Way home with “Sunrise”.

Arkhangelsk charitable organization “Rassvet” which is translated from Russian as “sunrise” is one of the most famous and experienced actors of the civil society in the region. For a long time Rassvet develops different kinds of activities aimed at making our reality more tolerant and accessible to people.

One of the important sectors of Rassvet’s activity is penitentiary institutions. In this activity the organization is closely cooperating with the Arkhangelsk Regional Directorate of Federal Service of penalties execution (UFSIN). UFSIN in Arkhangelsk oblast includes 26 institutions of which 19 are the correctional colonies. By the end of 2011 the number of imprisoned made over 12 thousand people.

The main concern of UFSIN’s offices is how to help the convicts to come back to the normal life after staying in prison. In the beginning of its activity the volunteers tried to develop different sorts of productions in the colonies. For example they have realized a project of development of agriculture in one of the colonies in the south of Arkhangelsk oblast. This project was partly funded by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. The activists of Rassvet are trying to implement the best international experience in their efforts to humanize the Russian penitentiary system. They for example have got a wide range of partners in Norway and realized a number of projects in cooperation with Norwegian institutions.

-Norway has very good experience in restitution of former convicts after punishment,- says Svetlana Popkova, coordinator of the program in Rassvet.

- The Norwegian system of social support both in the jail and after discharge is very interesting for Russia. A person released from prison gets support in the employment, education, finding lodging and other social challenges and they in Norway are actively using the services of public organizations. The problem of rehabilitation of discharged persons is really acute in Russia. We think that in Arkhangelsk oblast with its big number of penitentiary institutions it is absolutely necessary to have a rehabilitation center for such people, - stressed Svetlana.

The discussions around opening of rehabilitation center for discharged are going on in Arkhangelsk for several years. People working in Rassvet consider that international projects realized by them in cooperation with Norwegian organization could help to develop this initiative. Nowadays “Rassvet” is working on the project “Way Home”. Their partners here are the rehabilitation center “Home” (Huset oppfølgingssenter) in Tromso and Kirkens Sosialtjeneste. Common activity started in 2007 and includes exchange of experience between the officers of penitentiary institutions in the Barents Region. The agenda for the years 2011-2012 is development of cooperation between the northern counties of Norway in Russia in the field of social support and rehabilitation for discharged people.

The matters of this cooperation have been discussed during the visit of delegation of deputies of Regional Duma, representatives of NGOs and journalists from Arkhangelsk to Tromso in December this year. The project participants visited the penal executive administration and studied the experience of alternative kinds of penalties like public works, electronic bangles etc. It is important that among the delegation participants were two chairmen of Regional Duma’s committees: Sergey Emmanuilov who heads the committee of health care and social care and Sergey Vtoriy, the leader of Committee of juridical and judicial issues. This fact raises the expectation that the Norwegian experience in this field will be introduced in practice in Arkhangelsk oblast.

One of the most interesting part of this visit was an excursion to the local prison in Tromso and to get acquainted about the conditions of inmates life in detention. The participants paid special attention to coordination of activity on social escort of the discharged persons between Tromso jail and the municipality in such issues like habitation and employment. They knew for example that Tromso jail now is going to introduce a special position of coordinator on discharge who will maintain contacts with different social institutions. The delegation from Arkhangelsk also discussed the new project “TAFU” which is aimed at smooth rehabilitation of discharged in normal life. The project is initiated by the Ministry of Justice. They visited the medical and social rehabilitation centers, public organizations “RIO’ and “MARBORG” which are working with people suffering from drug abuse. Another organization which experience was studied during this visit was “Way Back”. This society was established by former condemns in 2002 and now expands its activity in Northern Norway.

-This visit was very informative and useful, - says Elena Ermolina, the leader of “Rassvet”. I know that people in the delegation were impressed by Norwegian experience in this specific field.

Elena Ermolina specially mentioned their excursion to the rehabilitation center “HUSET” working with former condemned, homeless people, drug and alcohol abusers. This model will probably be used when the idea of establishing such rehabilitation center in Arkhangelsk will come to a reality. Elena hopes that the deputies of Regional Duma will use this experience in their work in development of new laws and regulations that can help the discharged to come back to normal life.

In March next year “Rassvet” is waiting for return delegation from Tromso which is going to be acquainted with the Russian penitentiary system and to take part in the international conference in Arkhangelsk.