RYAZAN. Nov 21 (Interfax) - The use of non-incarceration penalties in Russia has led to increased numbers of inmates convicted for serious crimes, first deputy chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service Anatoly Rudy said.
"Stability is being provided against a backdrop of significant deterioration of the quality of prison population. The humanization of our criminal legislation has led to a higher concentration of prison inmates convicted for grave and very grave crimes," Rudy said at an international penitentiary forum in Ryazan on Thursday.
Such convicts now account for 80% of all inmates, he said.
"One in four is serving time for homicide or intentional grievous bodily harm, one in five for robbery or theft. More than a quarter are serving long sentences, and almost half are on their at least second stint," Rudy said.
There has been an increase in the numbers of convicts for terrorism, extremism, and corruption, "highly aggressive, excitable convicts, with mental deviations, inclined to all forms of destructive behavior, aggression, conflict, self-harm, suicide, assaults on staff," he said.
"Gang leaders have become more active in trying to coordinate inmates' actions," Rudy said.