Elnara Gasimova writes from Lankaran Prison: The State Costs Burden Placed on Prisoners’ Families

A female prisoner first holds her nose, then lifts the lid of the metal pot. This time, the evening meal sent to inmates is what prisoners call “sechka” (buckwheat groats).

She puts the lid back on the pot and heads toward the kitchen, thinking about what to cook for dinner instead. She can no longer tolerate even the smell of the food provided by the institution-let alone its taste.

Meals Sent Back as Soon as They Arrive

In the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex (Lankaran PC), breakfast is usually either semolina porridge, pearl barley porridge, or sechka. On Sundays, the menu is always the same: boiled eggs.

For lunch, one of the following is typically served: chicken soup, pasta soup, sometimes meat borscht, and sometimes pea soup.

For dinner, the pot may contain pearl barley, buckwheat, or “sechka,” as well as fish, or vermicelli and pasta served with small pieces of chicken.

Female prisoners usually take the meat out of meals provided by the institution when chicken is included, wash it, boil it again, and then reuse it for cooking. Boiled potatoes are also mashed and used to make pastries (“peroshki”).

Food they cannot eat is returned to the pot as it is.

The Burden of the Institution’s Meal Service

What prisoners receive from the institution is also the heavy burden of the “balanda” pot (the institutional meal served to inmates).

When a call comes to collect the food left at the door, the women try to avoid taking on this task, passing it to one another. Whoever ends up responsible carries a heavy pot in one hand and a bag of bread in the other from the checkpoint (NBM) to the block canteen.

Less than an hour later, they must take the now-empty or still-full balanda pot and return it to where it came from.

“Since balanda is often not eaten, we return the food as it is. We say it is not eaten, so don’t send it. The guard replies: whether it is eaten or not, it must be shown that the food has been delivered to the block,” prisoners say.

Food that is passed through the gate for appearances often does not make it to the prisoners’ stomachs.

In order to prevent waste and to be able to cook their own preferred meals, prisoners have repeatedly requested that raw food products be provided instead. However, they have been told that this is not possible.

“It is not possible. And where is it written that it should be like that?!”—this was the response given by Shahmar Baghirov, the former deputy head in charge of economic affairs.

Decisions That Never Move Beyond Paper

The food and material living standards for prisoners are approved by Cabinet of Ministers Decision No. 154.

That decision establishes the food rations for prisoners held in correctional institutions.

However, prisoners held in the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex are unaware of these rights. They are not provided with many of the food items listed in the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision.

Although the list includes flour, pasta, vegetable oil, sugar, dry tea, salt, bay leaves, tomato paste, potatoes, and vegetables, prisoners are not supplied with these items. They can only obtain them if sent by their relatives in care packages, which further increases the financial burden on their families.

Care Packages and Growing Family Burdens

As visitation days approach, female prisoners make final additions to their care package lists. These lists include food items that, according to state regulations, should already be provided—such as potatoes, onions, vegetable oil, dry tea, and chicken.

They request these basic necessities from their families with visible discomfort. As prices rise, and as years of imprisonment pass, the number of care packages they receive gradually decreases. They say that if the institution provided even a portion of these food items, the lists sent home would be shorter and their families would not be so heavily burdened.

Only Bread and 10 Grams of Butter Provided Daily

According to the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision, prisoners are only provided daily bread and 10 grams of butter per person.

Women collect the butter provided by the institution and melt it together with the butter sent from home. They use this mixture for cooking. When they notice their cooking oil running low, they have also found ways to stretch it until the next care package day—for example, by straining and reusing used cooking oil.

According to the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision, prisoners are also supposed to be provided with a range of vegetables. However, the only vegetable prisoners actually see is carrots—and even those are brought only occasionally, as a holiday “gift” from the head of the facility.

Even pilaf (plov) and other hot dishes appear from the “balanda” pot only on holidays. On such occasions, each prisoner is also given 200 ml of fruit juice—not natural, but chemically produced.

These juices, branded “Bonjous” and “Vitamix,” belong to Lutveli Gasimov, the father of Elchin Gasimov, a civil service advisor of the 3rd rank in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Elchin Gasimov worked for many years in various senior positions within the Ministry of Justice. He later served as a department head within the ministry. Most recently, in August 2023, he was appointed head of the Forensic Examination Center of the Ministry of Justice. Gasimov was dismissed from this position in 2024, but he continues to hold the rank of Civil Service Advisor of the 3rd class.

The compotes given to prisoners are also included among the items that are returned. Over a period of seven months, compote in 5-liter containers has been sent approximately ten times. These compotes, which are cloudy in appearance, are not consumed.

At times, the containers are returned full; at other times, they are emptied and only the containers are sent back.

In the complex, fruit is also distributed to prisoners as a form of “gift.” Since September 2025, apples have been provided several times, and pears have been given twice.

