Kazakhstan: prisoners are treated as “second class” people

About 700 complaints of torture and violence are registered in Kazakhstan every year. In 2020, 63 criminal offenses were registered and 13 people were convicted under the article Torture. Such data are contained in the consolidated report of the participants of the National Preventive Mechanism based on the results of preventive visits carried out in 2019-2020.

The authors of the report recall that the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) was established in Kazakhstan in 2013 to prevent torture and other ill-treatment and punishment in correctional institutions.

“In most of the statements, the indicated reason for torture and ill-treatment is punishment for violation of the serving regime. In other cases, this is a punishment for refusing to join public organizations for prisoners or to fulfill the requirements of the administration, incl. illegal (refusal to march), refusal to work, for violent behavior, etc. There are allegations of torture to prevent complaints of ill-treatment of prisoners. This situation is developing in the state since the convicts are treated as citizens of the “second class”, whose rights and freedoms are insufficiently protected in our state. The NPM is called upon to correct this state of affairs, ”the authors of the report emphasized.

It should be noted that in the structure of the penal system of Kazakhstan there are 82 institutions are in operation – 66 correctional colonies, 16 pre-trial detention centers, and 246 probation service departments. The number of convicts at the time of the preparation of the report was 23,635 people.

“According to the International Center for Prison Research (ICPR), which forms the global table, Kazakhstan ranks 55th in the total number of prisoners and 100th in the index of calculation with a coefficient of 156 convicts per 100,000 of the country’s population,” the authors of the report said.

It should be noted that torture means not only the beating of prisoners but also other techniques. Thus, in Kazakhstan, employees of correctional institutions practice, among other things, such instruments of torture as poor conditions of detention, hunger, hypothermia, and also expose prisoners to the risks of morbidity with various diseases, including colds.

“According to the explanations of the employees of the administration of the institutions, half of the convicts have no uniform shoes, it is the convicts themselves who refuse uniform shoes because of their poor quality. Many convicts buy high-quality winter footwear on their own. The convicts also complained about winter uniforms, which are more suitable in the off-season than for winter. Complaints about the poor quality of clothing and footwear of convicts were noted in the reports of the NPM participants in the North Kazakhstan, Akmola, East Kazakhstan regions as well as other regions of Kazakhstan. In our opinion, this is the inaction of officials: we do not know about a single claim to the suppliers of uniforms and footwear for convicts from the heads of institutions. We believe that the issue of inspections and initiation of criminal cases against an unknown (or known) circle of persons is open, ”the authors of the report write.

Psychological torture also includes the fact that prisoners are forced to sing the national anthem of Kazakhstan.

“We believe that the tasks of patriotic education of citizens should not be solved in this way, as a result of which it is possible to instill a hostile attitude of convicts towards the state symbols of the country, since it is impossible to form patriotism through isolation from society, coupled with humiliation of human dignity,” NPM experts believe.

There is also a frankly poor organization of nutrition for prisoners. Thus, the analysis of the actual nutrition of prisoners, carried out by the NPM members, showed that it does not correspond to the norms of physiological needs for energy and nutrients. The calorie content of daily food rations of employed convicts belonging to 3-5 groups of physical activity is lower than the recommended values.

“The diets of prisoners are not balanced in terms of basic nutrients (there is an imbalance between the content of fats and carbohydrates), in terms of the content of the most important macronutrients (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus). An unfavorable ratio of calcium and phosphorus in diets is noted, which can lead to an increase in calcium deficiency in the body. Unfavorable shifts in phosphorus-calcium metabolism can cause diseases of the kidneys, blood vessels, etc. There is an excess of magnesium in the diets, as well as a significant deficiency of vitamins A and B2, ”the report says.

It also cites facts when prisoners were given portions less than they were supposed to. “The problem of underweight bread intended for convicts in the correctional institution ZhD 158/2 of the Department of the Penitentiary System in the Zhambyl region was identified by the NPM participants in the region. The bread was weighed by randomly selecting four loaves of bread. The electronic scales of the canteen of the institution showed the following results: 568 grams, 578 grams, 577 grams, 566 grams. The average weight of a loaf was 572.25 g. According to the norm, 1 loaf of bread should weigh 700 grams. Considering that the daily norm of bread per convict is 650 grams, the underweight is from 132 to 186 grams or 20-28%. In our opinion, this is not a problem of shortage in weight, but a problem of a person’s malnutrition of the bread set by the state: from 1 | 5 to 1 | 3, most likely, due to theft. And these are not issues of the National Preventive Mechanism, but of the anti-corruption agency, ”the authors of the report note.