According to the King's College London’s International Centre for Prison Studies, Kazakhstan ranks 16th in the world with index 378 prisoners per 100.000 (24.kg, April 22, 2008).
Surely, detention conditions at prisons are very harsh, at best. The convicted struck many times against detention conditions, including committing to mass self-injuries. State of crime in colony-settlements is getting worse. There is two-time increase in the number of crimes in 2007 in comparison with 2006 (from 30 to 69). 4 extra-heinous and 18 heinous crimes were committed (Regnum, May 8, 2008).
Big flaws and problems are in the system. In April 2007 in two Kazakh prisons two cases of mass self-injuries were registered simultaneously. The main reason was the detainees’ complains over actions of the entity’s administration. On April 15, 74 detainees in the LA-155/8 Colony of the Alma-Ata Province’s settlement of Zarechnoe injured themselves by disposable shaving blades due to disagreement with detention conditions, 12 of which were delivered to Kapshagay Hospital for receive first aid. Later, another case of mass self-injuries of 23 detainees from UK-161/12 prison in Arkalyk became known (Regnum, April 28, 2007).
Threatening trend for Kazakhstan is a jointing of the Kazakh organized crime with international one. In September 2007 two citizens of Georgia were arrested in Almaty on suspicion of preparation of mass disobediences in Kazakhstan’s prisons. Accordingly to the Kazakh Ministry of Interior, they were invited by one businessman in Karaganda, who “had broad contacts within the criminal world”. Some day after the incident there were mass disobediences in the investigation-isolation prison (SIZO) SI-13 of the town of Taraz. Two officers got stabbed and slit-like wounds and several detainees disemboweled themselves. The convinced demanded indulgence of the prison regime and their relatives placed unapproved pickets before the prison’s walls (CA Voice of Freedom, October 19, 2007).
In March this year another two leaders of Georgian organized crime were detained in Almaty, who indented to launch mass disobediences in prisons and set up “thievish traditions”. Today over 10 criminals from Georgia are detained in Kazakh prisons (Kazinform, March 19, 2008).
In April 2008 in the Jambyl Province’s prison two detainees were injured by their cellmate, one of them died later (Kazakhstan Today, April 2, 2008).
Human rights defenders believe that despite of reforms in the country’s criminal-prison system, the situation worsens. Director of the Charter for Human Rights Fund Zhemis Turmagambetova thinks that toughening of the current legislature in March 2007 has changed situation to worst. The article on insubordination to the legitimate requirements of the management criminalizes every attempt of detainees’ protests. And norms about obligatory “confidential” HIV test, forced tuberculosis treatment for freed from detention, on interior organs’ control over those put on probation and a number of others arouse anxiety. Accordingly to Turmagambetova, the law “will have serious and long-term negative consequences”. Besides, last years' reshuffle in the Kazakh criminal system forces good experts to leave their jobs: some were “sent away”, some went away themselves.
Several foreign human rights organizations also claim that the current Kazakh criminal legislature “does not correspond to the international standards and obligations Kazakhstan took. Some provisions of the law cause a serious alarm and are evidence of a backoff in improvement of the prison system. Head of the Kazakh International Bureau for Human Rights Yevgeny Jovtis reminded that “the whole penitentiary system of Kazakhstan is a heiress of the Soviet one”, and “conditions of detention are far from the international standards” (Regnum, April 28, 2007).
In May 2008 the Kazakh Prosecutor General’s Office detected a prison (LA-155/12) during the examination of colony-settlements in Almaty and Almaty Province, where the convicted lived in awful conditions. “The colony-settlement has no administrative building, storage facilities, a boiler-house, and other necessary buildings, that allows prisons to function normally. And remaining buildings where the convicted live, eat and receive medical treatment, are neither listed nor registered in documents. Detention conditions do not meet requirements of the criminal legislature and healthcare norms; they do not meet the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the United Nations Congress in 1955” (Kazinform, May 7, 2008).
So-called «werewolves with shoulder-straps» rule a number of prisons in Kazakhstan. In May 2008 there was a trial in Kokshetau against a former head of an investigation-isolation prison and his subordinates. It became known that in the end of a day at the Kokshetau SIZO Vladimir Svidersky, a businessman, contrary to all rules, was led out to the cell where recidivists detained to have a “heart-to-heart talk”. Threatening with physical violence against his son and spouse, he was asked to give up his money. Worrying about his family, he gave extortionists US$3 thousand, then US$25 thousand. The money allegedly were meant for improvement of the convicted’ detention conditions. As investigation established, the racket flourished at silent consent of the head and his people and confidant prisoners, who decided to make a profit out of the businessman. Head of the SIZO was sentenced to 11 years in prison, two of his subordinates – to 7 and 11 years (Express-K, May 14, 2008).
Prepared for UN Committee on Torture
