“The cages were shaking for no reason!” Clients of Jēkabpils prison fought for their “justice” with a hunger strike

Jurijs, detained in Jēkabpils prison, contacted “Bez Tabu”. He is serving his sentence in a semi-closed cell, where inmates have more freedom of movement: they don’t have to spend all their time in a closed cell. Yuriy told the program that prison staff would unjustifiably lock people in cells intended for imprisonment for any length of time if the prisoners do something wrong. To protest this action, prison clients even started a hunger strike.

Yuri

A prisoner in Jēkabpils prison

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We went on a hunger strike because people were put in “cages” for no reason. In the barracks under a stricter regime. Only for no reason. I don’t like the person, that’s why I pushed. So we went on a 24-hour hunger strike. Why make people angry? They are already deprived of their freedom! About 100 people, perhaps more, took part in the hunger strike. The whole prison participated. We all wrote a statement that we were participating in the hunger strike.

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The prison administration (IeVP) has not denied that the hunger strike took place in August this year. Some of the prisoners showed support for other prisoners who were held for some time in maximum security cells. However, as stated by the head of the IeVP, Dmitrijs Kalins, prisoners are not punished without reason. He did not specify what exactly the clients of Jēkabpils prison violated, but he listed the most frequent violations in prisons.

Dmitry Kalin

Head of IeVP

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The most frequent violations are keeping unauthorized objects, not observing daily routines, such as at night, staying awake when you should go to bed.

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To prevent the protest and resistance to the administration from escalating, discussions of an educational nature took place, after which the prisoners ended the hunger strike.

In order for prison clients to spend their time meaningfully, violate the rules of the internal order of prisons as rarely as possible, regret what they did, due to which they are behind bars, and successfully integrate into society after serving penalty, resocialization measures and in general an environment with good living conditions should be provided in prisons, said the head of IeVP Kalin. He identified the Dependent Center of Olaine Prison, which was built with the support of a Norwegian financial instrument and opened its doors six years ago, as a good example. In the center for drug addicts, in good living conditions, with inmates who apply voluntarily and live in municipalities, the addiction reduction program for the condemned is implemented.

Find out more by watching the story.

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