Pavel Sapelka: Prisoners deprived of their miserable earnings

Inmates will not have enough money for basic necessities after giving 90% of their salaries.

Former lawyer and human rights defender Pavel Sapelka spoke to charter97.org about the Ministry of Justice's order to collect 90% of inmates' wages.

“Collecting 90% of inmates' wages won't be painful for all prisoners, because they receive miserable money from their pseudo-salaries minus prison fees. It will affect those earning rather serious money in jail, but the general sense is that prisoners will have to give the last money they have. I'd like to know what the Ministry of Justice thought when making this decision,” the lawyer noted.

The human rights activist stressed that many people turned attention to article 134 of the Instruction on Procedures regarding the deductions.

“But there's article 135 saying that collecting money from an inmate's salary is made from his or her total earnings excluding deductions on prison fees. As I understand, before collecting prison fees from an inmate's salary, they will collect the damage he must compensate for on a court's decision. So, an inmate has 10% of his wages left. Will they deduct prison fees from this sum or not? I think prisoner should be given an opportunity to work to pay prison fees, compensate for the damage and have enough money for daily necessities. We mustn't forget that many inmates have families and want to help them from their earnings,” Pavel Sapelka thinks.

We remind that the Ministry of Justice ordered to collect 90% of earnings of the people serving a jail term or a life sentence if they have to compensate for the damage.