During my first experience in the Remand Prison, I encountered a hierarchy in the prison rooms. You always have someone in charge in the room. It is usually the person who has been in the room the longest, the so-called oldest, says for Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) Mladen (name changed to protect identity), former UIKS prisoner.
He stayed several times in the Investigation Prison and the Penitentiary in Spuz.
"The main one in my room then, he was a bully. We didn't dare against him. Once he ordered a roommate to beat up our other roommate while he was getting out of the shower. He annoyed him because he was a foreigner. None of us knew why he was there, he was completely non-confrontational, calm," explains Mladen.
The roommate who was ordered by the bully to beat him, felt that he had to do it, he was afraid of "the boss", explains Mladen.
"He waited for that unfortunate stranger when he was coming out of the shower cabin, and pushed him so hard that he fell and seriously injured his head on the bathroom tiles," explains Mladen.
Foreigners are only one of the groups that are considered particularly vulnerable to abuse among imprisoned persons, according to the Association for the Prevention of Torture, an international non-governmental organization that has been fighting torture and inhumane and degrading treatment in closed institutions for decades.
And while any kind of diversity poses a risk of torture by other prisoners, several interlocutors of CIN-CG, who stayed in the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions (UIKS), believe that some form of violence is experienced by a large number of prisoners, and that there are no rules . One abuser in a room is enough to turn an already traumatic prison experience into a nightmare for everyone staying there.
The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT), as well as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), recognize violence between prisoners as a serious source of torture, which requires targeted action and program design. Violent incidents among prisoners are a regular occurrence in almost all prison systems, including various phenomena, from subtle forms of abuse to open intimidation and serious physical attacks, according to the manual for prison employees of the European Commission "Combating Abuse in Prisons".
Informal prison hierarchies mostly lead to this type of violence, and the source is often bad conditions, such as overcrowding, which is one of the leading problems in UIKS, especially in the Pre-trial Prison. For years, both foreign and domestic organizations have been warning about the intensity of violence among prisoners in UIKS.
"Violence among prisoners was a constant problem in the Investigation Prison and the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, the main prison in the country. During this year, there have been reported cases of violence in this prison attributed to the long-standing conflict between the two largest organized crime groups in the country," states the State Department's Human Rights Report for Montenegro for 2023, which was released in April.
UIKS, on the other hand, told CIN-CG that none of the cases of conflict between prisoners involved members of opposing clans.
"We consider it necessary to point out that in the UIKS, when housing persons deprived of their liberty, special attention is paid to the security aspect, and it is impossible to make contact between persons for whom there is knowledge and information that they belong to opposing criminal groups", explained the UIKS.
They confirmed that during 2023 there were cases of fights between roommates in the prison accommodation, and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against them.
Dozens of disciplinary procedures every year
During 2023, 80 UIKS prisoners were subject to disciplinary measures due to fighting and physical injuries, according to the data provided by UIKS to CIN-CG. This is an increase compared to 2022, when disciplinary measures were imposed on 54 prisoners.
The office of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, to which prisoners can report cases of violence and violations of human rights, says that they very rarely receive reports of abuse by other prisoners. Most of the reports are about violations of rights by UIKS or abuse they suffered from employees. Last year too, there were no reports of prisoners to the Ombudsman for violence experienced by other prisoners, according to the data of the Annual Report of this office for 2023.
However, this office explains that this is not proof that none of the prisoners suffer abuse.
"Among the prisoners there has always been a special type of social organization and it is very difficult to get into it and know exactly what is going on", they explained to CIN-CG from this office.
Even in the Basic Court in Danilovgrad, which is responsible for criminal offenses in UIKS, proceedings were not conducted for violence among prisoners, but only for violence by employees towards them, they confirmed for CIN-CG from that court.
In the Strategy for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions 2023-2026, it is stated that "there is an evident significant decrease in the number of cases of violence among prisoners, which is partly the result of implemented special treatment programs for perpetrators of violent behavior".
However, the data on disciplinary reports submitted by UIKS officers against prisoners do not show that the number of incidents has decreased in the last four years. Last year there were the most applications since 2020 - 120 of them.
