Show women's bath in the colony. How life works in the women's colony (22 photos). What is a prisoner

There are six women's colonies in Kazakhstan, the total number of women and girls serving sentences as of August 1 this year is 2901. Women's correctional colony UG-157/11 of Atyrau opened three years ago, with a total of 234 prisoners from four regions. Correspondents of Vox Populi visited the women's colony to tell and show readers how they live in a penal colony and who they are - the women whom the court deprived of their liberty.

1. All women's colonies in the country are of general regime, except for the colony in Karaganda, where “walkers” (prison jargon) are kept - repeatedly convicted women

2. Twice a day, convicts gather on the parade ground for inspection. Absence is considered a gross violation, for which they can be put in a punishment cell. Such a mark in the personal file is undesirable, as it affects parole (parole) and transfer to a colony-settlement

3. After checking, all women disperse to their jobs or squads. White scarves are a mandatory part of the uniform

4. The conditions of stay in UG-157/11 are as close as possible to a standard women's hostel. Five squads, in which approximately 50 women each, are placed in their own blocks. In each block, except for the bedrooms, there is a common teahouse, a storeroom, a guest room. There is a shared bath, laundry and ironing

5. Four women live in each room. According to the charter, they do not have the right to sit or lie down on the bed from nine in the morning until seven in the evening. It is austere and smells of bleach here.

6. Each detachment has its own foreman, an authoritative person who knows how to eliminate internal conflict situations and maintain peaceful coexistence among several dozen women with a difficult fate and character. Brigadiers of detachments or, more simply, "bumps" are people with untouchable authority. The brigadier has a deputy, a santroika (sanitary troika), a foreman-orderly, assistants responsible for the supply room, for the kitchen, for the tea house and for the leisure and sports section (SDS)

7. In the relaxation room, convicts can be alone with themselves. Three psychologists constantly monitor the well-being of prisoners. For every convict individual approach. On the zone emotional condition women are extremely unstable

8. In the evenings, women gather in front of the TV. They watch news and TV shows, the most popular are Turkish. It should be noted that the well-established life of the colony largely depends on the attitude of the convicted women themselves. The paintings on the walls were made by the prisoners themselves.

9. Kapterka. One convict was released today. Employees escorted her to the station. The head of the zone contacted the Aktobe Center for Adaptation and Rehabilitation of Convicts and asked for help with accommodation and employment. Despite the loud laughter and joy, anxiety and notes of fear slip through the liberated woman: “how will everything turn out in the wild?”

10. The most demanded product in the zone is payphone cards. Prisoners may not see their loved ones for years, as the families of many women live in neighboring regions, and it is not always financially possible to come for a long-term visit. And so they keep in touch through the phone. But there is a limit to such conversations. Each convicted person has the right to 15 minutes of telephone conversation per day.

11. The convicts are fully supported by the state. In addition, they have transmissions from relatives. In the local shop once a month they can buy everything they need. Cigarettes are second in importance. Almost everyone smokes, regardless of age and position. They don't quit here, they start smoking here. There is no other way to calm down

12. Here, in the zone, there is a special atmosphere - sincerity or falsehood is immediately determined. Women are kept by "families", family members are not given offense. The head of the family is the queen, the rest are princesses

13. The bath unit works almost every day. The administration went to meet the prisoners and allowed them to equip a shower room with the detachments themselves

15. Laundry and ironing units are well equipped

16. Medical unit. Almost every second woman has serious illnesses

17. Hall of the quarantine block on the second floor. Now only one woman is undergoing adaptation. After arriving at the institution, the prisoner spends 15 days in the quarantine department. Psychologists, doctors, and the educational department immediately begin to work with her, after which she is transferred to one of the detachments on a regular regime, on which she stays for six months. It differs from the facilitated one in that dates take place every three months. There are more privileges in the light mode - permission for monthly transfers, a date of up to 3 days every two months, there are incentive meetings and transfers

18. Despite the spacious dining room, each squad enters at its own time

20. When we were filming in the dining room, one woman, leaving, shouted: “Come more often, they will feed us better,” and another added: “The food is normal, you can’t please everyone here and they bring us transfers, have you seen full refrigerators?”

21. Fresh bread smells far outside the bakery. In colony UG-157/11 they bake the best bread among all zones of the country

22. The head baker, Ira, also worked in the bakery outside. Baking bread is her calling.

23. According to the baker, the secret of delicious bread is in the good flour of the first grade of the Kostanay region and in the humane, conscientious attitude of the bakers

24. On a shift, Ira with six assistants hand over 1000 rolls, provide for their own and neighboring male colony

25. Baker is one of the most prestigious and paid jobs in the colony. The chief baker receives 23,000 tenge

26. Every second woman has a debt to the state - lawsuits, state fees, legal costs. Therefore, many people are interested in getting paid work. The administration is constantly working on the issue of employment among convicts, of all prisoners only 60 women work. Soon the colony plans to open a fish shop

27. There is a small sewing shop for 34 women, in which clothes are sewn for prisoners in male colonies. They do not refuse third-party orders here either: overalls for hospitals, for oil companies. In addition, there are detachments of household servants with a salary of 21,000 tenge - kitchen workers, janitors, foremen of detachments, workers of a bath and laundry plant, a librarian

28. At the correctional institution there is a college where they teach in such specialties as a seamstress, cutter, confectioner, cook, hairdresser. This year, diplomas were awarded to 87 convicts

29. The prison library is constantly updated, there is an agreement on this with the state library

30. Demand for books is high - almost everyone reads, mostly fiction

31. A few books on religious topics. This year, 60 women kept the orazu at first, but due to the hot summer (air conditioners and fans are not allowed), 30 fasting remained.

32. The colony has a Sports and Leisure Section (SSS), which includes a library, acrobatics courses and, of course, the organization of cultural events. This institution hosts the best and most costumed concerts of any zone.

33. The foreman of the first detachment, Bibigul, where the SDS belongs, admits that a lot of effort has been invested in order to achieve such a level of the show. The administration willingly meets halfway, gives the opportunity to train, allocates money, provides training videos

36. Prisoners make costumes and decorations with their own hands, they can sew ball gowns from ribbons and pieces

37. In the evenings they play intellectual game"Field of Dreams"

38. There are several girls in the SDS whose sports and dance data meet the requirements of the section

39. Olga - fizorg (organizer of physical education) and dance director of the SDS, age - 32 years. Article 259 - drugs.

She served over seven years. Only 2 years and 10 months left before the call. He does not like to talk about his personal life. In another institution, she was a persistent violator, so she did not pass on parole. Here, in UG - 166/11 - she right person, master - golden hands: an electrician, a carpenter and a specialist in welding and installation works. I learned all this in the zone

40. In addition, Olga successfully leads the acrobatics section

41. Katya is engaged in acrobatics and dancing in the SSD. Age 32 years. Article 259 - drugs. Term - 11 years, served 4 years 4 months.

In Aktau, where she lived, she had her own small clothing store. She and her friend often flew to Turkey for goods. Then I decided to bring ecstasy tablets, not for sale, but for personal use. Now her two daughters are in the care of a 63-year-old retired mother. The last time she saw them two and a half years ago, mom does not have the opportunity to bring her daughters for a long-term date. Now she only sees in the photo how her daughters grow up. Katya understood for sure that not a single pleasure in life is worth exchanging it for the opportunity to raise her own children. In three years, she hopes for parole. After the term ends, she wants to devote herself to her daughters. Correspondence with convicted men is not uncommon in the colony. But Katya no longer wants to start a relationship. There, in freedom, everything is easier. A man loved you, loved you, and then stopped loving you, but this disappointment is hard to bear even in the wild. And here, in the zone, even with a howl of a she-wolf, there is nothing to close the void. Therefore, she crushed all female feelings in herself and only dreams of seeing her children more often - at least once every six months.

42. The approximate age of the staff of the prison administration is from 20 to 30 years. 90% is women's team As a rule, the majority are not married. Permanent employment at work does not allow many to engage in personal life

43. Head of the detachment Botagoz Nurkhanova, 28 years old. Works since the opening of the colony.

“When I first came here to work, I thought: “What am I doing here?” It was really scary, says Botagoz. – The turning point happened when I had to morally support one prisoner. After you realize that they are ordinary women who just need understanding

44. Prisoners address Botagoz with the word "mother", so symbolically they call all the heads of the detachments. Of all the employees of the administration, the chiefs of the detachments are closest to the convicts. Together with the foreman, he coordinates and monitors compliance with the regime. Communications between "moms" and convicts in this zone are primarily of a human nature. Broken women's fate some prisoners are sympathetic and understanding from their guards. Over time, you practically have to live with the problems of your wards, write their characteristics, represent them in court. "Moms" - a link between convicts and senior officers

45. The administration solicits, writes positive characteristics of convicts with exemplary behavior. But nonetheless, the last word always up to the judge. Many do not go through the courts, there are enough reasons for this: outstanding debts, absence or vice versa, a large number of incentives, a short term of imprisonment, serious convictions. The most common court reply: “How is it different from other convicts?”

