The Council of Europe anti-torture Committee (CPT) records a decrease in the number of prisoners in Ukrainian prisons. This is stated in the report of the Council of Europe Committee on the Prevention of Torture.
CPT has published a new report following its special visit to Ukraine in August 2020. Purpose of the visit: to find out how prisoners are treated in penitentiary institutions, including those sentenced to life imprisonment.
The report notes a positive trend towards a decrease in the number of prisoners. At the time of the visit, the total number of prisoners in Ukraine was approximately 51,000 (that is, the prisoner rate was about 143 per 100,000 inhabitants), compared to approximately 57,000 during the CPT’s periodic visits in 2017.
However, the CPT noted that the number of persons held in pretrial detention facilities remains quite high. The report says this indicates the likely overuse of pretrial detention in Ukraine.
In August 2020, the delegation visited colonies no. 25 and no. 100 in the Kharkiv region, which the CPT had visited earlier, and for the first time colony no. 77 in Berdiansk. The delegation also visited pre-trial detention centers (SIZOs) in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, as well as Temnovsky prison hospital No. 100.
The Committee also expresses serious concerns about the practice of using individual prisoners as “duty prisoners”. Officials said that only correctional staff should be responsible for order and security in prisons.
The Council of Europe calls on the Ukrainian authorities to continue reforms of the penitentiary system.
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