Butyrka prison: where is it located?
Butyrskaya prison is located in Moscow, on Novoslobodskaya street, 45. Officially, this is the pre-trial detention center of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation.
Like many other Moscow prisons, Butyrka was often overcrowded. The prisoner detention regulations set a limit of 2,000, but in practice there are up to 3,500 prisoners. Currently there are about 2,500 prisoners in Butyrka.
Butyrka does not have its own official website, but it has an email ( [email protected] ) and telephone numbers:
- +7 – head of the detention center, Colonel S.V. Telyatnikov;
- +7 – pre-trial detention center helpline;
- +7 – helpline of the FSIN management.
Letters to Butyrka can be written to the address 127055, Moscow, Novoslobodskaya 45.
The number of letters and parcels is not limited, since not only convicts, but also persons under investigation are kept in the detention center. But all shipments are registered, so their receipt by recipients is often delayed.
It must be remembered that if prohibited items are found in a parcel, the sender may be subject to administrative or criminal liability.
Paper letters
Some people prefer to use standard paper letters. The disadvantages of this method include :
- long shipping;
- there is a possibility of the message being lost;
- difficult to find envelopes and stamps.
Before composing the text, you must correctly write the address of the institution where the prisoner is located. All letters undergo a detailed check and are also registered in a special journal. The envelope indicates the name and date of birth of the addressee. It is forbidden to use nicknames or make mistakes. Additionally, the name and address of the institution are indicated.
Only simple letters are sent, since they cannot be delivered personally to the citizen. To obtain information about the pre-trial detention center, you can use the Internet or call the administration of the institution.
Admission schedule and conditions
Relatives are allowed to visit prisoners once every two months for four hours.
The date takes place in the constant presence of a guard, and any contact, be it a handshake or a hug, is prohibited.
No more than two adults are allowed per visit. The number of minors is not limited. There is also no limit on the number of visits to a lawyer.
Prisoners who are on a light regime, as well as on a general regime, can get a long visit in a hotel-type room. Room rent is paid, and the frequency of meetings is once every 2 months. For the general regime - once every three months. Meetings start at 9 am. The place is located within walking distance from the Mendeleevskaya, Novoslobodskaya and Savelovskaya metro stations.
Application for transfer
Before transporting a parcel, you need to fill out an application for its transfer. It is written in the name of the head of the pre-trial detention center or the investigator leading the prisoner’s case. The application must be completed in triplicate. The application form can be downloaded on the Internet. It indicates the data of the overeater and the recipient, as well as a complete list of all products and other things being transferred. One copy of the inventory will be given to the prisoner in a parcel, the second will be filed in his personal file, and the third will remain with the transferor.
Reception of parcels in Russian pre-trial detention centers occurs from 10 to 12 hours. However, there are a lot of people who want to support their loved ones, and in order to be on time, you need to get in line at 5-6 o’clock in the morning. It must be taken into account that it is not always possible to deliver the parcel the first time. Therefore, visitors from other cities should take care of a place to stay overnight, in case they have to try to transfer things for an imprisoned relative several times.
If the pre-trial detention center is located in a big city, it is worth renting an apartment for a few days. But it is necessary to take into account that you need to rent from the home owners themselves, so as not to overpay for the services of numerous agencies operating in large cities, and also to avoid becoming a victim of scammers.
Peculiarities
Perhaps the main features of “Butyrka” are its glorification in culture, as well as the size of the cameras. This prison is mentioned in numerous films, books, and songs.
Since many prisoners were kept in large cells at the same time, stable connections were formed between them. Thus, contrary to the logic of imprisonment, Butyrka contributed to the development of many criminal groups. Their joint actions continued in the wild.
Since 1996, women have stopped being sent to this pre-trial detention center. The exception is when they undergo a psychiatric examination in a small clinic on the territory of the prison.
Are all emails checked?
Absolutely all documents sent to prisoners are subject to verification. Censors examine the contents of each letter because it is important to ensure that there is no prohibited information. Although by such actions employees of institutions violate the personal rights of citizens, this is a necessary necessity, since one participant in the correspondence is a suspect or a convicted person.
Persons in custody are considered as citizens who are capable of criminal acts, therefore, in such correspondence one can find plans for further criminal activity.
History of Butyrka prison
“Butyrka” traces its history back to the time of Catherine the Second. At that time the prison was made of wood, and gained fame due to the detention of Emelyan Pugachev in it. After the construction of the stone prison in 1879, one of its towers was named Pugachevskaya.
The project of a stone prison with four towers and a temple in the center was created by the architect M. Kazakov. This building still stands today. The church has also been preserved.
Since 1868, “Butyrka” became a transit prison, where convicts for hard labor in Siberia were formed. At that time, a hundred or more people were kept in cells at a time. There was a special room in the prison for the wives of prisoners who wanted to go with them to hard labor in Siberia.
Among the interesting cases of that time: in 1873, a group of counterfeiters were discovered in Butyrka, minting money right in the prison. And in 1899, Leo Tolstoy visited the prison and walked with the convicts to the station to describe their journey in the novel “Resurrection.”