46. ​​The main articles for which women fall here are: 259 - sale, possession and distribution of drugs, 177 - fraud and 96 - domestic murder, and much less often, infanticide

47. The photo shows a copy of the SMS from the partner of one of the convicts, he sent these messages to her on the day of the trial. The girl took the blame of her boyfriend on herself, at first she went as an accomplice. As a result, he is serving 5 years for apartment fraud. The convict admits her guilt, but being within the walls of the colony she is trying to get the person who pushed her to commit fraud to jail

48. Prisoners have the right to visits: short visits of two, four hours and long-term visits of three days. There is also an opportunity to see the convicts on the open day

49. Inspector in the screening and visiting room (KDS) Gulim Kushenova accepts documents from a man who came for a long-term visit with his wife

- Most often they visit convicts - Kazakhs, - says Gulim. - They come with children, relatives. Bring food, clothes, detergents

50. At the entrance to the women's colony there is a stand with photographs of things prohibited for transfer.

51. Hall of the meeting place - a room without a hint of gloom. All furniture - cabinets, tables, is done right there, without leaving the zone. Visitors and convicts are provided with all the conditions for a long meeting: a separate room, kitchen, hall, shower

52. Nina Petrovna, age 61. Article 259 - drugs. The term is 10 years. She served 1 year and 6 months.

Husband and granddaughter came to her for the first time in a year and a half. In the zone, she has proven herself exclusively from the good side. She underwent several heart surgeries. The living from the colony does not hope to get out. There have been suicide attempts

53. - My son is serving a sentence under the same article, - says Nina Petrovna. - After the UBN officers began to beat him during the investigation, I began to write numerous complaints-statements in order to stop the bullying. I was threatened that if I didn’t stop, I would soon find myself behind bars. I continued to write and soon the police "accidentally" found several grams of heroin on my bed ... So I ended up here. I tried to lay hands on myself, but they stopped me. No, you don’t think, the conditions here and the attitude of the administration are normal, but it’s psychologically difficult for me

54. Raima, age 40. Article 259 - drugs. Term 10 years, served 3 years and 2 months.

“My husband died nine years ago,” says Raima. - I was left with three small children, the youngest daughter was 8 months old, my parents are pensioners. I was the only breadwinner in the family. A few years later, she got involved with a man. He helped with money, with the housework - we had our own cattle. Then I decided to expand the grocery store. I sold the store and started construction, but did not receive the promised loan from the bank. So I was left without a business and income. She began to sell fruit in the yard, and in the meantime, her partner set up the sale of heroin. Roommate was given 10 years of strict regime, I was imprisoned for complicity

55. - I was able to visit my mother for the second time in three years, - says Alima, Raima's eldest daughter. - As soon as my contract with the company ended, I immediately brought the younger ones for a long-term date with my mother

56. Alima works as a marriage manager in a furniture store. With a salary of 60,000 tenge, Alima is now the family's sole breadwinner. Recently, she prepared her younger brother and sister for school, bought clothes and stationery. She wants to return to Aktobe to be closer to her family and visit her mother more often. Alima is worried about her mother's health - her eyesight rapidly deteriorated in the zone - it became minus twenty, they also found tuberculosis. She answers evasively to questions about her personal life, she decided not to be friends and not get married until her mother is free

57. This year, the transfer to settlement colonies of those convicted of especially serious crimes was cancelled. Mothers of many children who have committed domestic murders or women who are forced to be involved in drug trafficking will serve their entire term away from their children, who are often in the care of elderly grandparents or in orphanages. So, they are most likely to be released on parole after serving 2/3 of the term

58. Vera, age 30. Article 96 - Murder. Term 6 years, served 2 years, 9 months.

She got married and had daughters. They lived happily and well, but soon her husband began to assault, for seven years she endured his difficult character. Daughters, seeing a drunken father, immediately went to bed, they were so afraid of him. The drunken husband was extremely cruel, he could grab his daughters or Vera and beat his head against the wall, hit him with any object that came to his hand. Threatened with an ax, kicked, kicked out of the house. He even beat his relatives - raised his hand to his mother. It all ended with a stab in the heart. Moreover, Vera does not remember how it happened, she wants to remember under hypnosis. The children were left in the care of a sick mother. The injured party has no claims. Vera wrote to the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General, filed a petition with the President - all to no avail so far.

59. Hope, age 24. Article 96 - Murder. Term 11 years, served 3 years, 1 month.

She lived and worked as a nanny in Astana, studied to be an accountant. Then, due to financial difficulties, she moved to a small village in the Aktobe region. Once we were walking with friends, decided to continue the fun and went home to a new acquaintance - a man retirement age. In the morning, when everyone fell asleep, he began to pester her and raped her. Being in the strongest alcoholic intoxication, she was very frightened, began to resist, grabbed a knife from the table and struck ten blows. She called the police herself. She frankly admitted her guilt. During the investigation, she found out that she was pregnant. She decided to leave, now her son is 2 years old. He was taken and raised unemployed mom who does not have the opportunity to come for a long-term date. On the phone, Nadezhda often talks with her son, he addresses her by name, thinks that she is his sister. She works as a seamstress in the zone. Having paid off all claims, he sends the earned money home. He repents and knows that he deserves punishment. Hopes for transfer to a colony-settlement at the place of residence

60. Mahabbat, age 22. Article 180 - accomplice in rape. The term of 6 years of strict regime, taking into account the age of the convict, she was transferred to general. She served three years.

Walked in the evening with a friend in a noisy company. After some time, in a strong alcoholic intoxication, she left, and the girlfriend remained - as a result of gang rape. In addition to her, 5 people are involved in the case. Mahabbat was accused of pandering, that she forcibly took the victim away from home. The victim then gave birth to a daughter, passed Orphanage. Mahabbat dreams of becoming a photographer

61. Marina. 41 years old Article 96 - domestic murder. Term - 6 years. She served 3 years, 3 months.

They gave me a short time because injured party had no complaints. She lived with her second husband for ten years. He constantly drank, did not work, beat her and the children. And during another scandal, Marina took two knives and stabbed him simultaneously in the heart and liver. Died on the spot. Marina's two children - a 17-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter - live with her brother and daughter-in-law

62. Tamara, 32 years old. Article 96 - Murder. Term - 9 years, served 7 years.

Husband drank and abused for seven years. Once a drunk came, a quarrel broke out. She stood with her one-year-old son in her arms, he hit her and hit her son in the ear. The auricle burst, blood splattered on the wall. Then Tamara grabbed a knife and plunged it into her husband's heart. Her three children - daughters 12 and 5 years old, son 3 years old - were taken care of by her parents. I have not seen children for the last two years. Works as a dishwasher in the canteen for the sake of rewards, wants to get parole

63. Zarina acrobat SSD. Age 25 years. Article 96 - Murder. Term -8 years. She served 4 years.

Pupil of Aktobe orphanage. For the first time "closed" at the age of 17. I wanted to earn money by transporting drugs to Russia. She stayed there for three years. Already on the outside, she fell in love with a guy, began to meet him. At his birthday party, he accidentally killed a neighbor while drunk in a fight. She left the bathroom, and in the room there was already a corpse in a pool of blood. The guy shouted to her to run away, but she did not do this, she decided to be with him to the end. Then the police arrived, an ambulance. She made a sincere confession. She took all the blame, her beloved asked - and told her so, women are given less time, and I will wait for you ... But the last time she saw him was in the courtroom. In the colony, she acquired the skills of a seamstress-mechanic and a fitter. Also dances in a local club, the best acrobat. Now she has one dream left - to visit Paris and look at the Eiffel Tower.

Yesterday, Sunday, I spent the whole day reading terrible horrors about women's prisons, and today, Monday, I woke up and went to the bathhouse. I must say that I like to go to the bath, to the public, where there are many different naked women. In general, good ones. But when today I imagined that we would have to spend together not an hour and a half, but, for example, a year and a half, I felt uneasy. The resemblance to prison methods of self-organization and the establishment of a hierarchy alerted me. Women.
Firstly, the bath always has its own quotes. If you do not have a well-defined set of any accessories - you are not in the subject. If you offer to air it in the steam room, they can easily say: “First, put on a hat, and then teach us.” If, on the contrary, you have too many all sorts of lotions, then they look at you with a smirk. There is no common fund there, so all you can do for the common good is not to fuck around. It is interesting that physicality itself (thinness, fullness, body structure) does not matter. The naked body is present, as it were, by default, as something obligatory for being there. Like a prison sentence.
Secondly, the "suits" in the women's bath, as in prison, are assigned spontaneously and are very much related to age. The most masculine and adult women (usually there are several of them) take care of maintaining the desired temperature in the steam room. For those who are younger, they often indicate the number of leaves with an unambiguous hint "would sweep, just sit, women after all." Those few daredevils who jump into an ice pool (very cold) can instantly get the right to control the temperature: “let it give in, she knows a lot, did you see her splashing in ice water?”
Thirdly, there is always a confrontation between groups. Those who are currently watching the steam room, the self-established “thieves”, are the objects of foul language of those who are waiting for the “steamers” to leave, and when the latter can finally do everything in their own way, of course, better. And while they wait, they sit on the bath benches (resembling bunks) and, sometimes even very maliciously, whisper about all this.
Fourth, the situational nature of mutual assistance. A woman who volunteers to wash your back (even sometimes a person you previously knew) can easily say nasty things about you or just embarrassing details as soon as you cross the threshold of the steam room. You leave, and she remains in the forced conditions of a variety of conversations. Access to the body means nothing here.
Fifth, there are always unconditional "others". For example, abundantly tattooed young ladies. Or girls with piercings. For Russian bath attendants they are still a curiosity, and I have never seen them spoken to. The second type of “others” are vip-hall visitors, with whom ordinary bath attendants are united by a common steam room (they enter the same steam room through a different door). They are called "these" and are often remembered. “Well, did these ones appear today?” They are most often not allowed to control the temperature, and they rarely come out.
When you are in the locker room, and another woman leaves the bathhouse, she will definitely say goodbye, say “thank you”, “enjoy your bath” and smile. She organizes scarves-hoods for a very long time, as if this visit was unique for her and it is very difficult for her to leave this place. Today, for some reason, another woman said to me, “God bless you.” (By the way, sometimes women are baptized before entering the steam room).
Well, of course, all this is done as if in jest, as if once you are naked, then you have been your own for a hundred years. And you are your own, because you are a woman. And one more thing, because it's all for an hour and a half. But I can imagine how it all turns into hysterical petty cruelty, stupid and merciless. And how it does not turn out like that in men. Such is the story.

