I want to ... Prison! Or Prison Like a Second Home

Twice a month, employees of the Kharkiv Criminal Police for Juvenile Affairs and employees of the Kharkov Juvenile Affairs Service make joint "outings" at the metro station, stations and other "hot spots", looking for street children. A special commission decides their fate: they send someone to boarding schools, someone - to shelters, and someone - to the receiver-distributor.

According to the head of the criminal police for minors in the Kharkiv region, police colonel Boris Radko, 90 percent of the wandering children are from disadvantaged families: "They are trying to become independent, break free from the often unbearable situation in the house, but are even more dependent on laws Streets and "leader" of a small "pack". To us in the receiver-distributor lead a child who hates the whole world, and sometimes it is very difficult to warm his soul. "

I expected to see such a mini-prison for mini-criminals: on the windows there are iron bars, tense looks of people in uniform with clubs and peace-roaming cockroaches. And I saw ... first a new gate with a bell, followed by clean sidewalks, flowerbeds with well-groomed roses of different varieties, a small chapel and an impressive two-storeyed building of a West European type.

On this externally favorable background, a disheveled youth of 18 years, sitting near the gate directly on the asphalt and obviously waiting for something, looked rather strange. I realized that my plans to go unnoticed had collapsed when I heard the phrase said slightly in a drunken voice: "Call the hostess! Tell me I'm Seryozha! Tell her I'm waiting for her. "

Well, Seryozha had to wait, and I found out what is the receiver-distributor for minors of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Kharkov region. Built a year ago on the money of sponsors and the Ministry of Internal Affairs this complex of analogues in Ukraine does not have. Here, police chiefs from other regions of Ukraine and even Moscow often call in to see and take over. Every day in the receiver, you can keep up to 50 children, who are examined at the medical unit on arrival, washed, given clean clothes and fed. The head of this institution, Tatyana V. Tkachenko, said that teenagers work with psychologists, prevention inspectors, educators. In total there are 22 employees in the staff. Teachers conduct conversations with children, teach letters, reading, and math. There is a TV with an extensive video library. But there are no lattices on the windows , the employees in a uniform smile amiably. Boris Mikhailovich stressed that they are trying to build relationships with the guys on trust and kindness.

I do not know how to react to the fact that a child can feel someone necessary, full and truly free where he is officially deprived of this freedom. Paradox - "on the outside" these children again want to return to a cozy "imprisonment". And, as it turned out, waiting for Sergei on the street - that's an example.

... To the wife of 16 years. Now he is the oldest in the receiver-distributor. My parents drank heavily and at the age of 12 the boy left home. Thus began his life as a romantic traveler. In Ukraine, probably, there is no shelter where he would not have visited. He swears he never stole anything, but lived in alms or earned a car wash. Strange, but I believe him. In the receiver he was brought from Belgorod (Zhenya went to Moscow) and now they will be sent to his native Dnepropetrovsk.

Vadim is also "transit" and also from Dnepropetrovsk. A boy with beautiful naive eyes. He said that he went to Moscow with his mother to clean the cars. He was cleaning up, and his mother ... was doing prostitution in full swing. Forgive me, Vadim, that I write about your mother the truth, because you said that your mother is the best, but ... you still do not read these lines. An eleven-year-old boy never went to school and he does not know what the meaning of black marks on paper is. I decided to send my child to my grandmother.

Well, the 13-year-old Maxim is already a professional thief with experience. And with a specific specialization in nonferrous metal. The boy is bright and developed, only in the family - problems. He likes it very much in the receiver, but for the journalist (that is, for me) he still had one "serious" complaint to his superiors: "Cookies give too much! Tired! Already completely fed! "While Maxim lives here, waiting for the results to consider his case.

Soon the Kharkov receiver-distributor will be consecrated, and in the chapel will appear his clergyman - Father Peter. Now children go to the premise with a dome just to "consult" or "ask". They believe in God, but in their own way.

These words were uttered by a ten-year-old boy standing near the icon:

- My God, when we stole sausage, bread and other products at the kiosk and everyone ate everything, you helped us. So, you are. But when we decided to steal the store and we did not succeed, we are in prison ... You did not help us. So you're not here?

For some time the child looked intently at the icon, and then he answered his own question:

"You are, I know." You are, because I need to find my mother ...

Strong> Reference "News of Ukraine"

According to the article 7 of the Law of Ukraine "On the bodies and services for the affairs of minors and special institutions for minors", the receiver-distributor for minors temporarily (not more than 30 days) contains children of 3 categories:

- committed socially dangerous act at the age of 11 to 14 years, if there is a need for their immediate isolation (according to the resolution of the investigator sanctioned by the prosecutor or by a court decision);

- going in accordance with a court decision to special institutions for minors;

They left their own special educational institutions, where they were.

In addition, the Kharkov Prison for Juveniles received transit status, which allows to keep in the institution another category of minors aged 3 to 18 years: - who left their place of residence unauthorized and unaccompanied by adults who were on the territory of the CIS countries.

On the materials of the edition: News of Ukraine .