Kazakhstan: authorities want to forbid convicts to say “Salam”

Once again, Kazakhstan intends to revise the Internal Rules of the institutions of the penal system and the Rules of educational work with prisoners. The portal “Open regulatory legal acts” published a draft of amendments and additions to some orders of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The portal is intended for discussion and commenting by the public on amendments to legislative acts, decrees and orders that are proposed by state bodies. Amendments to the rules of conduct for convicts appeared on June 2 and would be on the portal until June 16. The deadline is quite short, but these amendments have important points to discuss.

For example, the developers of the changes (represented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs) propose amendments to paragraph 13 of the Internal Rules of the institutions of the penal system. Now this paragraph looks as follows: “When meeting with employees of institutions, persons authorized to monitor and supervise the behavior of convicts and other officials, who visit institutions, convicts should get up and greet them.”

According to the developers, this rule needs to be improved, because “sometimes prisoners use words salamaleikum, salam, hi, etc. In addition, there are cases when, in such a situation, convicts can keep their hands in pocket (reach out hand for a handshake) or stand astride.”

“In such situations, employees of institutions require convicts to comply with certain rules and subordinate when meeting and greeting. However, prisoners reasonably complain about the failure to provide them normative documents that regulate these requirements. In addition, the procedure for greetings in cases of meeting with employees of the institution on the territory of the institution and other places of the institution is not regulated. In this regard, it became necessary to amend the Rules in terms of streamlining the rules for greetings by convicts,” the developers write in the explanation of the project.

In this regard, it is proposed to amend paragraph 13 as follows:

“When meeting with employees of institutions, persons authorized to monitor and supervise the behavior of convicts, and other officials, who visit institutions, convicts should stand up (stop), put their legs together, stand at attention and greet them with words Сәлеметсіз бе or Good afternoon; at the same time, shaking hands is not allowed” (ACCA: hereinafter, the proposed amendments are marked in bold).

The developer of the amendments is also concerned about the fact that the Rules don’t have clear requirements for the dress code of prisoners in the canteen.

“It’s not regulated how, and in what order, convicts should enter the canteen. In practice, the absence of this rule gives rise to complaints from convicts regarding the fact that employees demand that convicts comply with requirements which are non-existent in the rules,” was the argument.

In this regard, the developer proposes to write down the requirements for the dress code in paragraph 22 as follows:

“Convicts arrive at the canteen, walking cadence, at the hours set by the order of the day, in clean clothes and shoes. Convicts enter the canteen on the right side of the rank, one at a time by turn. Prisoners eat by groups, detachments, brigade in the canteen or in the distributing room at the work sites. If the canteen is located at the junction of the residential and industrial zones, a working shift can organize meals in the canteen, ensuring the isolation of persons in the residential zone from convicts working in the workplace. Convicts are not allowed to take food and tableware out of the canteen.”

The developers were also puzzled by the fact that in correctional institutions, the administration forces prisoners to march.

“The current edition only regulates the fact that convicts move in formation. At the same time, it is not prescribed how the convicts should walk in formation. So, due to the lack of its regulation, there is a chaotic movement. In practice, the absence of this norm encourages the administration of institutions to use army elements of movement, which, in turn, gives rise to complaints from the public, prosecution authorities and complaints of the convicts themselves, regarding the fact that employees require convicts to fulfill requirements non-existent in the Rules. According to paragraph 32 of the combat regulations of the Armed Forces, other troops and military units of the Republic of Kazakhstan (approved by Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 5, 2007, №364), a step can be parade and marching. In this regard, in order to exclude the use of army parade step in penal correctional institutions, it’s necessary to register the use of a marching step,” the developers consider.

In this regard, they propose to supplement the paragraph 41 of the Rules with the following clarification “Movement in formation should be at a walking step in cadence, as normal walking, and hands can make free movements around the body.”

By the way, the current version of the Rules stipulates in the same paragraph that prisoners have the right to “take off or unfasten the upper part of clothing while watching TV in groups, visiting the library and washing in the bathhouse”. In the proposed amendments, the “bathhouse” is proposed to be deleted. Either the Criminal Executive Committee finally has realized that washing in a bathhouse in outerwear is not comfortable, which means that this situation sounds foolish, or the prisoners will have to wash in outerwear …

There is also an amendment obliging convicts, who are serving their sentences in minimum security institutions, but living outside the colony territory, to always have the appropriate document with them.

“In institutions of minimal security, sometimes, when checking documents from the administration of the institution, confirming the identity, the convicts don’t have the appropriate document at the place of employment or outside the institution. At the same time, convicts explain this by the lack of regulation in the current regulatory legal acts,” was noted in the substantiation.

In addition, the developers propose to supplement the Rules with a new chapter, which is not exist in the current version. The proposed chapter 11 is devoted to the peculiarities of serving the sentence of convicts, who are held in medical institutions. And in the new chapter, the question of prohibition on frivolous greetings is again raised.

“Those, who are exempted from formation and have bed rest, upon entering employees of the institution and persons authorized to monitor and supervise the behavior of convicts and other persons in the medical ward, should stand up from their beds to a sitting position and say Сәлеметсіз бе or Good afternoon (with the exception of convicts in the resuscitation),” the bill notes.

However, this clarification “with the exception of convicts in the resuscitation” is also understood in two ways. It remains unclear whether they can use the word Salam or not.