Saved

“Show me, Lord, the path that I should follow, for to You I lift up my soul.” Psalter ch. 142.
Once, on one of the simple working days, after dinner, a young woman entered the room. beautiful woman. Everything is fine, but it's too big. I looked at her in awe and surprise.
- Hello!
- Hello good. Perhaps an athlete?
- Yes, like that.
- Come on, sit down. You are healthy in body and good in face, what brought you here?
- Grandmother, I don’t want to live and I’m afraid to lay hands on myself.
- Pebbles on the soul?
- This is not a stone, this is some kind of block and I no longer have the strength to carry it.
- Yes, what kind of trouble happened to you that the white light became not nice.
- If I tell you who I am, will you kick me out?
- Is it a killer?
- Yeah, a killer. I'm the warden of the women's prison.
There was an oppressive silence in the room. In my thoughts I asked the Lord for blessings, so as not to condemn the one who came in my soul, I quietly took her hand, pressed it to my chest and sighed deeply and said:
- I'm listening to you very carefully.
She immediately somehow haggard, her body, which had previously been constantly in tension, drooped and big eyes copious tears flowed. With a slight sniff, she began her story.
- My name is Olga (name changed). I am 45 years old. Born and raised in the outback of Russia in an urban-type settlement, the inhabitants of which mainly worked in a zone located five kilometers from the village. My father and mother have three children. Her mother worked all her life as a nurse in a hospital, and her father worked as a guard in the zone. We lived in a two-room apartment in a large barrack-type house. A kind of departmental housing for prison workers. After graduating from school, I graduated from a seamstress school in the regional center and returned home. There was nothing else for me to teach. And the younger ones stepped on their heels. Growth, strength and health, as you can see, I was a success. My mother and father did not know how to feed me. She ate everything she could eat. No one offered marriage, not even close. Who needs such a huge one. Once, when my mother saw in her hearts an empty borsch pan, she could not stand it and reproached me for the fact that I would soon eat them. She is right. It is impossible to feed such a cow on their meager pensions. I made up my mind. The next day, putting on something more or less good of clothes, I walked to the zone on foot. I think they might even take the dishes to wash, but everything turned out differently.
At the gate they asked - Why did you come? And when they heard that I wanted to get a job, the young soldiers, giggling, let me into the territory. It became scary. I was taken immediately to the head of the colony. A small, flimsy peasant with a prickly, cold look looked me over from head to toe, like a thing in the market. Then he ordered something on the phone, invited me to sit and wait. Soon, two healthy aunts entered the office and handcuffed a girl who looked more like an embittered boy. They gave me a club in my hands.
- Can you hit her?
- What for?
Just hit it and that's it. Without thinking why.
- No I can not.
And suddenly this evil lump began to squeal and swear.
- Yeah, what are you talking about? Yes, I would have driven you this baton on the very thing I do not want.
The girl began to swear obscenely. I was dumbfounded, and then, grabbing a baton, began to beat her. It was as if something had entered me. I beat her with such frenzy that they could hardly drag me away. I don’t know what happened to me, but from that moment on, apart from evil and hatred for the whole world, nothing else remained in my heart.
Barely getting his small hand up to my shoulder the boss patted me satisfactorily and said that he was taking me to work and I went to draw up the documents. Among other things, having learned about my family and housing conditions, the boss allocated me a room right in the zone.
- There is nothing to walk to work every day so far. You will also eat here as much as you like.
From such happiness, I was ready to kill anyone who even looked askance at my benefactor. So I started earning my living. Clothes and food were free. The pay was good. I even began to help the younger ones. They always waited for me to visit, as a supplier, but not as a sister. A substantial amount began to accumulate on the passbook. In my work, I showed special zeal and diligence. Soon all the prisoners felt it. If from any cell or on a walk something like a bitch or a beast rushed in my direction. I mortally beat everyone in the cell or those who walked. Soon the screams stopped. It came across both brave and cowardly and completely innocent. The most arrogant and notorious spoiled the face or, after beatings, did not allow the physician until the wounds began to exude a stench. The new arrivals were warned in half a whisper about the monster among the guards. Looking at the passbook, I kept hoping to earn more and leave this job, but then someone is in power there ... Oh, if I had decided in my hands that the people lived richly and in an instant people were stripped like a prostitute. And I, like everyone else, had a zero without a wand on my passbook. This is where I completely freaked out. Let's face it, there was nothing to complain about. Everywhere cleanliness, brilliance, discipline which is not in any of the troops. I just beat them. Either for painted lips, or for plucked eyebrows. It seemed to me that life was over, and I no longer had the strength to see only thieves, murderers and perverts day after day and year after year. And then, one day, I was ordered to gather about twenty prisoners in the assembly hall. Preferably not rude and neat. It means some kind of event, lecture, some kind of inspector or reporter has arrived. My workmates quickly herded all the more or less reliable people into the hall and ordered them to sit quietly. Do not interrupt the speaker. Since I didn’t have any other entertainment besides work, TV and food, I also came to the hall and sat in the first row on the edge. The prisoners were sitting so quietly, it seems they stopped breathing. And here is the lecturer. Those who expected to see a fat bald man with a briefcase hummed with displeasure, because a thin, cyanotic girl appeared in the doorway, in a long cassock and a scarf tied almost over her entire face and covering her entire forehead.
- Is it a nun? This is still not enough for us.
- Probably under the muzhik was never.
- Yes, who will look for such a thing? Could be a slut. I dragged myself along, and now she is making a saint out of herself.
I slightly turned my head and looked at the embittered and relaxed prisoners. Everyone froze.
“Peace be with you sisters,” said something covered in leather.
- Wow. Sister found. Maybe you want to stay with us? - A flabby girl sitting next to me with ten years of imprisonment began to bawl.
Without thinking, I hit her on the head with a baton with all my might. Blood gushed from the broken skin on his head. Zechka whined. And suddenly this skeleton in a cassock tears off a snow-white scarf from his head, runs to the woman who had just offended her and closes the bloody wound. What we saw shocked us. The nun's head was almost hairless. And on the one hand, instead of skin on the face, a thin pink film is even visible pulsating veins. The nun pressed the head of the convict beaten by me to herself with her right hand, while the left one hung with a whip. Knowing the antics and character of my wards, I easily, like a fluff, rearranged our strange guest in her place and said that outsiders were forbidden to approach the convicts.
“But she suffers,” the nun murmured, covering her crippled head with her hand.
With a sharp movement, I tore off the scarf from the head of one of the prisoners and threw it on the head of the sufferer: - Put it on and don't feel sorry for these freaks. They themselves have taken this path.
The nun deftly tied a scarf around her head with one hand, and then she suffered.
The voice was clear and resonant. The face turned pink. This cripple shone, shone and looked so happy that instead of pity I had envy. But it’s easier for her to live in the world, I thought. She loves the one God she knows and the Mother of God. She is loved in the monastery. And who needs me healthy, strong and angry like a well-fed bull terrier? And this half-dried flower spoke about earthly and afterlife. I look, and my convicts hung all their noses.
- Are we going to hell?
- Yes sisters. If you do not repent and do not begin to live according to the commandments of God, then you will go to hell.
- Have you come to agitate us in the monastery?
- No, my darlings. Only those sincerely repentant and who have passed many years of hardships are taken to the monastery.
- We are here. Hee hee. Difficulty.
- Here you work with anger and everything you have done is saturated with your spiritual state. And in the monastery everyone is meekly obedient. With humility, prayer, while gaining joy from their labors.
- Well, yes. We understand - you get an orgasm.
There was laughter and hooting in the hall. I got up, stabbed with my baton several of the noisiest and covered them with such obscenities that the poor nun's tears flowed like hail.
- God! Forgive, enlighten and have mercy on Your creation.
- Wow, wow. Made us, and now we are suffering here.
I began to listen with interest and watch how this flimsy woman wants to set everyone on the right path at once: angry murderers, prostitutes, drug addicts and just moral freaks. One of the prisoners stood up to ask a question. Everyone else giggled and snorted at her fooling around and pretending to be a great sufferer. She writhed her plaintive face and squeaked out in a sugary thin voice:
- Sister. Pray for my murdered child.
The nun looked attentively at the grimacing one and asked: What kind of child is this about? Who did you drown in the bathhouse or about the one you strangled with a bag, and then, dancing and singing a song, took it to the trash can? What to pray for?
Hall gasped.
- Oh, you bitch. And here we are sorry for her poor, that she was innocently condemned. Yes, we wipe her snot. So tell me, is it true or not?
The nun raised her eyes to the sky, whispered something, then crossed herself and crossed all the noise. There was silence.
- You committed a terrible sin, sister, but even more terrible is that you not only do not repent, but also blame your parents for not giving you those material benefits that others have. And you allegedly had to kill newborn babies because of this. You didn’t reproach yourself for living in sin, and instead of studying or working, you threw yourself at your parents, reproaching them even for the fact that they gave birth to you.
- What is not true? What did I ask them to do? – rushed in response. - They concocted me in their youth, and now I suffer all my life. It would be better to drown in the bathroom.
- It is easier to blame your loved ones for all your sins than to work and behave with dignity yourself. Parents in the other world will suffer for their sins. And you, unintelligent, the unclean will either drown or choke in a bag, but at the same time they will also laugh and sing. You will have to endure in hell exactly the same torments that your innocent children endured. Only you did not let them grow up to reproach you, as you reproach your parents now. You will cry and cry for help, but only there no one will help you.
- So what. It will be somewhere out there, but I live now. And whether it is there or not, no one knows.
- That's why the Son of God Jesus Christ came to show us the way to a bright world, full of love and joy. And if you call being in prison life, then what is real life?
- I'll go out and I won't be such a fool anymore, but I'll give birth to an oligarch and I'll sit on his neck like a leech. There will be nannies, servants, a cool car. I will go to chickens.
- And where to recruit oligarchs for the rest of your girlfriends? And where did you get the idea that the oligarchs are fools. You have no education, no shame, no honor, no conscience. In the old days, they said about people like you: the bad thoughts get richer with their thoughts. As long as you keep dreaming, life will pass. Even the poor will not look at you. You tortured your parents. It's easier for them while you're in prison. Is your IQ so low...
- It's you who climb like robots in your monastery, and I know what I will do next.
- My good, we dedicate our soul and sinless body to God, and you act not even atrociously, but worse. After all, not a single animal, having given birth to offspring, leaves him to the mercy of fate, much less kills him.
- What are you clinging to me. Nobody needs you, you crippled underfence. I suppose the parents threw it under the monastery. Now here you go, posing as a righteous person.
“My parents died before my eyes. I thank God that I remember their faces. I was only five years old. I am grateful to my mother and father for not drowning or killing me. That they let me see the light of God and I knew the grace of God.
- Yah. And how did you end up in a monastery, an orphan?
- If you're interested, I'll tell you.
- Come on, tell me. Anything is better than going to work.
