Almost 4,000 convicts died in Russia in 2012 - Prosecutor General
MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax) - Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said that there were multiple violations of criminal and penitentiary law in Russian detention facilities.
According to Chaika's annual report, which the official will present to the Federation Council on April 24, currently over 43,000 violations of the law related to convicts' living conditions have been found in facilities of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service. In particular, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, the law on the health care of convicts is not followed and there is not enough medicine or cleansing supplies.
The report was distributed among members of the upper house on Wednesday.
The report says that 3,907 people died in detention facilities in 2012 and over 50% of suspects and convicts suffer from tuberculosis, HIV, drug addiction and various mental disorders.
A total of 54 detention facilities do not comply with the standard of four square meters per prisoner and one out of three detention facilities has been working for over a century. Many convicts do not have personal beds.
The report says that as of late 2012, 113,500 people accused of committing crimes were in detention facilities and over 588,000 convicts were serving time in prison.
Convicts still have access to forbidden items, mobile phones, alcohol and drugs. In 2012, over 4.2 million rubles, over 21,000 liters of alcohol and over 10,000 cell phones were confiscated from convicts.
A total of 28 murders and 961 crimes were committed in detention facilities in 2012.
The document says that officials of detentions facilities are covering "for a fee" illegal actions of convicts and ease the regime for them without proper grounds. The share of detention facilities' employees against whom criminal cases have been opened grew over 21% in 2012 and 187 people were convicted.
