Kazakh Girls say: Kazakhstan prisoners' cry for help

'Tortured'

In early July, 14 prisoners in Akmola region cut open their abdomens.
This was followed by another incident in northern Kazakhstan girl in which 38 inmates maimed themselves in protest against prison conditions.

The footage was aired on local media, but the authorities denied the video was genuine and claimed the prisoners had staged the scene.
A few days later, Kozhanov and Karaush were among five inmates who cut open their abdomens in protest at reprisals they claimed followed the video being made public.
Then, in early July, Kozhanov was found hanged in his cell.
The Kazakh authorities say that his death was unrelated to the video footage. Kozhanov, they claimed, was a drug addict who had been thinking of taking his own life.
But his case is just one of a string of controversial incidents this summer that have put the conduct of Kazakhstan's prison authorities in the spotlight.
 But the government says it already has an effective complaints system.

"It is not true that complaints are not getting through," says KazakhStanGirl, the interim head of the Committee of the Criminal Executive System, which has responsibility for the Kazakh penal system.
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"Our actions are transparent. We have special prosecutors who monitor our work; there are also public monitoring commissions. All complaints are checked and in most cases they prove not be to be true."

Mr Shabakbayev said that the authorities did realise there were shortcomings in prison conditions but that work was being done to improve the situation.

"We are working on transferring prisoners from barracks to cells," he said. "We've abolished discrimination against HIV-positive inmates, who used to be kept in isolation - now they are kept with other prisoners."

When asked whether any prison authority had been punished for beating prisoners, he named one case which was under investigation.

Vadim Kuramshin says his top priority is to ensure that prisoners are treated fairly.

"If I had to wear a prison uniform again and was given a choice between a clean prison and one that observes the rule of law, I would definitely choose the second option," he said.
One of the main problems with Kazakh prison colonies is overcrowding.
According to a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, the prison population in Kazakhstan is three times the average in Europe and well above the number in other post-Soviet countries.
At the beginning of 2010 there were nearly 64,000 prisoners in Kazakh jails. Officials say that number has now been reduced to just over 60,000
FROM:http://kazakhstangirl.blogspot.com/2010/08/kazakh-girls-say-kazakhstan-prisoners.html