Belarusian Prisons Crammed with Inmates :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus occupies the fifth spot in the world as to the number of convicts and suspects per 100,000 residents. "Rosbalt" correspondent quotes the chief of the Committee for penalties’ execution of Belarus Vladimir Kovchur as saying this at the Friday press-conference in Minsk. According to the Belarusian Interior Ministry, Belarus is next only to USA, Russia, Kazakhstan and Caiman islands.

By January 1, 2003 Belarusian confinement centers and prisons accommodated 48thsd767 persons. Kovchur reported that Belarusian jails aren’t designed for allocating such a huge number of detainees and convicts. In hard labor colonies this figure constitutes 20,8%, prisons – 35,9%, pre-trial confinement centers – 26,8%. In this connection they plan to open in Belarus a second colony for most unsafe criminals. As stressed by Kovchur, it is intended to be built in the Volchi Nory of Brest region on the territory of the former military disciplinary battalion.