MOSCOW, May 11 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union has allocated 3 mln euros ($3.8 mln) to help Russia manufacture electronic bracelets to monitor prison inmates, a penitentiary service official said Thursday.
Oleg Filimonov, head of the legal department at the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS), said the funds would be used for a pilot study at one of Russia's penal colonies.
"The experiment involves about 200 inmates and will last for three years," he said, adding that the service would announce a tender on the development of electronic bracelets and signal receivers.
The bracelets, which cannot be taken off or reprogrammed, could be used to locate inmates serving terms in penal colonies with the right to work outside the colony, offenders on house arrest, and those who pose potential threat to society, Filimonov said.
According to official data, 850,000 people are serving terms in Russia's prisons.
Russia's lower house of parliament, which has the constitutional right to declare pardons, passed a bill on amnesty to mark its centenary in April.
FPS Director Yury Kalinin said Thursday about 3,000 inmates, including 2,000 underage offenders, would be pardoned under the bill this year.
