On 7 June, a working meeting to determine the procedure according to which convicts could receive additional packages for medical reasons took place in the Ivanovo Region Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia. The participants in the meeting initiated by Commissioner for Human Rights in Ivanovo Region Natalia Kovalyova held that these procedures should be made easier.

The Ivanovo Region Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia issued an order which regulated the procedure of receiving packages and parcels by convicts. Because of the regulation, a lot of prisoners who suffered from serious diseases were left without extra packages. The case is, according to the regulation, only convicts who suffer from serious deficit of weight could receive them.

The Commissioner, officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and representatives of the Ivanovo State Academy of Medicine discussed the situation. They unanimously arrived at a conclusion that permission for extra packages for medical reasons must be given on the basis of the index of mass corporal, but the index must be reduced. Equally, the participants in the meeting made a check list of foodstuff that could be included in the extra packages.

Adapted from the Press Service of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ivanovo Region