To the famous detention center number 5, the so-called «Arsenalka» isolator, the only female isolator in St. Petersburg, Yana got pregnant, 23 weeks. The first thing operational staff members did was to begin persuading an abortion.

— When I got to the detention center I was 23 weeks pregnant. I said that I was pregnant. They immediately asked, «What makes you think so? Do you have a medical card as a pregnant?». I said, «Yes, but it is at home». «All of you say so». In short, they brought me a test then, I pee on it, it showed two strips that meant pregnancy. When I was just taken to a transit camera, the «dog lovers» (operative officers; in this case — women employees who search the prisoner upon admission to the detention center – ed.) searched me and began to persuade an abortion. They said, «Why do you need it? Sentence, baby... Let's go to an abortion». They convinced, «Pity the child! You do not need it?!»…

— That is, abortion is a pity for the child?

— For them, yes... But thank God that I was imprisoned, because I stopped taking drugs and my child was not born with an abstinence syndrome... I'm even grateful, because I wouldn't have Nastya if I hadn't been imprisoned. I think so…

Yana was placed into a cell for pregnant women. There were three other prisoners besides her. Women who are expecting a child should be provided with additional food. Yana began receiving it in 2-3 weeks. By the standards of Russian isolators, as the heroine says, it is quickly enough.

— Were you provided antenatal care? We often faced the fact that there wasn't any antecare: no examination by a gynecologist, no ultrasound testing…

— I was examined by a gynecologist. I would like to tell nasty things about «Arsenalka», but in my case they acted like human beings... And the gynecologist and ultrasound — everything was provided there. In general, the atmosphere was normal. I was in the same cell with Bella, Nina and someone else — I don't remember now. There were four of us. There was a woman there who constantly gives birth: she is released — she comes back... She was recently released under the Article 82, she left, gave the child to an orphanage and... returned back. Someone there had four children... She was transferred pregnant...

From Leonid Agafonov's story about visiting pretrial detention center № 5 in St. Petersburg:

«The next was Lena. We were very worried about her. The FPS medicine worked slowly. Daniil was supposed to be born in two months, and it doesn't matter that the woman is under stress in extreme prison conditions. In general, they didn't send the young woman to the hospital on time. Rupture of the amniotic fluids membrane began in the detention center. In the maternity home they had to do caesarean. The baby's weight was 1830 grams… Two days ago he was brought to his mother. Now Daniil is a real «hamster», his weight is already more than 2200 grams».

— It was time to give birth. Labor pains had began. First, the doctor came. «How long will it last, you think?». I said, «I don't know». She measured the frequency of contractions, called for an ambulance brigade, then I was taken to the 16th (the hospital in Kupchino — ed.).

— How did you go there?

— We had been leaving the airlock for a very long time (airlock is the space that separates the prison and the street. It is for pedestrians and cars. First, a car or a person gets into the gateway, then the exit door of a detention center closes, after that documents are checked and vehicles are inspected, and only after all procedures the door or gate to the street may be opened (LINK— ed.). A woman and two men (convoy — ed.) rode by the ambulance with me, the prison car was following behind. I was taken like a dangerous (recidivist — ed.).

— Were you handcuffed at the hospital?

— No. They took me to a special room for us (a separate ward for prison arrivals — ed.). I realized that it was a room for the prisoners, because I heard one escort spoke to the other: «As usual?». Then they pulled something on the window. And, by the way, they brought me there, took pictures and said: «Smile». I didn't have to do it at all. You know what I mean. You're having the labor pains, but they say «smile»... The escorts were watching me, then the midwife asked the escort male to leave the room. The convoy woman looked at my «there» and said: «I'm interested, I have never seen». I'm giving birth, and she is looking, because... she is interested.

As soon as I gave birth, my baby was taken away. I said, «Show». — «Now we are washing her». They told the weight, revealed and took the baby away. She was too little, 1 kg 20 grams... She was put, as I had understood, under the «cap» (into the pressure chamber — ed.). Handcuffs weren't chained until I was giving birth. Then the ice was applied, and I was immediately handcuffed. I was giving birth for two hours, then I went back to the detention center. Approximately in 4-5 hours I was in the isolator, although I was supposed to stay at the maternity hospital. Three days set. Just the convoy doesn't want (to work in shifts — ed.)...

