More than 90 percent of inmates in Russian prisons suffer from diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis or are infected with HIV, the Prosecutor General’s Office said. Russian penal institutions last year registered 1.2 million cases of illness, 400,000 of which were new conditions, the prosecutors said on their website today.
Only 24 percent of the necessary financing for prison medical care will be available this year, the prosecutors said, leading to a lack of doctors, modern equipment and proper conditions. More than 4,000 prisoners died in Russia last year from various causes, state broadcaster Rossiya-24 reported today.
There were 847,300 inmates in Russian prisons and penal colonies as of July 1, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service. Russia has the second-highest per capita prison population after the U.S., according to the International Centre for Prison Studies at King’s College London.