Gaps in the Menu Approved by the Head of the Facility

The menu for prisoners is approved by the head of the institution. According to the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision, when compiling the menu, variety of dishes must be ensured and climate and seasonal factors must be taken into account.

However, in the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex, the menu has remained unchanged for three consecutive seasons.

Annexes 9 and 10 of the relevant Cabinet of Ministers’ decision list a number of food products. These items are also intended to be used in meals prepared for prisoners.

However, in the balanda meals, most of these products are not visible. Some are used only in rare cases. For example, although meat-vegetable and fish-vegetable canned goods are included in the regulations, only four cans of fish have been provided to prisoners over an eight-month period.

Annex 9 also states that when compiling the menu, food items may be substituted with one another in order to ensure variety of dishes. However, since variety in meals prepared for prisoners is not ensured in practice, such substitutions are not applied.

What the Regulations Say vs. What Is Practiced

According to the annex, meat may be replaced with offal products, cured meat, boiled sausages and frankfurters, smoked meat, or canned meat. In practice, however, such products are rarely present in balanda meals.

On the few occasions when meat dishes are provided, they have sometimes been replaced with chicken offal. Finely chopped, boiled sausage has occasionally been served over vermicelli.

The annex also lists caramel, jam, marmalade, and cookies as possible substitutes for sugar. However, neither sugar nor any of its alternatives are provided.

Cocoa powder, coffee drinks, and instant coffee—listed as alternatives to coffee—are also among the food items that exist only on paper.

Semolina porridge sent for breakfast is prepared with milk. However, the listed substitutes for milk—such as yogurt, cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, cheese, and processed cheese—never reach the prisoners’ tables.

Article 22.1 of the European Prison Rules, to which Azerbaijan has committed itself, states:

“Prisoners shall be provided with a nutritious diet that takes into account their age, health, religion, culture, and the nature of their work.”

Among female prisoners, there are individuals suffering from hypertension and diabetes. However, their medical conditions are not officially recorded at all.

It is not only prisoners who refuse the institution’s food—staff do as well. Every day, in addition to the large balanda pot, a smaller pot of food is also delivered to the block. This is the meal prepared for staff.

However, staff also often do not eat this food. They either bring meals from home or eat what is cooked by the prisoners themselves.

News That Puts the Administration on Alert — “Inspection Incoming”

When an inspection is announced, panic breaks out in the kitchen. Deputies and staff hurriedly issue instructions regarding cleaning and putting the kitchen in order. However, no one is concerned about the fact that the menu prepared for prisoners does not comply with the regulations.

Vitamin Deficiency Caused by Unprovided Medication

Vitamin deficiencies caused by inadequate nutrition are supposed to be compensated with medication.

According to the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision, in order to prevent vitamin deficiency among prisoners, a daily half-dose drops of the multivitamin preparation “Hexavit” must be provided to each prisoner between April 15 and June 15, and again between October 15 and December 15.

However, since September 2025, this preparation has not even been offered to the female prisoners transferred to the facility.

Clothing That Has Been “Cut from Supply”

Among the items that should be provided to prisoners in the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex but are not, clothing also appears on the list.

Annex 12 of the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision provides that women should receive items such as a half-wool beret (1), headscarves (2), a warm half-wool coat (1), a cotton warm coat (1), a cotton blouse (1), a cotton skirt (1), half-wool trousers (2), cotton trousers (2), seasonal footwear (2 pairs), and cotton gloves (2 pairs).

However, since these items are not provided, prisoners have had to get through the winter by sharing their warm clothing among themselves.

Clean Rooms, “Dirty Hands”

For a period of time, every Monday the head of the facility, Babek Iskandarov, would come to the women’s block to carry out cleanliness inspections. The head would enter cells and closely examine whether there was dust on the tops of cupboards, whether beds were neatly arranged, and whether the floors were clean.

To avoid reprimands, prisoners used more cleaning materials on these days. Everything had to shine. Yet within this shine lay an unspoken issue—one that did not attract the head’s attention: providing prisoners with the cleaning supplies they were expected to use in the first place.

According to Article 19.6 of the European Prison Rules, the administration of a penitentiary institution must provide prisoners with appropriate materials and supplies, including toiletries.

These rules also state that necessary measures must be taken to meet the hygienic needs of women. However, sanitary pads that must be provided to women under the law are not supplied for months at a time in the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex. The last time they were provided, a one-month supply was delivered after a four-month gap.

Allocated Funds, Unresolved Complaints

Complaints about the Penitentiary Service are also reflected in the Ombudsman’s 2025 report. According to the report, complaints against the Ministry of Justice and its subordinate bodies have increased to 4,000. However, it is not specified how many of these relate to deficiencies in detention facilities.

To prevent such issues, 211,203,079 manats were allocated from the state budget to the Penitentiary Service in 2025.

However, this funding is not reflected in prisoners’ needs for food, clothing, or hygiene supplies.