Russia Weighs Mass Amnesty

The population in Russia's overcrowded prisons could be reduced by about one-third in 2001 if parliament amends the criminal code, Russia's justice minister said in an interview published Tuesday.

About 300,000 to 350,000 prisoners in pretrial detention centers, penal colonies and prisons could be released in the coming year if the amendments are approved, Yuri Chaika told the Interfax news agency.

Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, has approved the package of 59 amendments in two of three readings, and will likely pass the bill by mid-2001, Chaika said. The amendments provide for alternatives to prison for some minor offenses and more liberal pretrial detention rules.

Russia has the largest per capita prison population in the world, with slightly more than 1 million people in prisons, penal colonies and jails.

According to the nonprofit, U.S.-based Sentencing Project, Russia's incarceration rate of 675 people per 100,000 population is second in the world, just behind the United States' rate of 690 per 100,000.

International human rights campaigners have condemned the squalid, disease-ridden conditions in which most prisoners live. In its 2001 report, Human Rights Watch characterized Russia's prison's as "severely overcrowded," while the U.S. State Department has called the conditions in the institution "extremely harsh and frequently are life threatening," citing figures that 10,000 to 20,000 inmates die annually.

Cells intended for eight people are sometimes packed with up to 30, so inmates are forced to sleep in shifts on bunk beds. Tuberculosis and other disease have spread quickly.

Russia traditionally announces amnesties on major national holidays. The government also views amnesties as a way to free up space in the country's overcrowded prisons.

In 1999, the Duma passed a bill granting amnesty to tens of thousands of people convicted or charged with non-violent crimes, as part of a prison reform plan.

The bill also applied to war veterans, pregnant women, elderly people and invalids, as well as those who held a state honor or medal.

But an oversight meant some serious offenders, who had won state honors, were released. The Duma amended the bill to close the loophole in June last year.

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