Documents from the last two years regarding this phenomenon show conflicting data. Thus, in its recommendations to Montenegro, the UN Committee against Torture in 2022 expressed concern about violence among prisoners and recommended improving the capacity of staff and premises, in order to prevent this type of violence. However, the latest report of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the European Commission, which refers to a visit in 2022, states that violence among prisoners in UIKS is a relatively rare phenomenon, and the number of reports is "almost non-existent". And when this kind of violence happens, prisons have successfully dealt with it, by making transfers from cells with detailed risk assessments, it is further stated.
This is a significant improvement over the previous reports of this Committee. In three previous reports, which referred to visits in 2017, 2013 and 2008, the Committee noted a high rate of violence among prisoners and a weak response of UIKS to this problem.
"They know they have to keep quiet"
After the stranger from Mladen's story collapsed on the floor with a scream from the force of the blow, the commanders immediately appeared and asked what it was about.
"It was clear to the victim that he must not write, but also to the rest of us. We had to testify and sign to the commanders, as the 'chief' told us - that the man had accidentally slipped on the tiles in the bathroom. We were afraid that we wouldn't end up like that," Mladen continues.
He himself, as he explains, when at one point he became "the oldest in the room", used that position.
"I was stealing addiction treatment, buprenorphine, from a guy who had just arrived. That's how I became an abuser, not out of a desire to torture someone, but because I needed pills, because of addiction," he explains.
Mladen did not receive treatment for addiction, which is in high demand in prison, and only some of the inmates receive it on prescription. CIN-CG has already written about this problem.
"There are unwritten rules, those who just come to the rooms know that they have to be silent. It is difficult for anyone to report you for anything".
From conversations with ex-prisoners, it can be concluded that those who suffer abuse prefer to hide this problem, rather than report it.
"The majority will not report it, the one who does such a thing would fare even worse. You don't know what's worse when you're a victim, fear or shame that it's happening to you," explains Mladen.
"During my first experience with pre-trial detention, my roommate, who acted as someone in charge, stole my clothes and cigarettes. I realized that it is better not to mess with him, and not to mention anything," Mirko (name changed for identity protection), a former detainee in the UIKS Investigation Prison, tells CIN-CG.
He explains that his roommate stole things from him to later resell them in exchange for psychoactive substances from other inmates. As he says, he realized that the problematic roommate was in a friendly relationship with the commanders, so he was convinced that reporting it would lead to nothing.
"In the room next to mine, there was a very dangerous bully. He did not allow roommates to use the toilet when they wanted, they had to ask him. We all knew it was happening, but no one will report these things," Danilo (name changed to protect identity), also a former prisoner, told CIN-CG.
Psychological violence is particularly common, says Mladen.
"The most benign form of abuse in prison is insults and sexually explicit comments against female partners, making up stories about how your wife cheats on you," says Mladen, who claims to have experienced this many times.
"It's terrible, but I knew I needed to get out because I would have created a problem for myself if I tried to solve it in any way," explains the CIN-CG interlocutor.
The Office of the Protector told CIN-CG that in the last eight years, they investigated only one case of allegations of abuse among prisoners. The person who reported the abuse was actually the abuser of those whom she reported, a careful investigation by the Ombudsman found. The persons who were tortured by the abuser remained silent until the procedure took place, as is evident from the documentation submitted by the Protector to CIN-CG.
In 2020, one case of humiliating treatment of a VJ prisoner by a roommate reached the media. During the humiliation of the prisoner, his roommates filmed him, while ordering him to perform certain movements while blindfolded, tied with his back to a long bar.
Although both UIKS and the prosecution investigated the case, with the assumption that it was abuse, VJ completely denied these allegations and said that he was only "doing exercises".
At that time, "Vijesti" sources from the Investigation Prison told that media that the abuse of VJ is daily, but that "he does not report anything because he is afraid of reprisals".
Also in 2019, one case of abuse of a prisoner by a roommate was disclosed, which was also filmed. After the video became public, the tortured prisoner claimed that he had been reporting abuse to the UIKS administration for a long time, but this institution denied that there had been any reports.
They responded to violence with violence
That there is violence among prisoners is also confirmed by the violence perpetrated by UIKS officers against those who cause riots. Thus, almost every year, UIKS employees use force against imprisoned persons, often after their mutual conflicts, according to the documents of the Protector.
