The number of prisoners in Russia has decreased by over 180,000 in the last five years, and one of the main reasons is the sending of convicts to the Ukrainian front, according to the head of the Russian penitentiary administration.
Russia, which has one of the largest prison systems in the world, inherited from the era of Soviet labor camps, has nonetheless recorded a steady decline in the number of prisoners over the last two decades.
In the last four years of war, the Russian authorities have offered prisoners the opportunity to sign contracts with the army to fight in Ukraine, in exchange for reducing or canceling their sentences, if they survive.
“If at the end of 2021 there were 465,000 detainees, now there are 282,000,” said Arkady Gostev, according to TASS, quoted by Euronews.
The decrease represents almost 40% of the total prison population.
According to Gostev, approximately 85,000 of those in detention are held in pretrial detention and have not yet received a final sentence.
The head of the penitentiary administration explained that the reduction in the number of prisoners is related both to war recruitments and to the more frequent application of suspended sentences or other alternative sanctions.
The return of former front-line prisoners, however, led to an increase in crime and social tensions in Russia.
Gostev also said that thousands of prisoners work in factories and workshops that produce equipment and goods for the army, thus contributing to the country’s war economy. The system by which prisoners are forced to work is a practice inherited from the Soviet Gulag era.
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