Penza, 7 October 2011. PenzaNews. The vice-chairman of the government – the head of department of the government of the Penza region on preventive measures of offenses, interaction with law enforcement bodies and realizations of internal policy Sergey Zlatogorsky visited a corrective colony №8 in Penza on Friday, October, 7th.

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The main purpose of his visit was to learn about the system "social lifts". It's a change of conditions of serving of punishment, change of a kind of correctional facility, replacement of the part of punishment with softer kind of punishment and also granting of conditional-early release by means of estimation the behavior of the condemned which is made by a commission colony in accordance with the criteria.

The head of the colony and the chief of regional department of Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia the colonel of internal service Alexander Gorshkov organized excursion for Sergey Zlatogorsky in the correctional facility. The delegation visited a room of transmit-receive of the parcels, a local shop, medical facilities, a sewing shop, a bakery, an evening school, a library and also got acquainted with the conditions of the condemned in various groups.

According to the chief of the colony № 8 Peter Mutihin, in a colony where people condemned for the first time are poisoned, the interaction with the prisoners who have negative characteristics is minimized.

Peter Mutihin said: "Young men often get to our colony at the age of 18 till 25 with the broken mentality. There are a lot of drug addicted people. However, for example, 12 persons get the first and second higher education there. This year there were more than 20 marriages in the colony".

Almost 167 prisoners of 900 ones have already corrected their behavior and are kept in better conditions.

According to the chief of the regional department of Federal Penitentiary Service Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia the colonel of internal service Alexander Gorshkov, the system of "social lifts" is in all nine branches of Federal Penitentiary Service in the Penza. Due to this system only 178 cases of relapses have been registered for 8 months of 2011.

Sergey Zlatogorsky said: "The old penitentiary system isn't effective now and the government softens the conditions of serving punishments. And it is right, because the person should have possibility to correct his mistakes and live better life".

He noticed that the problem of social adaptation of the former prisoners is acute now, therefore it is so important to socialize the condemned just in prisons.

Sergey Zlatogorsky said: "70 % of prisoners of this colony are young men condemned for the first time, they should have a chance for a successful life in future. It is important for the social and economic development of the country because there is a shortage of labors in the country".