On April 23 Council of Europe published a report, condemning the Russian Federation for cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners and inmates of detention centers and police stations. The Russian prison population is nearing 1 million (total population of the Russian Federation is about 144 million). (30-APR-2002)

According to the report about 100,000 prisoners don’t have their own bed, prison mortality rates are 29 times higher and instances of TB are 56 times higher then in the general population. 
30 April 2002: According to US Department of State Human Rights report for 2001 released on March 4, 2002, torture and brutal and inhumane treatment of suspects and prisoners is routine and widespread:

The Constitution prohibits torture, violence, and other brutal or humiliating treatment or punishment; however, there were credible reports that some law enforcement personnel used torture regularly to coerce confessions from suspects, and that the Government does not hold most officials accountable for such actions.

“Prisoners´ rights groups, as well as other human rights groups, documented numerous cases in which law enforcement and correctional officials tortured and beat detainees and suspects. Human rights groups describe the practice of torture as widespread. In 2000 human rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov estimated that 50 percent of prisoners with whom he spoke claimed to have been tortured. The Government does not release statistics on the number of detainees and prisoners who were killed or died or on the number of law enforcement and prison personnel disciplined.

According to Sergey Shimivolos – director of Nizhegorod Human Rights Association, in the past several years practically nothing has been done to prevent torture. In fact the situation has become worse. According to General Prosecutor’s office in 1997 there were about 400 appeals by citizens in relation to torture; in 1998 – 6,000; in 2000 – 8,000. But number of criminal cases is negligible – only 7 to 11 cases for the whole the Russian Federation. This situation not only abuses human rights, but undermines the justice system.

The country´s penal institutions remained extremely overcrowded. The GUIN stated that the system of SIZO´s was at 151.2 percent of capacity at the year´s end. Many of the facilities were in urgent need of renovation and upgrading. According to the PCPR, there are approximately 86,000 tuberculosis-infected persons and 21,576 HIV-infected persons in Special Isolation Facility (SIZO) and correction colonies.

Suspects awaiting the completion of a criminal investigation, trial, sentencing, or appeal, are confined in a (SIZO). In SIZO prisoners sleep in shifts, and there is little, if any, room to move within cells. In most pretrial detention centers and prisons, there is no ventilation system. Poor ventilation is thought to contribute to cardiac problems and lowered resistance to disease. Cells are overcrowded and stiflingly hot in the summer. The PCPR estimates that 10,000 to 11,000 prisoners die annually in penitentiary facilities, 2,500 of them in SIZO´s.”

Source: Russian Human Rights Network (in Russian); US Department of State http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8331.htm