A new type of service intended for the relatives of incarcerated individuals has begun to be promoted in Russia. It’s about so-called “monthly insurance” policies for prisoners, designed to protect them against abuses by prison administration or violence from other inmates.
One of these services is provided by the “Orthodox Center for Spiritual Assistance and Legal Protection”, an organization that claims to act with the involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church and clergy, in order to monitor the safety of persons in detention, according to the Russian publication Izvestia.
The organization’s website states that detainees are frequently subjected to ill-treatment in pre-trial detention centers and prisons, and that self-appealing to state institutions would be costly and inefficient. Representatives of the center maintain that policies are issued directly in the name of the detainees, and a copy is sent to the prison management to be included in the personal file.
In the event of bodily injuries, the document would allow for an independent forensic examination and the formulation of material and moral claims against the management of the detention unit.
Similar services are promoted on the Telegram platform as well, through the group “Insurance for Convicts”, where people presenting themselves as lawyers promise quick interventions in cases of violation of prisoners’ rights, refusal of medical treatment, or ignoring their requests. The cost of these policies varies from a few thousand to several tens of thousands of rubles per month.
The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) responded, specifying that the supervision of the insurance market falls under the purview of the Central Bank of Russia. At the same time, the institution pointed out that there is no distinct category of insurance for detainees in the official register of the regulatory authority.
In this context, FSIN questions the legality of these services and warns that they could represent “potentially fraudulent schemes”.
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