- It was twenty years ago. The whole family took a city bus to the forest for mushrooms. There were eight other people with us. The sun was setting when we went out onto the road with full baskets. I remember everything down to the smallest detail. Almost in the middle of the road, a huge truck was rushing at high speed. The road was empty. And suddenly, out of nowhere, a black car appeared after the big car. Now I understand everything, but then it was like in a scary movie. A passenger car at an unthinkable speed went to overtake a truck, and then another car appeared to meet. This overtaker without hesitation presses on the gas and tries to bypass the truck with right side . Of course, he did not see people standing at the bus stop, and when he did, it was already too late. And those who stood there, seeing the car flying at them, were simply dumbfounded or even dumbfounded by the fear that fettered the whole body. The sound of bodies hitting the car is still in my ears. People fell like apples from a tree. With some kind of knock and rumble on the ground. From a strong blow, I flew off to the ditch, but immediately jumped up and climbed to the side of the road. A terrible picture opened up to my blood-drenched eyes, but for some reason I was not afraid. Entangled in human battered bodies, she began to call mom and dad. I found my dad right away. He lay on his right side with his eyes wide open and did not see me. I stood nearby and called several times, but he did not move. She went to look for her mother. We made eye contact. I stumbled and ran towards her. Mom was moving her lips, probably saying something to me. But in my head everything was noisy and I did not hear anything. Raising her head a little, mom looked among the people who were lying, looking for dad, and when she saw him, she groaned softly and closed her eyes. I crawled on all fours and climbed under her right arm. Mom once again opened her eyes, smiled softly and pressed me to her and stopped breathing. I saw cars stop, people said something, then I heard the sound of sirens. A young policeman leaned towards me, but when he saw my look in horror, he recoiled to the side. I heard how he asked the drivers passing by to take the still alive girl to him, because. before the arrival of the ambulance, she may die, but looking at my dirty clothes covered in blood, everyone refused. Then the same policeman, God bless him, came up and started pouring some water over me and wiping me with something. An ambulance arrived. They immediately ran to my mother and to me. They barely pulled me away from my mother and carried me into the car. And then came the torment. A terrible pain arose throughout the body. I was given injections, washed, then it turned out that the doctors did what they could. God bless them. First they rescued children, and then adults. Of all those standing at the bus stop, only my parents died, and the rest of the doctors managed to save. At first they treated me well. Women lying with their children came up to my bed, stroked my head, cried, and then left again. Aunt papa's sister came a couple of times, but only twisted her face. Maybe she wanted to cry, but as I understand now, who needed a cripple in the house. A policeman came. As long as I live, I will pray to God for him. He was glad that I survived and talked to me for a long time. Further more. The hospital got used to me and gradually stopped paying attention to me. If she cried from pain, then they began to scold that such a big girl was crying, that mom and dad would not come, they died, and I was already tired of them all. And I do not live and I do not die. Only the stink from me all over the room. She lay on an oilcloth, went to the toilet under herself. Each nurse on duty tried to shove me with another. The body began to rot. First the buttocks, and then the left shoulder. Now I understand everything, but then everyone called mom and dad. And then one day they came. Both are beautiful and very friendly. Dad kissed my sewn head. Mom kissed the hands and feet. Come with us - said my mother and took my hands and lifted me out of bed. Dear little sisters, there is heaven. My body was left lying on the bed, and I was completely different without pain and wounds, holding my parents' hands tightly, I soared into the air.
- Yes, it was your galloons from injections.
- Think pretty what you want, but since you asked me to tell you, then listen. We stopped at the edge of a very beautiful village. On one side of the hut, and on the other a wheat field with very large ears. Near each house there are front gardens with flowers, both on the street and in the yard. Gardens everywhere. If one tree is already bearing fruit, the other may be covered with spring flowers. Of course, there are no poles, electricity, antennas, asphalt and many other delights of modern civilization there.
- And how do they call each other?
- Very simple. A person thinks about who he needs to communicate with, and his thought instantly reaches the addressee. He also feels it and you can talk like that as much as you like.
- Well, then what happened to you?
- Then it got worse and worse. My vitality began to annoy literally everyone around me. After all, they didn’t know that my dad and mom often took me well fed, let me run on the grass, and most importantly, that I now calmed down. And she endured the pain, rejoicing that a joyful meeting with her relatives would come after her. I knew that there is a place where nothing hurts me.
- I should have stayed there.
- I asked about it, but my mother said that it was too early for me to stay with them. That I have to serve the Lord in order to get to them. They started giving me some injections from which I slept for days. A year has passed. And then, one day, opening my eyes, I saw that my mother was looking at me, only very young. Everything glows. Dressed in a snow-white scarf and a dress with a large snow-white collar. She wore a small cross around her neck. - Who are you? I asked. She sighed and sat down a little. Then she ran out into the corridor and called someone. A beautiful, tall, but very strict woman entered the ward. As it turned out later, it was mother and sisters from a nearby convent. She leaned down very low to my face, made the sign of the cross and kissed my forehead. My tears flowed.
- Pick me up auntie.
- I'll take it. I'll pick it up today.
Something rustled in my head, apparently with joy, and I lost consciousness. I woke up from the light breath of the wind in the street. Then the sisters told how mother severely reprimanded everyone in the hospital and signed some papers and took me to the monastery. How to say took. As it was rotting, smelly, they carried me out of the hospital on that sheet and oilcloth. I screamed in pain at the slightest sudden movement. She only screamed - Take it. Take it. The young nuns themselves carried me in their arms for almost seven kilometers to their monastery. And when they brought it, the sisters came running from all over the monastery. Everyone was crying and praying. Mother gave the order and I was taken to the bathhouse. The smell of brewed herbs was felt and the crackling of logs in the stove was heard. A priest appeared from somewhere, prayed, then poured something into the water, and there was another miracle when I saw my parents for the last time. They appeared out of nowhere holding hands tightly as always. The next vision remained in my heart for life. Suddenly, the whole room in which the font was prepared for me was lit up by a bright light. And next to my parents appeared unprecedented beauty, as in a fairy tale Queen. She smiled softly, sprinkled the water with something sparkling, stood for a while and disappeared. I wanted to tell everything I saw to those who held me, but from the warmth that brought long-awaited relief and the great saturation of the air with the aromas of herbs, I felt dizzy and I closed my eyes. In the hospital, they turned me over with their hands in cold rubber gloves and wiped me with scratching rags soaked in some kind of caustic solution. After such a procedure, the whole body itched to death. Here they took me with warm hands and lowered me into real warm water. One of the sisters held my head in her hands, and the other cut off everything that had grown and rolled into a solid ball of hair. Two more very carefully washed everything rotten on me. Silently praying and groaning from what they saw, not one of them turned away or grimaced at the smell and sight of my terrible body. After bathing, I was laid on a clean sheet and very carefully transferred to another building. In a clean, comfortable room, two neatly made beds stood very close to each other, one higher than the other. The one above was mine. Squeezing my eyes shut from the pain that I expected when my body touched the mattress, I realized with surprise and joy that I was put on something very comfortable. The mattress was filled with hay. For the first time in a year of my illness, they did not put a cold, nasty oilcloth under me. The one who took me from the hospital entered the room.
- Well, how are you? Easier? Doesn't it hurt so much anymore?
- Thank you. I saw that aunt who is painted in the picture that is in your corner.
- Where did you see her?
- Near dad and mom, she poured something shiny into some water.
- Glory to Thee Queen of Heaven. Matushka bowed to the very earth to the icon of the Mother of God. It was the Virgin Mary as a child. Since She herself came, then you will live and even glorify her, our Intercessor. You will now be given goat's milk. Drink as much as you can and go to sleep.
The abbess made the sign of the cross, gently stroked my head, and left. An old nun stayed with me. She gave me milk to drink and covered me with a blanket:
Sleep, and I will sing you a prayer.
The next day, when I opened my eyes, I saw five sisters in the room. They all looked in my direction with tension and almost with fear.
- Thought she was dead. You fell asleep, so you slept for three days. Mother said not to touch and not to wake. Thank God it's alive. Let's baby, let's bathe you again. Did you like it?
- Yes.
I was able to sit up on the bed, I didn’t have enough strength for more, but it was also a great joy. I was taken back to the bath. Kept in a steep decoction of herbs. Some kind of ointment was applied to the rotten places. One of the sisters was by my side all day. They fed, watered, gently turned, then on one side, then on the other side. At night they brought a new mattress stuffed with fresh hay. A month later, I could sit for a long time. And then, at first holding the hands of the sisters, and then she herself began to walk. I was cared for with Christian love and mercy. Such a virtue can only be found in a monastery. Because there is love from God, and not because of self-interest or fear. The sisters also taught to read and write. They began to take with them to the services. And so they tried to attach me to the monastery kitchen. Doctors came from the hospital. They listened, watched, they all wanted to take some tests, but my mother did not give it, and they gradually left me alone. Now I try to serve the Lord and the Queen of Heaven, so that with a clear conscience and great joy I will be reunited with my parents in heaven.
The people in the hall roared. Some were sorry, and some cursed at the nun. But the interest was very high. They started asking questions, shouting and interrupting each other. She was silent and for some reason looked very attentively in my direction. It is now clear why, but then I barked at everyone sitting and, having built, drove to the cells. The prisoners started screaming and calling for more to come. And this khudorba, bowing to the departing, overshadowing them with a cross, with tears in her eyes, loudly and loudly shouted:
- I'm coming sisters. I'll come, little ones. I'll definitely come.
Then the head of the zone invited her to have lunch in the dining room and said that he would take her to the monastery by car. I was also surprised that she was so weak climbing through the zones alone and walking the streets. But she refused food and help. We escorted her out the gate. It turned out that she was not alone. On the street under the fence, two nuns, almost old women, were waiting for her. I asked why they didn't come. And they answered that only their sister was blessed by mother to enter the territory, and they were not given this blessing. Here they are with humility and fulfill their obedience. I shrugged my shoulders from misunderstanding and surprise and looked at them as if they were crazy. This is obedience. If they listened to me like that in the zone, otherwise without a mat and a club, what humility is there. All three of the nuns bowed to us, crossed themselves, whispered something and walked along the edge of the road with blissful smiles. And how do they do it. Not eating, not drinking, standing on their feet for half a day and still smiling. I saw more than once constantly smiling fools, but these seem to be normal.
After the visit of this mutilated nun, they only talked about her. Who called names, and who envied her peace of mind and surrounding love. I listened with interest to the arguments in the cells between the prisoners.
“Now, if we also live in a monastery,” the skinny tuberculosis woman whined.
- What, do you also want goat's milk? And also that you would be bathed cherished, and you would smartly let their icons go to the left. They get up much earlier than ours. My grandmother told me and they plow like bees, and even you have to go to work. They do not ask what you like and what not, who is in authority, and who will wash the toilets. Where the eldest said there and they scratch like zombies and joyful to the point of stupefaction. So sit back and don't dream of the sweet life. I wouldn't have survived a day like this. When was the last time you washed anything here?
- Ugh. There are bugs for this.
- And I would obey - the newly arrived prisoner gave her voice - it is better to work and feel like a man than to live in the wild now after serving time. This is the mark of a lifetime.
- Will you take your drunk mother and slut with you?
- Yes. I would take it. They wouldn't let her drink there, if only they would have accepted us.
“That sheep will come another time and ask her to be a nun.”
- And I'll ask. After my release, I still have nowhere to go. Neither friends nor relatives will be allowed to enter the door. And in the lair to my mother, so in a week I will be here again.
- Well, yes. Of course, you came up with this well, but if they accept any rabble like you and me into the monastery, it will turn out worse than the zone. Here we are at least afraid of this rabid mare, but there, you see, one aunt controls everyone. Try to follow us. And for the nuns, she is calm, why run after them and things are going well for them. Sit down like a scarecrow in the garden, serve our “mother”, she will pick up a “husband” for you here and maybe you will keep your health until you leave, and then as you have to, but basically we all go back. Grandma Cleopatra has seven walkers and lives nothing and also smiles. They don’t want to take her to any nursing home after leaving, she is very resourceful in her torture skills. She used to work as a nurse at the morgue.
The “fresh” prisoner looked with horror at the dry old woman sitting near the window. It looks like a divine dandelion, one look of cold prickly eyes betrays the inner world of a sadistic killer.
It was very quiet in the other cell, filled with convicts almost to the ceiling. I looked through the peephole and saw an interesting picture. A skinny prisoner stands on a bench in front of the entrance, and a wiry tall dressmaker is spinning around her with a centimeter in her hands. The rest sit and watch with interest what is happening.
I thought everything was fine here. Women and women in prison. But after standing for a while, I overheard the following conversations:
- And if she doesn’t like it or says that they sewed without prayer or something else she comes up with?
- So let's leave the outfit for our Tarani. We will have a preacher, and we will tell her about our fornication thoughts.
Everyone in the cell laughed out loud.
- Do not ... will not refuse. They saw what clothes she had already worn. Maybe after someone wears it or the monastery is completely poor. I think she will like it.
On that day, I eavesdropped on the conversations of my “wards” in almost all cells and everywhere I heard the same question: how can one be so happy and calm being such a cripple and sitting in a monastery?
A week has passed. Closer to Friday, my girls began to get nervous and worry and ask again: Will the boss come or not?
How do I know what's in her head? I answered everyone.
And in my subconscious, I myself wanted her to come, not get sick. In my health, I realized that I envy the fortitude of this little guy.

