Hostages of the System

Psychological services have been offered in Russian prisons for 32 years, but they neither assist prisoners nor help employees of the penitentiary system. Instead, the system has become ineffective, according to the human rights project Pervy Otdel (First Department).

The problems begin with recruitment. Entry into the psychological service does not require a psychology degree; a professional retraining course and a "penchant for psychological work" suffice. A former member of the Public Monitoring Commission for the Protection of Human Rights in Places of Forced Detention noted that many people take the jobs not out of a desire to help, but because it is an easy path to obtaining a military rank and retiring earlier than many civilian specialists.

While some individuals genuinely want to help prisoners, they face significant challenges, due to limited resources and restrictive regulations within the penitentiary system.

In theory, prison psychologists should help inmates adapt to prison life, monitor their mental health, predict suicide attempts and self-harm, provide personal consultations, and prepare prisoners for life after release. Psychologists must also spend at least eight hours a month on professional self-education.

However, there is a severe shortage of staff. In Russia, there is only one psychologist for every 132 prisoners. This staffing shortage forces many psychologists to rely on mass testing instead of one-on-one communication with inmates.

"There is no real psychological work; it's all paperwork. Because of this, psychologists lack experience," a former member of the Public Monitoring Commission said.

The shortcomings of the psychological service are evident in the number of suicides. In 2019 and 2020, 2,842 persons died in prisons, colonies, and pretrial detention centers, 561 of whom committed suicide. The most recent case occurred on February 4, 2024, when Takhirzhon Bakiev, who had been brutally tortured in a colony in the Irkutsk region, was found hanged in Irkutsk's Pretrial Detention Center. Relatives and human rights activists believe Bakiev was either murdered or driven to suicide.

Asmik Novikova, a sociologist and expert with the Obshestvenny Verdict (Public Verdict Foundation), said that Bakiev should have been a clear priority for psychologists in the colony: "He was subjected to brutal torture and continued to serve his sentence. Psychologists should have been working with him. However, his suicide was not prevented, and even his attempts were not recorded in time."

There are also inadequacies in how psychologists handle prisoners who have attempted suicide. Such individuals are placed under closer surveillance, requiring them to check in every half-hour or hour, which can be particularly burdensome in prison. "Thanks to the so-called 'wonderful' psychologists, life in the colony becomes even more difficult," said Vladimir Rubashny, former head of the psychological service in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The psychological service also fails to prevent suicides among penitentiary employees. In 2019 alone, there were 180 cases. According to Rubashny, staff members are reluctant to seek help from psychologists because their issues are immediately reported to the HR department, which can result in termination.

A similar lack of confidentiality affects interactions with prisoners. Former political prisoner Sasha Skochilenko recounted how a psychologist offered her a consultation, only to later admit that her task was to determine why Skochilenko was switching price tags to anti-war stickers, thereby aiding the investigation into her case, not helping her.