Federal Penitentiary Service changed its mind to require POC to notify about visits to prisoners in advance

The Federal Penitentiary Service refused to require members of the POC to notify the visit to the pre-trial detention center 48 hours in advance

The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN RF) has excluded from the draft procedure for visiting members of the Public Monitoring Commissions (POC) an item obliging human rights activists to notify the service of visiting a pre-trial detention center and other institutions of the penitentiary system 48 hours before arrival.

A new version of the draft of the relevant order of the Federal Penitentiary Service has appeared on the portal of draft regulatory legal acts. It states that the PMC, “indicating the pre-trial detention centers, institutions and dates of the visit scheduled for visiting, notifies the appropriate territorial body of the Federal Penitentiary Service” in charge of these institutions.

Earlier, the Federal Penitentiary Service proposed to oblige members of the commission to notify of their arrival at the institutions subordinated to the service 48 hours in advance. Such a requirement was motivated by considerations of the personal safety of members of the PMC.

According to Interfax, the PMC of Moscow supported the new version of the order. “This shows that the Federal Penitentiary Service is following the path of openness and maximum assistance to public control in places of detention,” Olga Druzhinina, deputy chairman of the commission, told the agency.

Earlier, the chairman of the PMC of Moscow, Georgy Volkov, said that the adoption of the project in its current form would lead to a virtual halt in the activities of the PMC to protect the rights of prisoners throughout Russia. According to Volkov, some of his colleagues told him that they would resign because “they do not intend to imitate activity.”