In the pretrial detention center a little Yana's daughter received severe burns. The general statistics of child injuries in detention sites is unknown, basically only those cases emerge when a child dies.... How many babies were actually injured in detention centers and colonies — such information is absent.

— You know, I'm just reliving it... The cellmate was boiling water in the kettle, I was feeding the baby. After feeding I removed Nastya from the chair. I turned around and in a second I heard the bang of a kettle and a terrible scream. My child was screaming. I began yelling. And thanks to my cellmate Nastya, a pregnant redheaded tall girl, who was there. She asked, «Why are you yelling?». While I was recovering, she grabbed Nastya, took clothes off a baby, brought her to the bathroom and put her under a stream of cold water. Thank God, there was a diaper on the child.

Doctors came quickly. They put a bandage on. The ambulance arrived, gave an injection to the child. I was told, «Pack up baby». I collected things and so she was taken to the burn ward.

The girl got serious burns of the body, face, hands. She was taken to intensive care.

— Nastya stayed in the hospital for a very long time, longer than expected. Why did she stay there longer?.. Because our detention center administration didn't provide a vehicle.

— How did the prison officers act in that situation?

— They came over, began to interrogate, took explanations from me, from a cellmate. She repeated all the time, «I didn't do it on purpose, I didn't do it on purpose...». Before this, in the morning, there was a conflict between us. We usually go out of the room, when one child is sleeping, to let him sleep well. But my neighbor did not do that, so we had a conflict with her. And just in that day the situation happened... I don't blame her (now), but that time I was ready to strangle her, tear her up. Employees issued that as an accident.

— Well, try to understand, the administration must do something for the safety of children. For example, lift sockets higher. Any child could reach them.

— Yes. It was later, after my daughter got injured. The time she was discharged from the hospital, «household bulls» (convicts who do facility-related work in prison — ed.) arrived and raised the socket. That is, when the child was scalded, they did not respond...

— In the cold season, when you are ready for a walk and have dressed the child, she is sweating all over. We had a landline and could call the duty officer, asking: «Take out for a walk». Sometimes happened they answered, «Someone had already entered the territory, wait». And we used to wait for forty minutes or an hour, became hysterical, undressed children, «That's all, a walk is over!». Either you get out or you fucking return. It is practiced there: first you can't go out, and then can't return back.

— Was there a playground in the detention cite: swings, carousels?

— Yes, a playground for children was there: a hill, a pipe... I remember in 2005 there was no playground at all...

— What about diapers?

— That's when Sashunya (Alexandra is the heroine of the first part of the project about prison's childbirth «Prohibition on breastfeeding» was released, some devastation began. «Write a statement», they told us when the diapers ended. We had written a statement, but we were not given...

— And where did you go then?

— I met a friend, she came to meet me with my elder daughter. In fact, my little child and I had to go to Kronstadt to a rehabilitation crisis center, they had already been waiting for us there. Instead, I had stayed at my friend's place for five days. Then my sister came and took me home.

— When I am without drugs, I am real, and when drugs start appearing in my life, I don't need anything…

— I see... We think that it is necessary to rehabilitate those who want to get rid of drug addiction, but no one is doing that.

P.S. We wanted to meet with Yana again, but we had known, that our subject was accused of theft. She didn't appear to the court. Her whereabouts is unknown. Her social network status: «My daughters are the most important and valuable in my life!»...

— The observer must identify if there are pregnant, women recently gave birth, women with children under 3 years who are free (this is another vulnerable group: children are taken away from arrested women and placed in an orphanage without women consent. By law, women should stay together with babies). We have to start working with women who are waiting for a child in custody, to track the development of pregnancy and accompany the prisoner further (nutrition, childbirth, breastfeeding, etc..

In the detention site I would recommend to conduct a survey of women with children and pregnant women, to create a template for questionnaires with basic parameters and with phone numbers of relatives, in order to establish supportive links. It's necessary to track women with diseases (mother's and child's RH factors, HIV, hepatitis, etc.).

As I have already said, nowhere is statistics on child injuries. And not all of observers are ready to work with this theme. We have to find out how many children are in hospitals and what for. Mommies, who are waiting for their babies from hospitals, can be found in ordinary cameras. There were cases when a mother was sent to a regular cell after transferring her child to the hospital.

