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Czechoslovakia Penal System
According to federal law, "The purpose of imprisonment is to
prevent the convicted person from engaging in continued criminal
activity and to educate him systematically toward becoming a lawabiding citizen. The execution of imprisonment must not humiliate
human dignity." The laws regulating the operation of prisons
appear just and humane and take into account up-to-date theories
of penology. Prison authorities are directed to treat prisoners
with compassion and respect for human dignity; education and
rehabilitation, rather than punishment, are stressed. Prisoners
are required to work, but the law states that work hours will be
comparable to those in outside society. Remuneration will be
fair, and prisoners may build up savings while incarcerated.
Cultural and educational projects are to be provided for nonwork
hours, and prison libraries are to be well stocked. From
first-hand accounts of released prisoners, however, it appears
that the actuality of prison life fell far short of the norms
directed by law.
As of 1987, prison conditions in Czechoslovakia were poor,
especially for political prisoners, who often were subjected to
the "third category" of imprisonment, the so-called "harshest
regime." Some former prisoners complained of beatings by
authorities and confinement in substandard cells. Others told of
beatings and ill-treatment by fellow prisoners that were ignored,
or possibly encouraged, by guards. Complaints about food were
widespread, and dietary deficiencies led to ailments that
required medical attention after release. Medical care in prisons
was said to be deficient, and family visits were sometimes
curtailed or prohibited. These shortcomings were routinely
reported during the 1970s and 1980s by Amnesty International,
which concluded that prison conditions in Czechoslovakia fell
below "internationally accepted standards."
A January 1979 report in Vienna's Die Presse about
prison conditions in Czechoslovakia referred to the "disastrous"
conditions of that country's sixteen remand prisons, or those
prisons used for pretrial detention. Cells were said to be tiny,
facilities primitive, and medical care haphazard. Prisoners were
charged a daily rate for their upkeep, which they were required
to pay after release. Some prisoners reportedly owed as much as
an average worker earned in five months. The more than twenty
non-remand prisons were said to be in extremely poor condition,
most having been built prior to World War II or even prior to
World War I and never modernized. Discipline in the prisons was
said to have become more severe after 1968. Punishments of
prisoners included cutting the already small food ration or
taking away the privilege of receiving a package once every three
months. As had been reported frequently by released prisoners,
political offenders were confined with common criminals, and the
educational programs called for by law rarely existed in
practice. Prisoners were allowed one library book and one
newspaper per week. It was reported that, more often than not,
the library book was a collection of speeches by some party
functionary.
Physical abuse of political prisoners by prison personnel was
also not unknown. In 1987 Die Presse reported that one
prisoner serving a one-year term for alleged "incitement to
rebellion " was beaten so badly by the prison warden that he
could neither stand nor walk without the help of police officers
when making a court appearance; moreover, scars on his abdomen
showed that prison officials and investigation officers had
extinguished cigarettes on his body.
Prisoners or former prisoners who complained publicly about
mistreatment and poor prison conditions were severely punished.
For reporting on harsh conditions at several prisons, Jiri Wolf
was accused of "divulging state secrets" in December 1983 and
given a six-year sentence at the harshest regime. In June 1984,
Jiri Gruntorad received an additional fourteen-month sentence for
complaining that he was beaten by a prison guard.
Details on the total number of penal institutions (referred
to as corrective educational facilities) were not routinely
publicized. Well-known prisons are located at Prague-Pankrac,
Bory-Plzen, and Litomerice in Bohemia; Mirov and Ostrava in
Moravia, and Leopoldov in Slovakia. Facilities at Prague-Ruzyne
and Brno-Bohunice served primarily as detention centers for
people being held during pretrial investigation or those awaiting
appeal hearings. The prison system, including the Corps of
Corrective Education (prison guards), was administered by the
governments of the Czech and Slovak socialist republics through
their ministries of justice.
Data as of August 1987
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