Women not to be sent to high-security prisons

Next year Russia will abolish high-security prisons for women, Russian Deputy Justice Minister Yuri Kalinin announced at a meeting with journalists.

"The bill adopted by the State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament) in the first reading on October 17th envisages that all women sentenced to imprisonment, even in case of especially dangerous recidivism, will be sent to common prisons," Kalinin said.

On September 23, 2003, President Vladimir Putin introduced to the State Duma a draft federal law titled "On bringing the criminal procedural code of the Russian Federation and other legislative acts in compliance with the federal law 'On introducing amendments and changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation'", he reported. The bill broadens the rights of convicts for psychological and judicial assistance, for visits outside prisons, for personal hygiene products, as well as the rights of convicted pregnant women for specialised medical assistance and maternity allowance regardless of their fulfilling labour duties.

At present 40,000 women are serving a sentence in Russian prisons, some 15,000 of them are in high-security prisons.