The court recently approved an agreement, by which a person who insulted and threatened guards during visits was sentenced to a year and six months in effective prison. And the sentence is already being served. How did it come to this… Ivan Kotsev, a guard in the prison in Stara Zagora and chairman of the Stara Zagora union of the Union of Prison Employees in our country, spoke to FACT. (ed. – for personal reasons we do not publish his photo)
- Mr. Kotsev, life in prison, and the work there, is a different world. But it so happens that a former prisoner who behaved rudely with guards during a visit turns out to be a client of the prison again. How did this come about?
- The incident is from 2023, but now the legal saga has ended with an agreement between the prosecutor's office and the court.
- What happened...
- The man in question had come as a visitor to a prisoner. But he started insulting, "ordering", etc. His colleagues made a remark to him, but he did not comply, after which they gave an order to end the visit. Then the man continued with the insults.
- Was he detained immediately?
- No. After the incident, he left because we do not have the right to detain him. But the colleagues filed a report on the same day, a report was prepared on the case, and a complaint was filed with the prosecutor's office, which was filed through the administration of the Stara Zagora prison. The colleagues, as injured employees, exercised their rights. A trial followed and it ended with a settlement. The man pleaded guilty and entered into a settlement. He was sentenced to a year and a half of effective imprisonment.
- Is he already in prison?
- Yes, he has been brought to serve his sentence. He was sentenced to detention on remand, but he is already in prison.
- How often do you encounter such aggression…
- Every day. The person I am talking about has already served one sentence. Every day we encounter aggression from prisoners, because these are people from a proven criminal contingent. The environment in which we work is absolutely hostile. We work with such people around the clock, every single day. We try to counteract it – sometimes we succeed a lot, sometimes less, but we manage. We simply do not have such resources, we are not protected by the law. Yes, on the back of my service card it says that I enjoy special protection of the law, but it is not so. It is just that these actions – by those deprived of their liberty, are not criminalized as they are in white countries.
- Are you referring to the actions of prisoners towards the employees who guard them?
- Exactly.
- You have repeatedly asked the Union of Prison Employees for changes in the laws, but they are not happening. Why do you think that is so?
- The union is not a body that can initiate such legal changes. As a union, we can only protect our members, we have been raising the topic for years. Every single incident reaches our professional management, they see what it's about, they're aware, but there's a lack of engagement with things. And sometimes we get a response that we take a supplement to our salary, which is called "for specific working conditions" and it's between 100 and 190 leva per month. For these 100-190 leva, do we tolerate these conditions in which we work, for this attitude, for this aggression - verbal, physical, etc. Do you think this is normal? You know that there are also employees who are attacked, insults are everyday. Are we obliged to tolerate... In my opinion, this is absurd. And that is why I appeal to all employees, to all colleagues who have gone through such things, to seek their rights in court.
- How full is the prison in Stara Zagora at the moment and how many guards are there?
- The prison is at full capacity, as is the detention center. For years we have been observing and complying with European rules that each prisoner is given four square meters of space with direct access to sunlight. Currently, there are about 500 prisoners in the prison in the building and about 60 in the detention center.
- And how many guards do you have in one shift?
- About 20 people in the building alone. Calculate how many prisoners a guard is responsible for.
- And in terms of staff numbers, is everything filled up at your place?
- Everything is filled up, and we are even a little overstaffed, because our colleagues from the prison dormitory "Montenegro" were enrolled here because they closed it. That's the situation.
- What proportion of prisoners are particularly aggressive, because I doubt that we can all put them under one denominator?
- A very large part are aggressive. In addition, there are those who are categorized as having psychological disorders and they are not medically examined. They are not kept in the records and that is the reason why they are put in prison. They are given special care because they are absolutely unpredictable and we have serious incidents with them. They are given treatment. There is a specialized facility in the Lovech hospital. These people are sent there for treatment, then they return, and the procedure is severe and difficult. During this time we deal with them. We are psychologists, wardens and all sorts.
- Are these people who have committed crimes, or do they simply have very serious forms of mental disorders?
- Since they are in prison, they have committed a crime. The court has determined that they were clearly aware of their actions at the time of the act and therefore has ordered a guilty verdict. Since they are not medically examined, they are not registered as mentally ill, they bear criminal responsibility like any normal citizen. There are also people with addictions - to drugs, to alcohol. When they fall into abstinence, it is very difficult. We also work with such people. Things are very complicated.
- Can you say that you get used to it...
- Yes. People like me, I have been in the system for 23 years, we have already suffered. However, in my opinion, it is right for the administration to stand behind the employees and not ignore this attitude. And again I call on my colleagues to seek their rights so that we can put an end to this.
- How many people with mental illness are in the prison in Stara Zagora?
- I can't say exactly how many, but there are some.
- Are they on a general regime - like everyone else, or are there more specific conditions for them?
- They are placed in wards that have a more special status such as supervision and security. But their regime, in general, is exactly the same as for all other prisoners. There are people with schizophrenia, with mental disorders, who can do something at any moment and we must be of one mind whenever we work with them. I will also give an example from some time ago, where there was only material damage. A prisoner who is mentally disabled broke a window, broke a radiator and flooded the cell. This is just one example I can give.
- But the justice system works, since the incident we started with had consequences and a sentence?
- Yes, it works. Let colleagues not be afraid and experience everything within themselves, let them seek their rights.