« by the most heavy V prison was weight women. That, What You you are V four walls And nothing Not can to do - at you hands connected. You Not can implement their plans. All looks down, All repaid, intelligence And reason are lost»

The reality is that the living space of prisoners in the Russian Federation is always limited. So, for example, according to one of the prisoners, almost the entire space of the colony is a restricted area, there is only a bench right at the door of the barracks and a small area for smoking.

The lack of private space in our penal colonies is exacerbated by the over-public nature of the public space itself. On the construction site, in production, in the bedroom, the prisoners are always in the crowd; they do not even have the relative privilege of having closed door prison cell and at least for a short time remain under the supervision of only the prison guard.

Twenty of our young respondents named a rather strange set of places on the territory of the colony where they can be alone: ​​the most popular of them in winter is the dryer for clothes and boots, then the psychologist's room, a bench in the walking area, a place "behind the church" and a library .

Some adapt to the lack of private space, for others it can be the most difficult test in detention. It is interesting how differently girls and adult women reacted to questions about living in crowded barracks. In one of the juvenile colonies, we asked the girls to evaluate where, in what places in the colony it was more convenient for them. Almost all twenty of our 14-18-year-old interlocutors indicated the bedrooms (hut) as such, estimating them at 4 or 5 points, and they gave lower marks to the kitchen, production area, administrative block and classrooms. Conversely, women in adult colonies complained more about the lack of personal space in the dormitories. They also complained about the constant activity, noise and violation of private property and in other places, which provokes stress, an increase in unrest, violence and self-harm.

Any attempts to "privatize" at least part of the public space are suppressed by the administration of the colony. For example, women are not allowed to decorate their sleeping place and bedside table with photographs or some kind of pictures. Even the often necessary drying of underwear in the daytime on the back of the bed can lead to punishment not only for the violator herself, but for the entire squad. There can be no personal belongings in the showers and toilets, while there are simply no doors in the showers.

« IN what- That colonies There is organized amateur performance, But V my this were engaged themselves convicts. If We decide to cheer up our weekend, We come up with Which- That concert. Specifically administration this Not was engaged. At us Not was conditions conduct such Events: neither equipment, neither hall. I herself was choreographer. Places For rehearsals Not was, us allowed V SUS - room co strict conditions content, Bye it Not Start fill up violators. Instruments Same Not was, That's why All blunted. Boombox We asked at militia. If They count necessary us his extradite - Fine, If No, That No. There every gopher - agronomist».

Prisoners are allowed one day off per week and two weeks per year of vacation. During the day, everyone is obliged to observe the general mode of getting up, eating and hanging up, and spend “free” time in common places of collective recreation or sports, participating in some kind of common activity. It is impossible to be in the bedrooms between the morning and evening formation. And if a characteristic feature of prisons in the UK is a lack of employment, then Russian system correctional institutions, on the contrary, tries to keep the prisoner always busy with something. "Free" time is clearly limited and very often structured.

How to run away from everyone

« Certainly, permanent presence of people strains. TO psychologist V cabinet go off - Same problem. Not Always To him succeed get into. Yes convicts more psychologists, how sama psychologist! Current more Nothing, A before her were such, which everyone view showed: We better, at us the most the best outfits, the most the best brooches- earrings, A You here nobody. AND Not only showed, But And discussed This on his language. The colony kabardino- Balkar, soderhuddle there And Russians, And kabardians, And Balkars, And Chechens, But V administration work Kabardians. Necessarily must be present Russian language, Right? They same Not have rights discuss What- or on his language. A all of a sudden she What- That about me speaks or is plotting? But When We demanded speak By- Russian, us answered: “ Where You fuss?”»

In order to survive in a colony, female prisoners need their own private space. In search of at least some privacy after work or on weekends, they can briefly use not very reliable and dangerous shelters for this, or look for secluded places on the territory.

It can be a dryer, a library, a psychologist's room, a church, an infirmary: those prisoners who are completely desperate can try to convince the psychologist to let them lie down for a while in the infirmary or just sit in his office for a couple of hours - there is usually sound equipment, imitating the splashing of a sea wave or the voices of birds, guitar picks can also sound, and sometimes this is all accompanied by visual images. In IK-14 in Mordovia (the same one where Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yevgenia Khasis are serving their sentences, and formerly Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina was detained), the psychological room in the rehabilitation center is decorated with a fresco depicting in real scale the road that crosses the river and leads to the temple.

« convict arrives V colony - to her issue trousers, blazer And shirt. Their supposed change every year, What Not is being done. IN one And toy same form Can pass And three of the year. AND Always Necessarily handkerchief. IN workshop his Can take off - around the clock V German be unreal. AND more hard winter: uniform shirt - wooden. That There is You on naked body put on shirt, which stake costs, A under her Nothing put on it is forbidden. If under shirt warm sweater, on work Not let: change clothes. A cold byvaut different, on naked body this shirt - unreal Cold. By holidays Can enjoy cosmetics. Sometimes. Maybe, to especially Not stood out among their women. ink, dim lipstick Can, A Here ” combat coloring“ No. Women, which used to So walk on will, account for wean».

Prison clothing is usually a gray or blue twill skirt or trousers (depending on the colony), a blouse, a padded jacket for the street and a scarf, which women must wear all the time until they return to spend the night in barracks or cells. It is these scarves that especially annoy women. The explanation we got from the staff as to why headscarves were so necessary was that prisoners might get the wrong impression that they and their guards were equals.

« Were convicts, which offended That, What administration getting dressed noticeably better their. But I I think: employees There is employees, They must dress By form. Us same They make put on form! So And They must wear uniform shoes, uniform clothes, But this Not done, They could come V civil. What same They from us require?»

From an interview with the head of the educational department of one of the women's colonies: “Here, as teachers, we studied that the teacher should be dressed somehow pleasantly so that the students look at him, are not distracted, and so on. If you don't look like that, then you won't have a good lesson. So it is here."

« You you come With work, Want wash up, But need to wait, When include hot water. Happens, V boiler room at all forget call. Happens, girls go away work V Butwhose, come V dust, V mud, A hot water No. Remains wash cold, All get sick, medicines No. On All disease issue analgin. Doesn't matter, how You got sick, at you one means - analgin. Eat bath, But she once V week. Soul No, on 200 Human two cock. At each convicted There is their basins. From them wash yourself, watering ladle or Which- someday jar. AND This V indoors without doors And without Sveta. in winter - How want to, So And wash yourself. Toilet on street on 8–10 places. Well How toilet… pierced holes V Bylu, iso all cracks blowing. There unbearable».

The meaning of all these hygienic restrictions is to make habitual actions risky, dangerous to health, to force a person to accept new rules of everyday behavior. All of them are highly regulated. Our respondents said that, for example, from 10 to 25 minutes were allotted for morning hygiene procedures for all prisoners in the barracks, regardless of the number of places in the toilets.

Through discipline, the power of the norm is manifested: to fit everyone into one pattern, to force them to subordination, obedience, to the strict execution of all points of the rules of the routine. As a result, a person is deprived of the right to retire even for the most intimate toilet, and his body is put on public display.

Life in the barracks makes you always be in sight. Deprived of privacy, a person loses the ability to control his actions, loses the habit of acting independently, gets used to total supervision at the external and intra-group level and subordination. The deprivation of the opportunity to maintain cleanliness is also a mechanism for tightening control, not only on the part of the administration, but also on the part of prisoners over prisoners, control over each other. There is an assimilation of intragroup hygiene rules and norms: the lowest position in the group hierarchy is occupied by “dirty”, that is, those who do not maintain the cleanliness of linen and body. At the same time, with the observance of elementary hygiene standards, difficulties always arise.

Water and a toilet - about the problems with them, almost word for word repeating each other, all the women spoke. “Toilet collectivism” is perhaps one of the most amazing discoveries of the Soviet penitentiary system, a securely guarded additional tool for the humiliation of human dignity and a way of complete and final destruction of private space.

What are the problems with the administration

CO sides administration, Certainly, All It happens: And conflicts, And assault. Us could weeks Not give hot water For washing, A woman without this no way. had to talk With administration - This Not pomohalo. We wrote explanatory, explained their rights on paper. None measures Not undertaken. When We walked To militia, They us closed mouth: “ Us Same There is What to you say, We to you a lot of concessions give”, - Although none concessions Not was. warned: more once mouth open here or at Which- someday commissions - We you tear up. could hit: This Kabardino- Balkaria, All women- collaboratorthreads temperamental, men topics more. IN mostly RUku raised men. Hot Caucasian temperament appeared: woman Not Maybe say neither words, You must downcast sight And listen. Our Russians women fought With this - Not each such endure».

Another aspect of the infringement of human dignity is the moral and physical humiliation that women are subjected to by the guards. The administration of the colony does not consider humiliation as a problem at all. And what seems to be humiliation to any outside observer is regarded as an integral part of the punishment or educational process.

The very idea of ​​prison punishment implies the deprivation of one main right - the right to freedom of movement. In fact, it turns out that this whole system not only restricts freedom, but also does everything to show prisoners that they are “not people”: through a special organization of space, the daily routine, the introduction of many additional rules that are not spelled out in official documents, but are supported both formally and informally. Including through the complication of life, maintaining hygiene, personal search procedures, etc.

The creation of artificial difficulties, restrictions and the rejection of everything that constitutes natural needs - a shower, washing, providing hygiene items, including pads - causes complete deprivation. In different colonies, the situation, of course, develops differently, and recently they are trying to change it, but the principle of deprivation and the demonstration by prisoners of their “sub-humanity” remain.

« Here earlier, at commies, I knew: If I do That- That, This costs 10 days SCHIZO, I do This - This to me cost V 15 days SCHIZO, All was strictly regulated. That There is If You What- That violated, You knew, What You behind This you will reply, get ready. A sat hard. punishment cell! Well, Not punishment cell, A SCHIZO, This V prison punishment cell, A V zone SCHIZO called. But essence one And that same. A Now at all amazing thing going on. At them same There is test on drugs. At all, By PEC This malignant violation - use drugs. Here, For example, test shows, What Yes, Can her V SCHIZO plant. But This same minus points, That's why write report: behind violation forms clothes. This Same violation, which You through three months filming And calmly going By parole».

The key legal sanction that can be resorted to in the colony to punish "permanent violators of the regime" is to place them in a punishment cell (SHIZO) or in a punishment cell (cell-type room). In the isolation ward, as the name suggests, prisoners are deprived of contact with the outside world. Usually they are locked up 23 hours a day, and one hour is allotted for a walk on the site.

When a prisoner enters the ShIZO, he must turn in everything that is on him and with him, including clothes, and theoretically receives the same, but, according to the prisoners, it is still thinner than an ordinary robe. Female prisoners say that ShIZO is the most cursed place and you constantly experience fear there. Under current laws, a prisoner can be sent to an isolation cell for a maximum of 15 days and no more than two months in a year.

Cell-type premises exist for prisoners whom the prison administration wants to separate from the detachment for a longer period. They are somewhat similar to cameras designed for several people. As a rule, prisoners are kept in them for three to six months with the possibility of an hour and a half walk a day. Usually, women who are sentenced to PCT are automatically subject to the rules imposed in maximum security colonies: they are allowed a limited number of visits and no more than three parcels per year.

Particularly stubborn violators of the internal rules of the colony do not always return to their units. When their stay in the ShIZO ends, they can be transferred to a special detachment with very harsh conditions of detention. According to the official FSIN census for 2009, the proportion of women who were subject to such sanctions decreased from 45.5% of all female prisoners in 1989 to 21.0% (the proportion of men in this category in 2009 was 33.7 %).

How to keep human

« Administration fed prisoners, to They on her worked, And often. Man from administration causes To yourself one: Here, they say, this woman wants Very a lot of know, With her necessary talk. Instead prisoner promise encouragement: money, diploma. Well, she goes To their underRugam And decides With them question. start above girl fromget away, humiliate her, beat. This fraught with consequences: may deprive encouragement. That's why All are silent.

They take you to the parade ground regardless: rain, snow, and you stand on the parade ground until the administration considers that the detachment can be brought into the living area. No one stalks the guilty one: she is not guilty of anything, it is the administration that is inciting her. Everyone understands this. But if a person is guilty and realizes, he simply asks for forgiveness from the whole detachment.

A squad is a group of prisoners gathered in one place. In women's colonies, prisoners convicted of various crimes, from serious to petty, are united into squads, while all share the common space of the barracks, and a single approach is applied to them in terms of education, rehabilitation, entertainment and division into work teams. According to the Ministry of Justice, there can be from 50 to 100 women in one squad (maximum 120 for a youth colony), but usually 100 to 150 women are recruited in a squad, and sometimes more.

A woman remains a member of one unit for the duration of her imprisonment, except in cases where this poses a threat to her or someone else's safety, in which case she can be transferred to another unit or even to another colony. Even from a punishment cell, a hospital, or a mother-and-child room, a prisoner returns to her squad.

In today's colonies, one of the main "authorities" is the senior orderly, or caretaker. It would seem that the bird is small, but in fact it is the “main headman”, which more accurately conveys the meaning of her duties and power. The staff and prisoners whom we interviewed called the caretaker the right hand of the head of the detachment and the most important link in the negotiations between the prisoners and the leadership.

Her role is to "maintain peace and harmony" in the detachment, redistributing work and duties, instructing how work should be done, distributing bunk beds and transmitting orders from the administration. She is also a source of information about other prisoners, although how she handles this role depends largely on her own involvement in the work. The main reward for a woman holding this post is that she has her own room.

Of course, what seems to be a completely normal instruction to the caretaker, for example, to remake the bed, because the detachment will lose points in the competition for cleanliness, for the prisoner who has just made this bed, is another nit-picking and violence. But the staff with whom we spoke insisted that the omissions of the head of the detachment guaranteed attacks from the leadership, which could affect other prisoners.

“I still communicate with some of the prisoners. Wed There are wonderful people among convicts, they are not nonentities, people just got into such a situation. There are, of course, those who consider prison their home: they have nowhere to go, they do not want to realize themselves. Will for them is a temporary place residence. And then, women are women: of course, thisconstant gossip, intrigue, nothing without it. But if you want to spend your time decently, you won't express yourself, conflict, and you will behave in the same way as on will."

An important form of manifestation of the "human" in the colony is friendship, love, sex and mutual support. Stories about romance, tragedy, empathy and betrayal (not only in love, but also in friendship) are so popular in the colony, not only because it is an inexhaustible source of plots and emotions, but also because it is one of the forms of support and confirmation in oneself. human, which contrasts so much with the general background. The desire and realization of closeness, physical or emotional, is one of the forms of protest and overcoming the power and control of the regime.

« If required, I I say, What did time. A Where get away? Will start check - get to know. Not need to this afraid. Yes, wouldlo. But This With each Maybe happen. Yes to me People And Not believe. I Very Fine look, at me No zonovsky slang, I ordinary Human. think, I kidding, laughing necessary me».

The very fact of condemnation, and even more so of imprisonment, often, like a stigma, turns a person into “immoral” and “abnormal” in the eyes of others. Telling their story, women either divide life into “before”, “during” and “after”, demonstrating, as it were, two different selves, or they dissolve the “undesirable” in the story about themselves in such a way that they separate “normal” from “ abnormal" becomes impossible. But the boundary between “before” and “after” is not always so obvious, in some cases the time spent in the colony becomes just one of the episodes in a series of life ups and downs.

There are women in Russian settlements...

• 57.2 thousand women are kept in institutions of the penitentiary system.
• 47.2 thousand women are serving sentences in correctional colonies, medical and correctional institutions, medical and preventive institutions.
• 9.6 thousand women were chosen as a measure of restraint in the form of detention, that is, they are kept in a pre-trial detention center.
• 13 children's homes are open at women's colonies, 796 children live in them

There are six women's colonies in Kazakhstan, the total number of women and girls serving sentences as of August 1 this year is 2901. Women's correctional colony UG-157/11 of Atyrau opened three years ago, with a total of 234 prisoners from four regions. Correspondents of Vox Populi visited the women's colony to tell and show readers how they live in a penal colony and who they are - the women whom the court deprived of their liberty.

1. All women's colonies in the country - the general regime, except for the colony in Karaganda, where "walkers" are kept (prison jargon) - repeatedly convicted women

2. Twice a day, convicts gather on the parade ground for inspection. Absence is considered a gross violation, for which they can be put in a punishment cell. Such a mark in the personal file is undesirable, as it affects parole (parole) and transfer to a colony-settlement

3. After checking, all women disperse to their jobs or squads. White scarves are a mandatory part of the uniform

4. The conditions of stay in UG-157/11 are as close as possible to a standard women's hostel. Five squads, in which approximately 50 women each, are placed in their own blocks. In each block, except for the bedrooms, there is a common teahouse, a storeroom, a guest room. There is a shared bath, laundry and ironing

5. Four women live in each room. According to the charter, they do not have the right to sit or lie down on the bed from nine in the morning until seven in the evening. It is austere and smells of bleach here.

6. Each detachment has its own foreman, an authoritative person who knows how to eliminate internal conflict situations and maintain peaceful coexistence among several dozen women with a difficult fate and character. Brigadiers of detachments or, more simply, "bumps" are people with untouchable authority. The brigadier has a deputy, a santroika (sanitary troika), a foreman-orderly, assistants responsible for the supply room, for the kitchen, for the tea house and for the leisure and sports section (SDS)

7. In the relaxation room, convicts can be alone with themselves. Three psychologists constantly monitor the well-being of prisoners. Each convict has an individual approach. In the zone, the emotional state of women is extremely unstable

8. In the evenings, women gather in front of the TV. They watch news and TV shows, the most popular are Turkish. It should be noted that the well-established life of the colony largely depends on the attitude of the convicted women themselves. The paintings on the walls were made by the prisoners themselves.

9. Kapterka. One convict was released today. Employees escorted her to the station. The head of the zone contacted the Aktobe Center for Adaptation and Rehabilitation of Convicts and asked for help with accommodation and employment. Despite the loud laughter and joy, anxiety and notes of fear slip through the liberated woman "how will everything turn out in the wild?"

10. The most demanded product in the zone is payphone cards. Prisoners may not see their loved ones for years, as the families of many women live in neighboring regions, and it is not always financially possible to come for a long-term visit. And so they keep in touch through the phone. But there is a limit to such conversations. Each convicted person has the right to 15 minutes of telephone conversation per day.

11. The convicts are fully supported by the state. In addition, they have transmissions from relatives. In the local shop once a month they can buy everything they need. Cigarettes are second in importance. Almost everyone smokes, regardless of age and position. They don't quit here, they start smoking here. There is no other way to calm down

12. Here, in the zone, there is a special atmosphere - sincerity or falsehood is immediately determined. Women are kept by "families", family members are not given offense. The head of the family is the queen, the rest are princesses

13. The bath unit works almost every day. The administration went to meet the prisoners and allowed them to equip a shower room with the detachments themselves

15. Laundry and ironing units are well equipped

16. Medical unit. Almost every second woman has serious illnesses

17. Hall of the quarantine block on the second floor. Now only one woman is undergoing adaptation. After arriving at the institution, the prisoner spends 15 days in the quarantine department. Psychologists, doctors, and the educational department immediately begin to work with her, after which she is transferred to one of the detachments on a regular regime, on which she stays for six months. It differs from the facilitated one in that dates take place every three months. On the light mode, there are more privileges - permission for monthly programs, a date of up to 3 days every two months, there are incentive meetings and programs

18. Despite the spacious dining room, each squad enters at its own time

20. When we were filming in the dining room, one woman, leaving, shouted: “Come more often, they will feed us better,” and another added: “The food is normal, you can’t please everyone here and they bring us packages, have you seen full refrigerators?”

21. Fresh bread smells far outside the bakery. In colony UG-157/11 they bake the best bread among all zones of the country

22. The head baker, Ira, also worked in the bakery outside. Baking bread is her calling.

23. According to the baker, the secret of delicious bread is in the good flour of the first grade of the Kostanay region and in the humane, conscientious attitude of the bakers

24. On a shift, Ira with six assistants hand over 1000 rolls, provide for their own and neighboring male colony

25. Baker - one of the most prestigious and paid jobs in the colony. The chief baker receives 23,000 tenge

26. Every second woman has a debt to the state - lawsuits, state fees, legal costs. Therefore, many people are interested in getting paid work. The administration is constantly working on the issue of employment among convicts, of all prisoners only 60 women work. Soon the colony plans to open a fish shop

27. There is a small sewing shop for 34 women, in which clothes are sewn for prisoners in male colonies. They do not refuse third-party orders here either: overalls for hospitals, for oil companies. In addition, there are detachments of household servants with a salary of 21,000 tenge - kitchen workers, janitors, foremen of detachments, workers of a bath and laundry plant, a librarian

28. At the correctional institution there is a college where they teach in such specialties as a seamstress, cutter, confectioner, cook, hairdresser. This year, diplomas were awarded to 87 convicts

29. The prison library is constantly updated, there is an agreement on this with the state library

30. Demand for books is high - almost everyone reads, mostly fiction

31. A few books on religious topics. This year, 60 women kept the orazu at first, but due to the hot summer (air conditioners and fans are not allowed), 30 fasting remained.

32. The colony has a Sports and Leisure Section (SSS), which includes a library, acrobatics courses and, of course, the organization of cultural events. This institution hosts the best and most costumed concerts of any zone.

