The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) for the first time in two months reported on the number of prisoners who are in colonies, pre-trial detention centers and prisons.
This is the first update of statistics after Mediazona noticed a decrease in the number of male prisoners in penal colonies. In November 2022, the Federal Penitentiary Service reported that the male prison population in Russia had dropped by 23,000 in two months.
Over the past 10 years, there has not been such a record reduction even during the amnesty. In 2022, it happened against the backdrop of a massive and open recruitment of prisoners into the Wagner PMC.
In two months, the number of prisoners in male colonies has decreased by a record 23 thousand people. This happens against the backdrop of recruitment to the Wagner PMC
After this publication, Mediazona sent a request to the Federal Penitentiary Service twice: first with a request to comment on these figures, and then with a request to provide up-to-date statistics. Both requests were ignored: by telephone, the press service first reported that they could not find the letter; then — that the request is in progress; then they just stopped answering calls.
On January 31, the Federal Penitentiary Service published statistics on its website. According to it, by January 1, 2023, 433,000 people were kept in the penitentiary system. The Federal Penitentiary Service missed the data by December 1.
Over the past 20 years, in monthly reports, the Federal Penitentiary Service has detailed how many people are being held in correctional colonies, in prisons, in pre-trial detention centers, and so on. The report as of January 1, 2023 does not provide any details about this — only the total number of people held in «institutions of the penitentiary system.» class=»mz-publish-photo__image» data-type=»photo» data-slate-custom=»{"imgSrc":"https://s3.zona.media/i/fbf58822c38127812128d11ccef18d5e","alt" :""}» alt=»1″ />
This total number of all prisoners in all types of institutions has decreased by 6,000 since November. It is impossible to single out only men who were released from colonies of ordinary and strict regime. The decrease in the total number of prisoners by 6,000 people over two months is generally in line with the trend of previous years.
In total, since the beginning of 2022, the total number of prisoners in the FSIN system has decreased by 32 thousand people.