A correctional colony is the main type of state institution designed to contain adult citizens who are sentenced to imprisonment. When passing a verdict, the court determines the place of detention of the person who is punished for a crime.
Citizens who for the first time received their term in the form of an opinion for crimes committed through negligence, as well as for unlawful misconduct, assessed by a small and medium severity, are sent to a settlement colony. Convicts sent for correction to institutions with more stringent detention regimes can be transferred there, if they have received a positive response during their stay in them.
The general regime colony is intended for those citizens who, for the first time, have committed a crime belonging to the category of grave ones. Those convicted of light and medium offenses are also kept there if, when passing a sentence, the court determined this type of institution for them.
The maximum security penal colony is intended for convicts for crimes that are classified as especially serious if they were committed for the first time. According to the verdict, repeat offenders may also be held there if their previous wrongful misconduct was punishable by imprisonment.
There are correctional facilities in which the detention regime is recognized as special. They sent male criminals who are to serve life sentences. By its decision, the court may also send repeat offenders there, if it considers them especially dangerous for society. The special regime colony is also intended for holding criminals for whom the sentence has been changed: the death penalty in the form of a pardon for serving a life sentence or for staying in a correctional institution for a certain period of time.
Women who commit unlawful acts live separately from male criminals.
The correctional colony has a division into two zones. In the first of them are rooms intended for the implementation of the production process. The second, residential zone, in turn, includes several local sections, which hostels for prisoners, a canteen, a school, a library, a club, an outpatient clinic, and sometimes a small stationary treatment center, as well as a bathhouse. In the same part are rooms intended for administration. Often in a colony there is a small church or place intended for prayers. The living area includes special rooms intended for visits both short-term, in the interval from two to four hours, and long, for 1-3 days.
The penal colony, in which prisoners are kept under strict conditions, has lockable cells. Twenty to fifty people each are locked in citizens deprived of their liberty for crimes. Colonies of other regimes are equipped with dormitories, the sleeping quarters of which are designed for twenty-one hundred and fifty beds. The norm of living space established by law is two square meters per prisoner. With a lack of space, beds in a sleeping room can be located in two, or even three tiers. Criminals sentenced to life imprisonment are held in cells of two people each.
In addition to dormitories, the hostels are equipped with rooms where personal belongings are stored, meals are taken, and locker rooms for outerwear are located. In addition, there is the so-called “red corner”, designed for leisure hours, equipped with a TV, bookshelves, tables, etc. In front of the hostel there is a small area for walking, where prisoners can be in their free time from work and various events.