In 1905, during the first Russian revolution, rebel workers tried to seize the prison, but the attack was repulsed by a dragoon regiment.
In 1908, Harry Houdini himself performed before the prisoners. He managed to do what all the prisoners dreamed of - to free himself from the box where he, shackled, was placed before the performance. It took the maestro 28 minutes to do this.
In the pre-revolutionary years, there were many political prisoners among the prisoners.
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Prison during the years of Soviet power
The composition of prisoners remained largely the same after the revolution. The prison population reached its peak during Stalin's terror. Then there were about 20 thousand people in Butyrka. There could be up to 170 in one cell! Most of them were shot.
Throughout the 20th century, this detention center was the main pre-trial prison in Moscow. Photos of “Butyrka” can be seen in completely different publications from different eras.
During the war, workshops were created in the prison to produce items needed by the army. Prisoners worked in them.
Scenes for the famous TV series “17 Moments of Spring” were filmed in the Butyrka administration buildings.
What should the package be?
When collecting a transfer to a pre-trial detention center, you must first decide on the main restrictions on its transfer:
- Weight should not be more than 20 kilograms.
- The transfer process will be described on the detention center website or you can find out by calling the pre-trial detention center.
- It is important to consider that parcels are not accepted every day. A particular isolation center may have its own schedule, which you also need to find out in advance on the Internet or by phone.
Although there are no restrictions on the number of packages for a prisoner in a pre-trial detention center, there are restrictions on the total weight of food in the cell. Therefore, in practice, it will not be possible to send parcels to a relative every day.
Considering that in addition to food, the prisoner needs clothes and other household items, it is better to collect two different parcels. Deliver food in one, and things in the other. Moreover, different regions have their own rules and restrictions regarding the transfer of certain things and their quantities.
Regarding food products, you need to adhere to the rule that they should be as high in calories as possible and at the same time take up little space. This is due to the fact that there is no time for luxury in prison. The transfer is intended to solve the problem of malnutrition and support the health of the prisoner.
In addition, you need to take into account that in the cells the prisoners share what is sent from the outside, so you need to make a transfer taking into account the share of the cellmates.
Modern history of Butyrka
The 1990s and 2000s were also full of events for this pre-trial detention center. Famous oligarchs and leaders of the criminal world were kept here, and escapes were made. In 1994, they tried to hold a criminal meeting in Butyrka. That is, the thieves from the outside wanted, by agreement with the prison employees, to visit their comrades in prison. As a result, more than 30 people were detained, including administration employees who conspired with the prisoners.
On the territory of the pre-trial detention center, the temple, closed in 1922, began to operate again. The issue of buying out the prison building, which is an architectural and cultural value, has been repeatedly raised. But the administration asked to build a new isolation ward instead. Potential buyers rejected this idea because the cost of an isolator with all the necessary safety measures was too expensive.
Many prisoners still work today in workshops left over from Soviet times. These are mainly carpentry workshops, including those processing valuable wood species.
How to send a parcel via the Internet?
Thanks to the worldwide computer network, making transfers to pre-trial detention centers has become much easier. Everything you need can be ordered on the website www.fsin-zakaz.ru or similar resources.
Advantages of this transmission sending option:
- All products on the site are transferable.
- They will arrive to the prisoner in their original packaging.
- There is no need to go to the pre-trial detention center and stand in a long line.
The only downside to transferring via the Internet is the need to pay commission costs. But, if you compare them with the cost of travel to another city, they turn out to be disproportionately less.
To send a parcel, you will need to register on the website and fill out a special form in which you indicate:
- General information about the parcel.
- Recipient details.
Next, you need to select products and place an order, as in any online store. The order will need to be confirmed and a receipt for payment printed. It must be paid within three days. The same amount of time is given to transfer the parcel to the prisoner.
Escapes from Butyrka prison
Over the long history of Butyrka, many attempts have been made to escape. Including successful ones. But during the Soviet period, there was not a single successful escape. But before the revolution, and after the collapse of the USSR, there were quite a few of them. Among the latest:
- Escape in 1992;
- In 1996, a female prisoner escaped, as did two men the same year;
- In 2001, three people sentenced to life imprisonment dug and escaped;
- That same year, one prisoner escaped from the visiting room;
- In 2010, a man convicted of rape squeezed out the bars and escaped through a window.
All the fugitives were caught quickly, except for one prisoner who made the most daring escape, in front of the guard. He managed to travel to Finland, where he was detained only two years later.
How to send a parcel?
During a visit to a pre-trial detention center, you can not only deliver a parcel, but also top up the prisoner’s account, and also give him a letter.
When replenishing your account, everything is simple and straightforward. Problems also rarely arise with the transmission of letters, but the collection of parcels may encounter obstacles in the form of various prohibitions and restrictions.
The easiest way to avoid such problems is to assemble the transfer from products purchased directly from the prison store. This can be done on site or online (we’ll talk about the second option below).
However, the cost of products in such FSIN stores is higher than in the wild and the total cost of the parcel can significantly exceed it when collected from your own products.
