The number of people held in Russian prisons and pretrial detention centers has fallen by about one-third since 2021, Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Director Arkady Gostev said in comments to the state-controlled news agency TASS. He cited “effort to recruit contract soldiers” as one reason, likely the first such acknowledgment by the penitentiary service.
According to Gostev, Russia’s prison population has shrunk from 465,000 inmates at the end of 2021 to 282,000 now. This number includes prisons, penal colonies, and pretrial detention centers, which currently hold approximately 85,000 people across the country.
The penitentiary service director listed several factors behind the decline. TASS quoted him as pointing to the “humanization of criminal punishment,” including the wider use of forced labor, probation, and noncustodial sentences. Gostev also said “effort to recruit contract soldiers for the Armed Forces” has made “a certain impact.”
The independent investigative outlet Important Stories noted that this is likely the first time the Federal Penitentiary Service has acknowledged that the decline in the inmate population is linked to prisoners leaving to fight in Ukraine under contracts with Russia’s Defense Ministry. The Insider was also unable to find any earlier similar statements by representatives of the prison service.
