© Pavel Lisitsyn / RIA Novosti
Prisoners make woven furniture at Penal Colony No. 10, Yekaterinburg
Prisoners make woven furniture at Penal Colony No. 10, Yekaterinburg
According to Maximenko, "this is yet another alternative to the deprivation of freedom."
"Compulsory works and the stay at correctional centers ... can be compared to the work of persons on rotational shifts, working far away from their homes and living in hostels. There are only few restrictions - they cannot choose work on their own or leave the correctional center without the administration's permission," the deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
"There are actually no other restrictions - they live in ordinary hostels and, once they serve a third of their punishment term, convicts may be permitted to live outside the center with their families but within a municipality where the correctional center is located," he added.
After the court passes its verdict, convicts go to the correctional center on their own to work under a labor contract. A convict can use a mobile phone and the Internet. Convicts who fall ill have the right to turn to doctors under a medical policy. They are also entitled to an 18-day vacation after the first six months of work. By a court decision, the state will retain from 5% to 20% of the convict's wages. Convicts will also have to reimburse the cost of living in a hostel and pay under lawsuits for damage recovery.
Comment: This form of compassionate treatment of prisoners stands in stark contrast to the quality of life that prisoners in the US have, where many are forced to work for pennies per day in what is essentially slave labor practice: