MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said on Tuesday it will set up commissions across Russia to carry out checks into cases of brutality against inmates after a beating scandal at a Yaroslavl prison.
A 10-minute video released by Novaya Gazeta shows individuals wearing Federal Penitentiary Service uniforms who were verbally abusing and beating a man. According to attorneys for the Public Verdict Foundation, which provided the video, the individual is Evgeniy Makarov, a prisoner at the Yaroslavl correctional facility №1. The incident occurred in June 2017.
"Soon a commission will be set up in each FSIN territorial body across Russia to conduct checks into all cases where prison authorities employed physical force and special means over the past year," the statement said.
The heads of territorial bodies of the federal prison authority will be personally responsible for the inquiries into the motives for using force against the inmates. In the event that the prison authorities abused their power, each case will be investigated and those guilty will be punished and may be fired.
The Russian Investigative Committee in the Yaroslavl Region launched a criminal investigation based on official misconduct charges and detained six prison guards for battering the inmate. Earlier, the federal prison authority condemned the behavior of these staff members and voiced regret over incidents such as these that discredit the service.