Inmates at a colony near Vitebsk will study remotely at a university

Starting this year, convicts serving sentences in correctional colony No. 3 (Vitebsky district, Vitebsk region) will sit at desks to obtain a higher education diploma. This has become possible thanks to a project implemented in cooperation with the Minsk Innovative University. A similar experiment, initiated by the Department of Execution of Penal Sentences of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has already been conducted in the women's colony in Gomel and, having proven itself positively, is being rolled out to other regions.

As reported by the head of correctional colony No. 3, Sergey Sharichkov, a computer class has already been fully prepared for these purposes. The correctional institution has allocated and renovated a separate room, and the university has taken on the material costs of providing computers, specialized software, and an internal network. Convicts will study various subjects for 4 years through distance learning.

Classes, like for all students, will begin in September-October. A group of 24 interested individuals has already been formed. The average age of the future students is 25 years old, and some of them have incomplete higher education or secondary vocational education. Convicts will be able to obtain professions such as manager, accountant, financier, economist, marketer, logistician, etc. Students can pay for their education themselves, using money earned from their work within the correctional institution, or from funds in their personal accounts that are not encumbered by obligations to compensate for damage caused by their crime.

Another project, implemented this summer, is designed for prisoners who have not even finished school. At the time of its launch, 6 young people did not have a school-leaving certificate. This project was made possible thanks to the support and efforts of the Department of Education, Sports and Tourism of the Vitebsk District Executive Committee. The "graduates" took external exams, for which they prepared independently, with the help of literature from the local library and consultations with teachers.

In addition, for several years now, convicts at IK-3 have had the opportunity to obtain a vocational specialty. Teachers from the Vitebsk State Vocational and Technical College of Light Industry train convicts in the professions of seamstress, machine operator joiner, and woodcarver, and they apply the acquired skills in production.

– Today, a person who ends up in a correctional facility, even without a secondary education certificate, can fill this gap, then graduate from a vocational and technical college, master a trade in six months, and start earning money in the colony's production, and then try to obtain a higher education diploma that will be in demand after release. Even just secondary education gives a convict more chances for further education or employment in freedom. Education is an integral mechanism for adaptation to society after serving a sentence, returning to life in society. It also plays an important role in preventing recidivism. After all, if a person leaves our institution with a specific profession, an educational certificate, and a purpose in life, there is less chance that they will commit a crime again, – sums up Sergey Vladimirovich.

The specificity of the colony near Vitebsk is that convicts serving their first term of imprisonment are held here. The average age of convicts ranges from 20 to 25 years, when, in essence, their whole life is still ahead and it is easier to direct it in the right direction. And the right to choose remains solely with the convict.

Natalia RYBKOVA, photos by the author. "Vitebskiye Vesti".