Parcels and visits in SIZO and penal colonies
The guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.
Draft What human rights defenders advise
Parcels and visits in SIZO and penal colonies
- In SIZO, parcels are handed in at the window (with a passport) or via online services, up to 30 kg a month. Visits in SIZO need permission from the investigator or the court handling the case.
- In a colony the number of parcels depends on the regime: general (6 parcels and 6 small packets a year), strict (4), special (3); no limit in a settlement colony. Medicines don't count.
- Human rights groups advise not bringing your everyday phone to a visit and not wearing clothes with political symbols: devices can be seized and searched.
- If an item is refused, you can challenge it with the facility head and the prosecutor. Medicines go through a separate procedure via the medical unit.
- Where to turn: Prison Lawyer, Solidarity Zone; for women in prison and their families: Women's Term.
Ready-made templates and tools
- Vestochka: directory of political prisoners' addresses and tips on what to write · OVD-Info (project of an extremist-designated organisation) · link checked September 26
- How to write letters to political prisoners (in Russian) · OVD-Info (foreign agent, extremist) · link checked September 26
current as of 25 September 2026. More: First Department: the parcel window and deliveries (foreign agent); First Department: visiting SIZO or a colony safely (foreign agent); OVD-Info: parcels to SIZO and colonies (extremist)