33. The foreman of the first detachment, Bibigul, where the SDS belongs, admits that a lot of effort has been invested in order to achieve such a level of the show. The administration willingly meets halfway, gives the opportunity to train, allocates money, provides training videos

36. Prisoners make costumes and decorations with their own hands, they can sew ball gowns from ribbons and pieces

37. In the evenings they play the intellectual game "Field of Miracles"

38. There are several girls in the SDS whose sports and dance data meet the requirements of the section

39. Olga - fizorg (organizer of physical education) and dance director of the SDS, age - 32 years. Article 259 - drugs.
She served over seven years. Only 2 years and 10 months left before the call. He does not like to talk about his personal life. In another institution, she was a persistent violator, so she did not pass on parole. Here, in UG - 166/11 - she is the right person, the master - golden hands: an electrician, a carpenter and a specialist in welding and installation work. I learned all this in the zone

40. In addition, Olga successfully leads the acrobatics section

41. Katya is engaged in acrobatics and dancing in the SSD. Age 32 years. Article 259 - drugs. Term - 11 years, served 4 years 4 months.
In Aktau, where she lived, she had her own small clothing store. She and her friend often flew to Turkey for goods. Then I decided to bring ecstasy tablets, not for sale, but for personal use. Now her two daughters are in the care of a 63-year-old retired mother. The last time she saw them two and a half years ago, mom does not have the opportunity to bring her daughters for a long-term date. Now she only sees in the photo how her daughters grow up. Katya understood for sure that not a single pleasure in life is worth exchanging it for the opportunity to raise her own children. In three years, she hopes for parole. After the term ends, she wants to devote herself to her daughters. Correspondence with convicted men is not uncommon in the colony. But Katya no longer wants to start a relationship. There, in freedom, everything is easier. A man loved you, loved you, and then stopped loving you, but this disappointment is hard to bear even in the wild. And here, in the zone, even with a howl of a she-wolf, there is nothing to close the void. Therefore, she crushed all female feelings in herself and only dreams of seeing her children more often - at least once every six months.

42. The approximate age of the staff of the prison administration is from 20 to 30 years. For 90% - this is a female team, as a rule, the majority are not married. Permanent employment at work does not allow many to engage in personal life

43. Head of the detachment Botagoz Nurkhanova, 28 years old. Works since the opening of the colony.
“When I first came here to work, I thought: “What am I doing here?” It was really scary, says Botagoz. – The turning point happened when I had to morally support one prisoner. After you realize that they are ordinary women who just need understanding

44. Prisoners address Botagoz with the word "mother", so symbolically they call all the heads of the detachments. Of all the employees of the administration, the chiefs of the detachments are closest to the convicts. Together with the foreman, he coordinates and monitors compliance with the regime. Communications between "moms" and convicts in this zone are primarily of a human nature. The broken female fate of some prisoners causes sympathy and understanding among their guards. Over time, you practically have to live with the problems of your wards, write their characteristics, represent them in court. "Moms" - a link between convicts and senior officers

45. The administration solicits, writes positive characteristics of convicts with exemplary behavior. But, nevertheless, the last word always remains with the judge. Many do not go through the courts, there are enough reasons for this: outstanding debts, absence or vice versa, a large number of incentives, a short term of imprisonment, serious convictions. The most common judicial reply: "How is it different from other convicts?"

46. ​​The main articles for which women fall here are: 259 - sale, possession and distribution of drugs, 177 - fraud and 96 - domestic murder, and much less often, infanticide

47. The photo shows a copy of the SMS from the partner of one of the convicts, he sent these messages to her on the day of the trial. The girl took the blame of her boyfriend on herself, at first she went as an accomplice. As a result, he is serving 5 years for apartment fraud. The convict admits her guilt, but being within the walls of the colony she is trying to get the person who pushed her to commit fraud to jail

48. Prisoners have the right to visits: short visits for two or four hours and long-term visits for three days. There is also an opportunity to see the convicts on the open day

49. Inspector in the screening and visiting room (KDS) Gulim Kushenova accepts documents from a man who came for a long-term visit with his wife
- Most often they visit convicts - Kazakhs, - says Gulim. - They come with children, relatives. Bring food, clothes, detergents

50. At the entrance to the women's colony there is a stand with photographs of things prohibited for transfer.

51. Hall of the meeting place - a room without a hint of gloom. All furniture - cabinets, tables, is done right there, without leaving the zone. Visitors and convicts are provided with all the conditions for a long meeting: a separate room, kitchen, hall, shower

52. Nina Petrovna, age 61. Article 259 - drugs. Term - 10 years. She served 1 year and 6 months.
Husband and granddaughter came to her for the first time in a year and a half. In the zone, she has proven herself exclusively from the good side. She underwent several heart surgeries. The living from the colony does not hope to get out. There have been suicide attempts

53. - My son is serving a sentence under the same article, - says Nina Petrovna. - After he was beaten by the UBN officers during the investigation, I began to write numerous complaints-statements in order to stop the bullying. I was threatened that if I didn’t stop, I would soon find myself behind bars. I kept writing and soon the police "accidentally" found a few grams of heroin on my bed... That's how I ended up here. I tried to lay hands on myself, but they stopped me. No, you don’t think, the conditions here and the attitude of the administration are normal, but it’s psychologically difficult for me

54. Raima, age 40. Article 259 - drugs. Term 10 years, served 3 years and 2 months.
- Nine years ago my husband died, - says Raima. - I was left with three small children, the youngest daughter was 8 months old, my parents are pensioners. I was the only breadwinner in the family. A few years later, she got involved with a man. He helped with money, with the housework - we had our own cattle. Then I decided to expand the grocery store. I sold the store and started construction, but did not receive the promised loan from the bank. So I was left without a business and income. She began to sell fruit in the yard, and in the meantime, her partner set up the sale of heroin. Roommate was given 10 years of strict regime, I was imprisoned for complicity

58. Vera, age 30. Article 96 - Murder. Term 6 years, served 2 years, 9 months.
She got married and had daughters. They lived happily and well, but soon her husband began to assault, for seven years she endured his difficult character. Daughters, seeing a drunken father, immediately went to bed, they were so afraid of him. The drunken husband was extremely cruel, he could grab his daughters or Vera and beat his head against the wall, hit him with any object that came to his hand. Threatened with an ax, kicked, kicked out of the house. He even beat his relatives - raised his hand to his mother. It all ended with a stab in the heart. Moreover, Vera does not remember how it happened, she wants to remember under hypnosis. The children were left in the care of a sick mother. The injured party has no claims. Vera wrote to the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General, filed a petition with the President - all to no avail so far.

59. Hope, age 24. Article 96 - Murder. Term 11 years, served 3 years, 1 month.
She lived and worked as a nanny in Astana, studied to be an accountant. Then, due to financial difficulties, she moved to a small village in the Aktobe region. Once we were walking with friends, decided to continue the fun and went home to a new acquaintance - a man of retirement age. In the morning, when everyone fell asleep, he began to pester her and raped her. Being in the strongest alcoholic intoxication, she was very frightened, began to resist, grabbed a knife from the table and struck ten blows. She called the police herself. She frankly admitted her guilt. During the investigation, she found out that she was pregnant. She decided to leave, now her son is 2 years old. He was taken in and raised by an unemployed mother who has no way to come for a long-term date. On the phone, Nadezhda often talks with her son, he addresses her by name, thinks that she is his sister. She works as a seamstress in the zone. Having paid off all claims, he sends the earned money home. He repents and knows that he deserves punishment. Hopes for transfer to a colony-settlement at the place of residence

61. Marina. 41 years old Article 96 - domestic murder. Term - 6 years. She served 3 years, 3 months.
They gave a short time, because the injured party had no claims. She lived with her second husband for ten years. He constantly drank, did not work, beat her and the children. And during another scandal, Marina took two knives and stabbed him simultaneously in the heart and liver. Died on the spot. Marina's two children - a 17-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter - live with her brother and daughter-in-law

62. Tamara, 32 years old. Article 96 - Murder. Term - 9 years, served 7 years.
Husband drank and abused for seven years. Once a drunk came, a quarrel broke out. She stood with her one-year-old son in her arms, he hit her and hit her son in the ear. The auricle burst, blood splattered on the wall. Then Tamara grabbed a knife and plunged it into her husband's heart. Her three children - daughters 12 and 5 years old, son 3 years old - were taken care of by her parents. I have not seen children for the last two years. Works as a dishwasher in the canteen for the sake of rewards, wants to get parole

63. Zarina acrobat SSD. Age 25 years. Article 96 - Murder. Term -8 years. She served 4 years.
Pupil of the Aktobe orphanage. For the first time "closed" at the age of 17. I wanted to earn money by transporting drugs to Russia. She stayed there for three years. Already on the outside, she fell in love with a guy, began to meet him. At his birthday party, he accidentally killed a neighbor while drunk in a fight. She left the bathroom, and in the room there was already a corpse in a pool of blood. The guy shouted to her to run away, but she did not do this, she decided to be with him to the end. Then the police arrived, an ambulance. She made a sincere confession. She took all the blame, her beloved asked - and told her so, women are given less time, and I will wait for you ... But the last time she saw him was in the courtroom. In the colony, she acquired the skills of a seamstress-mechanic and a fitter. Also dances in a local club, the best acrobat. Now she has one dream left - to visit Paris and look at the Eiffel Tower.