| Polar Owl | |
| Status: | Operational |
| Capacity: | 1014 |
| Population: | 450 |
| Opened: | 1961 |
| Managed By: | Federal Penitentiary Service |
| Governor: | lieutenant colonel Aleksandr Tsybulsky |
| City: | Kharp |
| State: | Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug |
| Country: | Russia |
Federal Governmental Institution — penal colony No. 18 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, commonly known as the Polar Owl (Russian: Полярная сова, Polyarnaya sova) is a Russian prison located on the bank of the Sob River near the Polar Urals in the Kharp urban-type settlement.[1] It is one of the seven supermax ("special regimen", in Russian terminology) corrective labor colonies operated by the Federal Penitentiary Service for convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia. In addition to special regimen it has sections with common and strict regimens.
Kharp was founded in 1961 during the construction of the Salekhard–Igarka Railway. The core of the new settlement was a camp for prisoners who worked on laying the railway. Subsequently, the camp was transformed into a prison for particularly dangerous recidivists. The prison received the status of a colony for life convicts in 2004.
In 2010–2012, there were reports in the media that some employees of the colony were involved in a scandal with the falsification of confession. Some unscrupulous guards were suspected of beating testimonies from prisoners with the use of physical and psychological violence. Novaya Gazeta reported 190 fake turnouts, while Izvestia reported 32 fake turnouts.[2] According to Novaya Gazeta, the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug tried to hush up the case, since high-ranking officials could be involved in it.[3]
The Polar Owl facility has held numerous serial killers. It has also been used to hold political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.