MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - The population of Russian penitentiaries and pre-trial detention facilities is at all-time low, the Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement seen by Interfax on Tuesday.
"The number of incarcerated convicts, suspects, and defendants is at all-time low in the Russian history," the statement said.
As of October 1, Russian penitentiaries had a population of 434,303 (compared to over 463,000 in the beginning of this year).
"Meanwhile, the number of persons held in pre-trial detention facilities went below 100,000 this year. As of October 1, pre-trial detention facilities and similar institutions had over 98,301 inmates (v. 100,581 on October 1, 2018)," the statement said.
The Federal Penitentiary Service said in December 2018 that liberalization of the national criminal legislation led to the stable decline in the incarcerated population, "by practically a quarter of a million over the past decade."