Prison Inmates Complain to President Yushchenko

Ukraine’s president is planning to meet with the heads of the State Penitentiary Department to discuss the future of the nation’s penitentiary system. According to the presidential press service, President Yushchenko made a statement to this effect during an unplanned visit to correctional facility No. 71 in Korosten, Zhytomyr oblast, where 1,361 repeat offenders are serving time. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chairman Petro Poroshenko and Zhytomyr oblast chairman Pavlo Zhebrivsky accompanied the president. Viktor Yushchenko met with the prison administration as well as inmates, who offered details of their life behind bars. They complained about poor living conditions, such as inadequate lighting, lack of opportunities to maintain personal hygiene, and harassment by the administration. They requested the president’s assistance in abolishing restrictions on visits and parcels from relatives. The president instructed Zhebrivsky and the prison administration to look into the complaints and promised that he would soon meet with the heads of the State Penitentiary Department to discuss the future of the state penitentiary system. President Yushchenko expressed his firm belief that the new government must think of making correctional facilities more humane, reports Interfax Ukraine. “The modern correctional system alienates people from society and does not facilitate their correction,” Yushchenko said, adding: “The goal of the penitentiary system is not to abase personal dignity, but to help people understand that freedom is the greatest value, so that they will not repeat their mistakes.”