The number has recently shrunken by 360,000 to 767,000. 142,000 of these are in pre-trial detention prisons. More than 67 per cent convicts are guilty of grave or exceptionally grave crimes.
Jail problems are the worst in living conditions and material supplies. The latest improvements concerned 60 per cent of detention prisons, with repairs or reconstruction, and conditions made tolerable. The number of detainees exceeds the standard ceiling by 14,000, or 11 per cent, as against a recent 140,000 - a threefold excess.
Detention prisons of Moscow, its environs, St. Petersburg and Nizhni Novgorod on the Volga are the hardest put.
Mr. Kalinin went on to quote escape statistics for convict camps and detention prisons. There were 21instances last year. All runaway convicts were eventually caught, he reassured. "Detection is very active on such outrages, and has stringent deadlines," he added. The speaker also mentioned recent sensations in Moscow and Siberia's Tyumen, when convicts escaped from police guard while deported, and suspects during crime re-enactment.
An amnesty is coming up for the 60th V-E Day anniversary to release roughly two thousand convicts, 26 World War II veterans included. Amnesties never send crime rates up. On the contrary, criminal relapses are very rare among amnestied persons, reassured Mr. Kalinin.
He came down on kings of crime as they appeal to rights organizations for their ignoble ends. They turn to rights activists to sow unrest in jails, pointed out the officer as he quoted recent prison riots in Yekaterinburg, Urals; Adyghea, North Caucasus; and Ryazan, Central Russia. Information had reached police of the underworld funding what was disguised as rights campaigns. More than that, certain rights organizations are employing aliens or people with past criminal records.
A bitter tug-of-war is on between prison bosses and gang godfathers, of whom 46 are serving their terms throughout Russia.
