There are no statistics on the number of transgender people in the Russian prison system. Employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service treat these "invisible" prisoners as an additional problem. The topic remains extremely closed.

What do trans people face in prisons? They've told about it in their stories, as well as lawyers and experts. Is it possible to find a husband in the colony? How is life in the "offended" caste? And why can a rat be the only interlocutor in a cell?

The penal system obviously needs to transform the attitude towards trans people. Our project is about finding out solutions on this topic.

To go to the project, click on the image

20% of women in Russian prisons live with a diagnosis of HIV. Our heroines sat in different years: in the nineties, when HIV was a sentence, and nowadays. Some of them live openly, others hide their status. Their stories, supplemented by statistics, documents and comments from experts, shed light on the situation of HIV people in the Russian penal system.

To go to the project, click on the image

We present the full version of the documentary about cancer patients from Russian colonies. Main character, Nadezhda Bogdanova, did not live up to the premiere. She was the only one of Leonid Agafonov's wards who suffered from cancer, but waited for her release and had the opportunity to say goodbye to her family. She was one of many convicts who had gone through medical hell in prison. She died from lack of timely help. The work on the film is over, but the struggle for human lives continues.

As part of this investigation, we talk about four prisoners who found themselves threatened by signs of cancer. Their stories formed the basis of a large investigation that the head of our group, Leonid Agafonov — who for many years was the head of the Public Monitoring Commission of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the leading expert of the joint project «New Generation» of the ombudsman of Russia and the Council of Europe's Directorate for the Protection of Human Rights — prepares for print.

As a rule, oncological diseases, which, according to statistics, place second in the negative «rating» of deaths in Russia, do not leave prisoners with any chance to live. Those arrested and convicted cannot fight the disease, as they lack the basics: timely diagnosis, necessary medication, and competent medical care. The project team tried to figure out why inhuman treatment of seriously ill patients became the norm in Russian detention centers and colonies.

To go to the project, click on the image