Interior Ministry official: Mandatory treatment of alcoholics must be introduced

The term of holding a person in a labour therapy camp can be extended to two years.

The measure was proposed in the Belarusian Interior Ministry's newspaper Na Strazhe, Siarhei Daroshka, the head of the Corrections Department said to members of the “house of representatives”. Daroshka and MPs met at a seminar, BelaPAN reports.

“A person comes out of the comatose state, restores his social and labour skills during the first six months in a camp,” the head of the Corrections Department explains. “We also should forget about voluntary treatment. It must be mandatory, like in the Soviet Union. We understand that the system of labour therapy camps needs changes. We need more production facilities so that inmates can pay for themselves, pay their obligations and thus decrease burden on the state budget.”

Daroshka said almost 6,700 people were hold in labour therapy camps. They are usually sent there for a year but can be granted early release after 6 months by decision of the camp administration and a court.

“Society often asks why people return to labour therapy camps after the release. They think we don't treat them or do something wrong. Each camp spent 11 billion rubles in the first quarter of the year. We have nine camps. This is the price that society pays for the isolation of dangerous people and safety of their families. Eighty two percent of camp inmates are former prisoners. They do not commit crimes while in labour therapy camps. About half of them must reimburse expenses for child maintenance under decree No.18,” the head of the Corrections Department says.

Labour therapy camps in Belarus are in fact correctional facilities. One can be sent to a camp for committing three offences under influence of alcohol. A court sentences the offender to a term in a labour therapy camp on the basis of information provided by a district police officer. According to opposition activists and human rights defenders, hundreds of homeless people were sent to camps ahead of the Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk.