KYIV. March 12 (Interfax) - The number of convicts and prisoners, who are being held in penitentiaries and remand prisons of the Ukrainian State Criminal Penitentiary Service, has decreased 3.5% to 55,078 at the beginning of this year against 2018, the Justice Ministry told Interfax.
The number of convicts dropped 6% to 35,568 at penitentiaries, while the number of inmates of detention centers went up 1.2% to about 19,510, the ministry said.
Enterprises of the Ukrainian State Criminal Penitentiary Service have sold UAH 754.9 million's worth of products and services in 2018 that is 18.8% higher than the 2018 figure and have transferred UAH 152.2 million to the state budget, the Justice Ministry said.
Enterprises of the penitentiary service were actively involved in state procurements for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and manufactured UAH 85.4 million's worth of produce for them last year, the ministry said. The talks are on with structural divisions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to procure Yegoza reinforced barbed tape, barbed wire, Putanka mantrap, army beds, bedside tables, working wear produced by convicts in 2019, the oversight agency added.
Meanwhile, organizations of the penitentiary service have received UAH 34.8 million of revenue yielded by convicts and UAH 73.1 million of their salary on their accounts last year.
The concept of reforming the Ukrainian penitentiary service was approved in the fall of 2017. It was noted then that the number of persons, who have already served their sentences in penitentiaries, edged down 1.4 times to about 41,800 people since 2015, and more than half of beds in penitentiaries were empty, while the number of inmates of detention centers went up 1.2 times to about 18,800.