REPORT on the visit to the Pelendava penitentiary (county of Dolj)
1. On 17 March 2000, two APADOR-CH representatives visited the Pelendava penitentiary, opened in July 1999 in the farm and the plot of land of about 1000 hectares taken over from the Romanian Intelligence Service.
Pelendava is situated close to Craiova, on the road to Alexandria. DGP took over this farm from the Romanian Intelligence Service (Romanian acronym SRI). It includes a pig farm (over 2,500 animals), a prize cattle farm (over 600), a dairy, a slaughterhouse, a mechanical workshop and almost 1000 hectares of arable land, most of it in the village Leu (12 km of Pelendava).
The output of this farm is distributed mainly within the penitentiary system. Any supplementary products are sold on the free market. The association hopes that the detainees’ diet will improve as a result of the inclusion of this farm in the penitentiary network.
Upon take-over, SRI and DGP concluded an agreement that made no provisions related to the staff. Consequently, the Pelendava penitentiary took over all the 150 employees that came with the farm. It so happens that the detainees transferred here (50 at the time of this visit) carry out only the hard, unqualified work, although some of them have the qualification required by some of the positions currently occupied by civilian employees. Although the detention regime is semi-open (detainees go to work accompanied by an unarmed guard; room doors are open until 10 p.m.; the night watch is ensured by the detainees themselves; all detainees are entitled to four visits a month and to parcels of up to 20 kg of food, etc.), the penitentiary staff does not agree the idea that a qualified detainee could be a tractor driver, for instance. Arguments such as "a detainee with a tractor could do anything, could escape, attack or destroy" are not plausible, in the opinion of APADOR-CH, because:
Due to this conception, the detainees are not allowed to work at the daily or the slaughterhouse either and not even at the kitchen, because the food for detainees and civilian employees is cooked on the same stoves. Obviously, the menu differs.
All the 50 detainees are accommodated in an old warehouse whose destination was changed after the take-over. The warehouse is roomy, with tiered beds on two levels, tables and chairs and a lavatory consisting of 8 showers, 5 sinks (two connected to hot water), a trough with 3 taps and 5 toilets, 3 of which have seats and water basins. Hot water runs daily, as the penitentiary has its own steam-generating station. Detention conditions are actually good. The commander said he would need 150 more detainees and that similar premises are being fitted to accommodate them; two more such spaces are planned to be built until the end of the year. The yard situated between the premises already in use and the ones under construction is paved and the detainees who return from work can stay in the open until 10 p.m. The penitentiary is going to be provided soon with a pay phone.
Besides the dormitories, the penitentiary management also plans to fit out a kitchen, a mess hall, a surgery and a football field for the detainees.
The detainees receive newspapers daily, but do not engage in any kind of cultural-educational activities. The association agrees that these people, who work daily (weekends included) from 5 or 6 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m., with a two-hour lunch break, no longer have the drive and interest to take part in cultural and educational activities. Still, these people will be soon released. The penitentiary management should show some concern for the way they are prepared to return to a normal life. For instance, one day a week could be entirely dedicated to such matters, during which the detainees’ work could be taken over by the civilian employees taken over from SRI. They could discuss the issues they are going to be faced with after release, such as the reaction of the community and of their families, or the opportunity to get a job, change their qualification, as well as any other matters of concern for the detainees. The penitentiary staff is supposed to include a trainer, who has not been employed yet.
Since the opening of this penitentiary, only one detainee has been sanctioned with reprimand. However, three detainees who were caught making alcohol out of marmalade were sent back to the Craiova maximum-security penitentiary. The APADOR-CH representatives realised that no detainee wanted to return to the penitentiary he had been transferred from (mainly the Craiova maximum-security penitentiary). Consequently, the mere threat to send them back to the penitentiaries they had been transferred from seems to be the most effective method of preventing violations of internal regulations.
A general practitioner who lives in an apartment building in the Pelendava penitentiary and two medical assistants are in charge of the state of health of the 50 detainees, 46 penitentiary staff and150 civilian employees. If 200 more detainees are transferred to Pelendava, APADOR-CH hopes that the penitentiary will also employ a dentist. For the time being, the detainees with dental problems are taken to the dental surgery of the Craiova maximum-security penitentiary.
The surgery is open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., but the doctor said she could be contacted at any other time, as she lives in the very building where the surgery is located.
4.3. The kitchen
As already mentioned, there is only one kitchen for the civilian employees and the detainees, preparing separate menus. On the day of this visit, lunch consisted of peasant soup with meat by-products and cabbage with meat for the detainees and pork soup and beans with sausages for the civilian employees and the penitentiary staff.
The food had been prepared with 5.4 kg meat, 1.3 kg meat by-products and 2 kg lard. According to the norms established by DGP, each detainee should get 100 gr. meat every day. It was not clear whether the quantities mentioned above were used only for the detainees’ food – in which case they got 174 gr. meat/day – or also for the civilian employees and the penitentiary staff, in which case the quantity of meat would not meet the norm. The APADOR-CH representatives saw several pieces of lard floating in the soup; when the contents of the cabbage kettle were stirred, they also saw several small pieces of meat, well below the 174 gr.
APADOR-CH believes that the people who work hard in the farm and in agriculture should have a better diet, especially as this is a semi-open penitentiary. The association believes that the small food supplements granted to the detainees from time to time (on holidays, usually) are insufficient.
Conclusions:
- The Pelendava penitentiary is a successful experiment; as many such detention places as possible should be established;
- APADOR-CH urges DGP to support by al possible financial and material means the repair works under way in this penitentiary;
- If the number of detainees increases to 200, this penitentiary should employ a dentist;
- Although the tight schedule at the Pelendava penitentiary does not allow for cultural-educational activities, the association believes that a solution must be found to include such activities, especially as most detainees will soon be released and they need some degree of psychological counselling;
- APADOR-CH urges DGP to analyse how the quality of the detainees’ food could be improved, especially as they work hard 7 days out of 7;
- An issue to be clarified that does not apply only to the Pelendava penitentiary is related to the detainees’ wages. The penitentiary staff should explain to the detainees how the wages are calculated and especially how their revenues are taxed, in order to avoid the suspicions and troubles caused in other penitentiaries by misunderstandings related to the wages, which no longer represent 10% of the minimum wages or 10% of the wages negotiated with the employer.
Manuela
Stefanescu
Valerian Stan