Educational Labor Colony

Educational Labor Colony 

in the USSR, a correctional labor institution in which criminal minors sentenced to the deprivation of freedom serve their sentences. In accordance with the Principles of Correctional Labor Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics of 1969, separate educational labor colonies are established for boys and girls; furthermore, colonies are divided into those with general regimens and those with reinforced regimens (stricter regulations than the general colonies). Only boys who have previously served sentences involving the deprivation of liberty, who have been convicted of serious crimes, or who have been transferred by decision of the courts from general regimen colonies because of malicious violations of the regimen, are sent to reinforced regimen colonies. On coming of age, the inmates are transferred to correctional labor colonies; however, they may be left in the educational labor colonies until the completion of the sentence, but not beyond the age of 20, in order to consolidate the results of reeducation or to complete their education.

The regimen, living conditions, and nutritional norms of the inmates of the educational labor colonies are set with consideration for the age characteristics of minors and guarantee the inmates’ normal development. All the inmates are subject to compulsory school instruction, and those without labor specialties are also subject to vocational and technical training. Inmates who complete the eighth and tenth classes, a course of vocational training, or a course of professional skill improvement in the colonies are given standard attestations and certificates. The inmates work in industrial training workshops and are enlisted in work according to the self-help system, with observance of the norms of labor legislation concerning the length of the working day, rest, labor protection, and safety engineering for minors. Deductions from the wages of the inmates are made to compensate partially for expenditures for their maintenance, as well as for the material damage caused by their crimes. In any case, however, no less than 45 percent of the monthly wages are entered in the personal account of an inmate who has not committed violations of the regimen.

In order to observe the activity of the educational labor colonies on behalf of the public, trustee councils made up of the representatives of collectives of enterprises, institutions, military units, and social organizations have been established.

As a rule, the inmates released from the colonies are sent to their parents or those who stand in loco parentis. If this is impossible or inexpedient from the point of view of preventing the possibility of recidivism, they are placed in jobs according to the location of their colony through the Com-mission on the Affairs of Minors. General direction of the activity of the educational labor colonies, like that of all other correctional labor institutions, is carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. The observance of legality in the colonies is supervised by the procurator of the respective raion or oblast.

G. M. MIN’KOVSKII