The interlocutor of CIN-CG, who stayed at UIKS about ten years ago, states that after a fight, he was violently abused by UIKS employees, so much so that, as he claims, his internal organs failed and for a while he could not normally eats, drinks, or goes to the toilet.
"They handcuffed me to the radiator and beat me on the soles of my feet, on my kidneys, brutally. I couldn't see who they were, they were wearing masks," says the former prisoner.
He never told anyone what he experienced. Even today, he doesn't want to go into details, it's hard for him to remember. He explains that he experienced the violence as humiliation. Unlike some prisoners, who reported abuse that is believed to have been worse in earlier decades than today, he never reported it to anyone. As he says, there are most of them - those who suffered torture after problematic behavior, but did not report it.
The safety and security of prisoners must be the responsibility of the institution, and prison employees must be on constant alert to protect prisoners from violence, both verbal and psychological, as well as physical, according to the Association for the Prevention of Torture.
In order to deal with the phenomenon of violence among prisoners, prison staff must be ready to spot the signs of a problem and be decisive and adequately trained to intervene when necessary. Positive relations between staff and prisoners, based on the awareness of safety and care in prison, is a decisive factor in this context, it depends to a large extent on whether the staff has adequate interpersonal communication skills, according to the European Council manual "Fighting against abuse ".
A global problem
At the beginning of the year, the region was shaken by a story from a prison in Serbia, where a pensioner, who after throwing a firecracker from the window, ended up serving a one-month sentence in Padinska skela prison, because he did not have the money to pay for the offense. He never got out of prison - he was killed after the most brutal forms of torture and rape with an object, by his roommates, who were also held there for minor offenses, and had never been prosecuted before.
This example shows that the boundaries when it comes to abuse are sometimes almost non-existent. A certain level of violence exists in all closed institutions only because of the fact of freedom being taken away, and the tension and frustration that this brings with it, states the Association for the Prevention of Torture.
In addition, the prison population is generally conflicted, which poses additional risks, according to the relevant institutions.
At the beginning of the month, the CPT warned of an increase in crowding and violence between prisoners in Cyprus, and last year it warned Moldova to urgently respond to violence among prisoners, which stems from informal prison hierarchies, where there is even a "caste" system. Thus, in this informal system there are so-called "untouchables" or "humiliated", who are forbidden to have contact with prisoners of "higher" castes, they are allowed to walk only along the wall, they are forbidden access to public and recreational areas, the canteen and the laundry room used by the general prison population. They are forbidden to work with others who are housed in prison, and have the worst housing conditions, according to the CPT report for 2023.
In Latin American countries, prisoners have become so strong that they informally take over the administration of prisons and rule them. Weapons easily enter these prisons, and the clans are so powerful that they organize escapes and murders of guards, or rearrange prison life so that they live comfortably, and even bring their families to live with them. That's how thirty prisoners escaped from a prison in Mexico last year, during which they killed seventeen people, mostly guards. The most powerful clans in Brazil were formed in prison.
UIKS claims that there were no cases of rape
CIN-CG interlocutors are convinced that the most serious forms of abuse have occurred in UIKS in recent years.
I know that one very violent guy ordered several of them to sexually abuse a man with whom he had a conflict," says Mladen.
According to him, the sexual abuse was carried out by an object, and numerous prisoners were instructed to make fun of the abused because of this case, which caused additional pain. The event, he says, happened in the period 2018-2019.
UIKS does not have data that during this period there was sexual abuse of any person deprived of liberty, and according to UIKS records, there were no cases of rape even in the previous 10 years, they told CIN-CG from this institution.
Two cases of reported rape in UIKS were in the media in 2019. However, the prosecutor's office then rejected the criminal charges, due to lack of evidence.
"In the absence of evidence, prosecutors usually suspend the investigation and the case of torture against a prisoner goes into oblivion. This is a consequence of the ineffectiveness of the criminal procedure, because if it cannot be determined who committed a certain act, then there is no criminal offense", said the then deputy local ombudsman, Miloš Janković, for Dan.
Sexual abuse in men's prisons is an under-reported and stigmatizing phenomenon, according to Panel Reform, in its report Global Prison Trends 2023. A study conducted in England and Wales found that even prison staff stigmatized rape victims in men's prisons.
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