necessary paperwork for a date and a package. And, since the line was barely moving, he quickly rushed into the building opposite to sign permission for the meeting. I had to wait about twenty minutes for the head of the colony, but everything was fine. I signed without any questions.
In general, one cannot say that everyone there is gloomy, but one cannot say that they are joyfully friendly either. More like this – evenly indifferent. Although the atmosphere of bondage is felt and oppressive.
I returned to the transmission reception window and it was my turn. I laid out the bags, little bags, and the inspector inspected everything and accepted everything.
That's all, now on to a date.
True, I had to hang around the gate for about an hour, waiting for someone to invite me. Invited. The entry system is a lock system. That is, until one door closes, the other will not open. There, behind the first door, along the right wall, behind bars, is the first control. We signed up for the register, handed over our cell phones and, accompanied by a security guard, moved on. The door slammed behind me and the next one opened immediately. And so four doors. The sound of the door slamming behind you is as if a sledgehammer is hammering the last nail into your freedom. Doors with electric locks are heavy and harsh. Made to last. Actually like everything else.
After the last door there was a long corridor with doors right side. Suddenly a guard came out of one door, we (I was not alone, but I’m telling the story in the first person) slowed down and I was politely invited to go through that door. I go in, look around - toilet! How to eat a toilet. It’s strange, I think, why did he bring me here? But don't think anything bad. This is called (probably) personal search. I raised my hands, they patted me down, not very carefully, and led me back into the corridor. The fellow traveler was also searched in the next room.
Next is another door, albeit wooden, but with a lock. I walk in and there it is, the visiting room. A long room, partitioned lengthwise with bars and plexiglass. Divided across into compartments. The size of the “compartment” is small, you can’t fit two people, so you had to stand behind your back.
You can't take photos, that's why they take away your phones. But we had with us, and the temptation was very great
There are telephone handsets for conversations, but, to be honest, we didn’t really use them, because we can hear everything anyway.
... Five minutes later they brought in, we’ll call him, Misha. (Special signs are blurred out, because..) 
Still, there is some kind of imprint on the faces of the inmates. It seems that it doesn’t look bad and the face is rounded and the wrinkles even seem to have smoothed out, but still... Something is wrong.
... A four-hour date is a lot, because after two hours there is nothing left to talk about. You sit and stare blankly through the bars. And from there they look at you. Only then did I think of knocking on the closed door and asking if it was possible to go early?
There were two dates in the room, me and two other women were communicating with ours. It turned out that the date can be ended earlier, but someone alone cannot. That is, everyone who is currently having a date must leave the premises. I talked to the women and they agreed. Apparently I got fed up too.
Going beyond the barbed wire, after the heavy spirit of specific premises, is an amazing pleasure. Immediately the air seems tasty and the greenery of summer becomes more attractive. But I mean, nothing at all, how much is there? Spent three hours. And not in the zone itself. And people sit there for years and years.
No, I don’t feel sorry for them, the absolute majority are there for the cause. It’s just, as they say, “You can’t say no to jail or money”
Here it shows what is written on paper that cannot be said out loud.
And in conclusion, a short video of the action around the colony. Nothing special, just to get an idea of the atmosphere.
Good luck and freedom to everyone. Take care of yourself.
