Humanitarian situation in Penal System of Ukraine after war has benn started

According to the Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments, as of March 10, there are 33 prisons in the combat zone. Most of them are working institutions that face the challenges of wartime on a daily basis.

The Humanitarian Headquarters of Ministry of Justice (e-mail: na4shtab@ukr.net, contact phone: +380963892269) has been established in the Prison Department of MJ to coordinate the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid to prison infrastructure, and is cooperating with international and Ukrainian charitable and volunteer organizations.

During this time, 5 penal institutions were affected by the shelling. In particular, the Mariupol and Chernihiv pre-trial detention centers and three other penitentiaries in Mariupol, Berdyansk and Kharkiv regions were damaged as a result of gunfire. At the time of the shelling, staff and convicts were in bomb shelters, one person received minor injuries.

Unfortunately, during the temporary occupation of certain cities or districts in the cities, penitentiaries were also seized by the aggressor. Today the connection with the Mariupol, Starobilsk and Kherson pre-trial detention centers, Melitopol and Priazovsky correctional colonies has been lost.

The Department takes measures not only to support the functioning of penitentiary institutions, but also actively works to support the armed forces defending the Ukrainian state.

Thus, with the assistance of the Penal Department, the President of Ukraine issued a number of decrees pardoning 363 convicted veterans of hostilities, who are positively characterized and expressed a desire to defend the state in the ranks of territorial defense units. The release of pardons, as well as those prisoners whose detention measures are revoked by the courts and prosecutors' offices, is being carried out immediately. If the state authorities make other systematic decisions on the release of convicts, the prison system will execute them as soon as possible in the manner prescribed by law.According to the Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments, as of March 10, there are 33 prisons in the combat zone. Most of them are working institutions that face the challenges of wartime on a daily basis.