Prison medicine or more precisely its absence does not spare the little prisoners. One of the arrested women, Zhenya, got into the detention site while she was pregnant. She gave birth to a child being imprisoned. In summer 2015 public observer Leonid Agafonov took control of her. During a visit to the detention center he noticed that the baby's head had a tumor and she held her head very badly.

Memories of Leonid Agafonov:

«Little Ulyana hadn't been examined by an oncologist and a neurosurgeon for four months. Her mother submitted for parole, but she had received neither characteristics nor medical certificates of child's health from the administration of detention site №5. She had to withdraw the petition, because trips to the court with the child were exhausting and the sessions were been postponing due to lack of certificates. This is only one episode in the number of «advantages» purchased by women giving birth in prison...

A lot of work was done to arrange doctor's visit for examining an infant! More than four months of endless appeals to different instances, requests to Moscow colleagues for a help. We reached the deputy head of the Medical Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia. It's hard to imagine how tragic that story would end if it were malignant tumor. Fortunately, a surgeon examined Ulyana had found out that the tumor (fibroid) was benign and doesn't threaten the life of the young patient. After release the girl's mother managed to get a more accurate diagnosis: Uliana has cerebral palsy. The diagnosis was eventually made, but precious time, which could be used for the girl's treatment, was lost. This story took place in the second capital, in St. Petersburg, where there is either infrastructure and personnel. To say nothing about the regions... Most of these stories don't spread beyond detention places. As a result, late diagnosis, late treatment, which leads to irreversible damage to a child health.

To change the situation to the best, one should heed the general recommendations for the «system»: it is necessary to reduce the prison population and reduce the number of women with children in prisons, sentence only those who represent social danger. And for this the «GULAG» system must be changed».

Leonid Agafonov, prison expert:

«A woman and her husband were both convicted. The term was not very long. The woman was in the Nizhny Novgorod colony with her child. A year and a half ago the woman's mother phoned me.

The caller told that the baby was hospitalized, the mother remained in the colony, the relatives were not informed about the whereabouts and condition of the baby.

The mother called in a panic: there was no information about her granddaughter, the child was taken unknown where, the baby was only a few months old. The woman worried that the child would be taken away and sent to an orphanage. I recommended to issue a power of attorney for the grandmother to care for the child in the hospital.

Nowadays in some Russian colonies an experiment is being conducted: mothers live with their babies together, but firstly, it's all about an insignificant number of prisoners, and secondly, the prison administration can stop the experiment at any time. For example, if a prisoner doesn't agree to cooperate with the administration».

In 2018, two tragic incidents occurred in Russia — children died in orphanages at colonies. In March, a 3-month-old boy died of asphyxiation in the Nizhny Novgorod female colony, he suffocated while feeding (http://nnovgorod.sledcom.ru/news/item/1233120/).

In November, a 3-month-old child died in an orphanage in the female colony of the Chelyabinsk region. The cause was an acute viral disease (http://chel.sledcom.ru/news/item/1274235/). In total, 8 children were hospitalized from the institution.

The facts were learned only after the information appeared on the website of the investigative committee.

But whether someone will be punished remains a question. Investigation and prosecution of cases of negligence can last very long.

«It turns out 0.4% of the total number of children in the detention sites. If it happened in the clinic, there would be a great scandal, but in this case nobody knows about it or find out too late. Instituted proceedings is a necessary measure, because it's impossible to hide the fact of death.

The FPS claims: the staff is enough. Formally, that's so: in Russia there are 296,000 employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service and ALMOST 500 mothers with children (LINK). But we see two deaths in three months. The main problem, I think, is that the child should be with the mother».

But the FPS believes that the reason lies not in the shortcomings of the penitentiary system. Blame observers who identify violations. We have two unique documents. The first is a response to the message that women, contrary to standards, are taken back to the zone in the first hours after childbirth (a letter from the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, St. Petersburg Directorate, signed by the chief I.V. Potapenko). The second document is a response of the St. Petersburg Healthcare Committee. We propose to look at two these documents that contradict each other, pay attention to the way the FPS is trying to hide the truth and blame observers detecting human rights violations in penal system institutions.