“They beat them and burned their hair”: details of the forced haircuts of female prisoners in the colony

Colony No. 10 is located in the village of Gorny. Almost 7 thousand km from Moscow. There is little information about her on the Internet, but there are plenty of photos from various holidays. From the photo reports, it seems that the colony is exemplary, and all the women there do is be creative. But what is actually hidden behind the barbed wire, when there are no “ceremonial” checks and “open doors” days?

The women who were released said that they wanted to erase from their memory all the days they spent there. Members of the previous POC say that during inspections they received complaints, including beatings (in one case, a colony employee allegedly personally beat one woman with a sword belt). The head of the IC, Oksana Gritskova, according to human rights activists, always interfered with these checks, tried not to let people into some premises, made scandals and then complained about the visitors. But what happened the other day is beyond what is permitted even in a colony.

“My daughter called in tears,” says the mother of one convict. – She says that she and others who had the longest hair were shaved bald. Two weeks before, she said that someone in the colony was found to have lice. But they checked each other themselves – nothing happened. They have a nurse among those sitting there, she also checked – it was clean.

I then answered my daughter: “If anything happens, I’ll send you a remedy for lice.” My daughter has very thick beautiful hair. She never cut them, she took care of them. She is clean and very neat. And how will she live completely bald now?… Where is her hair? They told us that they disposed of it and burned it. I don’t believe.

“My daughter had a braid down to her waist,” says another mother. “She herself once worked as a hairdresser and knew how to take care of her hair.” She did not have pediculosis. The daughter said that one girl strongly resisted, began to run away, was caught and beaten. And still they shaved it.

Other girls who were forcibly shaved on September 15 and 16 also began calling their parents. And those – to human rights activists. On September 18, members of the Primorsky Territory POC, following complaints from the mothers of convicted girls, visited PKU IK-10 to check.

From the POC report: “During the inspection, we had an individual conversation with each of the girls without the presence of the institution’s employees, and also carried out an examination for physical injuries…

None of the girls had lice at the time of shaving. This is stated by the convicts themselves, and can be confirmed by those who examined them from among other prisoners. Despite this fact, the head of the colony, using threats, insults against the convicts, including on the basis of nationality (calling them “silver foxes”), obscene language, intimidating them with reprisals and using various methods of moral and physical humiliation, ordered to forcibly shave them heads.

One of the girls tried to escape, but was caught, beaten and shorn. We recorded traces of physical violence on her body. Other girls, they said, cried and begged the boss not to cut their hair, but she was relentless. As a result, with the use of physical force from other prisoners, the girls were forcibly shaved.

By the way, all three girls previously had beautiful long hair, which they kept clean and tidy. According to the girls, over two days, September 15 and 16, about 50 prisoners in the colony were shaved to zero in this way.

In response to our request to provide an explanation to the members of the POC on the situation that occurred, the head of the colony, Gritskova O.V. replied that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, all these were the prisoners’ fantasies. There was no epidemic of pediculosis, but there were isolated cases of detection, and in order to prevent the spread of infection throughout the entire colony, the girls were asked to cut their hair to zero, to which they voluntarily agreed.

In response to our question, what regulations, provisions, and other regulatory documents were used by the head of the colony, O.V. Gritskova, when choosing a method to combat isolated cases of head lice infection. replied that there are no regulatory documents for such cases. There are rules of internal regulations (internal regulations) – “MK”), this is her personal handbook, and she is guided by it, and suggested that we familiarize ourselves with Article 158, which states that in emergency cases it is permissible to cut off prisoners’ hair for medical reasons.

In response to our question about how the contaminated hair was disposed of and whether there was a disposal report, the head of the colony replied that the hair was burned and no report was required.”

“This inspection left me with an unpleasant feeling,” says PMC member Inna Salova. – The boss behaved aggressively. There was a feeling that she was a lady, the colony was her village, her serfs were condemned. Regarding pediculosis, we were told that the medical records of those involved in the inspection from among the convicts were taken for examination to the medical unit and access to them was impossible.

And what is this clause that she referred to as allowing her to shave convicts in emergency cases? We did not find it either in the PVR or in other regulatory documents…

Neither I nor other experts on prison topics know about such a norm. This is not provided for in the internal regulations, and it could not have happened (I participated in the preparation of new temporary detention centers).

But even if we imagine that it exists, we need evidence of the presence of head lice in convicts. There is none of them. So it all seems arbitrary.

Two days later, members of the PMC returned to the colony. And the boss, who had previously assured that there was no head lice, announced a quarantine. Human rights activists were not allowed in. Although at the same time the supervising prosecutor arrived at the colony, and he was on the territory. Apparently, the quarantine extended only to members of the supervisory commission.

Human rights activists then spoke with the prosecutor. They said he looked shocked and said that perhaps 50 people had been shaved.

Currently, according to the observations of members of the Public Monitoring Committee and employees of IK-10, no measures are being taken to document and examine girls for beatings and bodily injuries.

But what worries parents and human rights activists even more is that the premises in the detachments were treated with creolin. This remedy is used in agriculture and veterinary medicine, but certainly not for treating humans. In 2018, in the Alma-Ata region, two girls, 2 and 5 years old, were poisoned with this livestock disinfectant. Mom smeared it on her head (to get rid of lice), which ended in intensive care. And then the sanitary services wrote: “neocidol (creolin) is a means for disinfecting livestock against ticks and other insects; it does not harm animals, but it can be deadly for people if it accidentally enters the body or onto exposed skin.”

“My daughter called today and said that she doesn’t feel well after this disinfection, but they don’t provide medical care,” says the mother of the convict. – Everyone was intimidated. The boss is furious. I wrote a statement asking to protect my trust. Help us, for Christ’s sake.

Meanwhile, from the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Primorsky Territory, General Verstkin, the POC received not just a reply, but… a slander. “Members of the PMC provoked employees into conflict, expressed their opinions in an emotional form, accused the head of the institution of exceeding official authority in their opinion and according to the words of the convicted, which is a violation of the norms of conduct of the Code of Ethics for members of the PMC.” Covering up sadism means being an accomplice, doesn’t it?