Former inmates say conditions for women in Russian pretrial detention centers and penal colonies vary significantly by region. According to Elena, there are no uniform rules across Russia, and the differences between facilities can be substantial.
She says her first main detention facility was Moscow’s SIZO No. 6, the only women’s prison in the city. According to her account, almost anything is available there for money: the facility has an actual beauty salon, and inmates with funds in their account can regularly get manicures, pedicures, and haircuts.
Elena explains that the salon is staffed by convicted women who, after sentencing, were not transferred to a colony but kept in the maintenance unit. She says that if a woman worked as a hairdresser or manicurist before her arrest, she may have a chance to remain in the detention center instead of being sent on to a colony.
Over two and a half years, Elena was moved through several detention centers and colonies. In her assessment, the farther one gets from Moscow, the worse the situation becomes. Formally, inmates can order necessary items using money in their account, funded by relatives or friends, but in practice the range of goods becomes extremely limited.
As Elena describes it, away from the capital inmates are fortunate if the prison shop even has crackers and cookies, while the maximum available may be a bar of laundry soap and the cheapest sanitary pads. Cosmetics, she says, are often out of the question, so those who had money tried to stock up while still in a detention center before transfer.
In Belarus, unlike in Moscow, there is no separate women’s detention center of this kind. Kristina says every regional city has a prison, and there are also detention centers in Zhodino and Baranovichi. The country has only two women’s colonies: No. 4 in Gomel for first-time offenders and No. 24 in Rechytsa for repeat offenders.
According to Kristina, the available care products, cosmetics, and prohibitions in Belarusian facilities are almost the same everywhere. At the same time, she stresses that no Belarusian detention center offers anything like a beauty salon. Relatives, she says, are allowed to pass on creams, masks, mascara, and eye shadow to inmates.