Number of prisoners at a record low

According to figures from the State Penitentiary Service as of 1 July 2013 there were 136, 223 prisoners in places of confinement.  Oleksandr Bukalov from Donetsk Memorial notes that this is the lowest number in the last 2 decades.

There are now 301 prisoners per 100 thousand head of population.

The reduction is largely due to a considerable fall in the number of remand prisoners (in SIZO].  On 1 July there were 24, 193 remand prisoners in 26 SIZO. At the beginning of 2013 the figure was 30, 854; a year earlier – 37, 632.

On the other hand, the number of convicted prisoners has not changed significantly and has not reached the minimum recorded on 1 January 2010.  The number of convicted prisoners has changed as follows:

01.01.2010 – 108 187
01.01.2011 – 113 917
01.01.2012 – 115 068
01.01.2013 – 114 994
01.07.2013 – 110 895

The number of prisoners in corrective colonies – in the middle of 2013 there were 1, 135 prisoners of whom less than 1 thousand were minors. At the beginning of the year there were 1, 264.

The number of convicted women prisoners has virtually not changed and on 1 July stood at 6, 043.

There are 1, 844 life prisoners, of whom 23 are women.