The size of the prison population—that is, those individuals who are
being held against their will in, IVSs and SIZOs (pretrial detention centers), and actual prisons—has
an important political, economic, and criminological significance. Political,
because it reflects the attitude of the government towards its citizens, and is an
indirect testimony to the “concept of the individual” held by the guiding spirits and
guardians of the current regime; as a result of isolating people from society, it
stratifies it in a particular way; and the size of the prison population also influences
the distribution of power among the agencies which create, and control the lives of,
convicts. Economic, since with changes in the size of the prison population come
reductions (or increases) in the burden on the federal and, to a degree, local budgets;
also changed is the level of illegal income for those engaged in smuggling narcotics,
alcoholic beverages, and messages from the outside into prisons; and the communities which
surround such facilities can either prosper or wither, depending on the amount of funding.
Criminological, inasmuch as those who have experienced preliminary detention or
imprisonment obtain and/or enrich their criminal expertise, and upon their release find it
difficult to respond to rehabilitation; as a result, according to their inclination—or,
more often, their immediate needs—they end up applying their acquired skills, and commit
new crimes. Too, one ought not to forget that prisoners in contact with a criminal
environment can link up with suitable compatriots in the underworld.
In Russia in 1996, there were at any one time from 270 to 300 thousand
suspects and accused being held in IVSs and SIZOs. During the same period, 1,111,100 persons were found
guilty by Russian Federation courts, 7.3% more than in 1995. The convict
coefficient—that is, the portion of those found guilty out of every 100,000 citizens
aged 14 and above—reached 935 people, in other words, just under 1% of those who had
reached the age at which the law allows for the application of criminal punishment, were
convicts.1
Out of all the constituent members of the Russian Federation, the
largest number of those convicted were to be found in the city of Moscow and the
Sverdlovsk Region (39,500 people each); the Perm Region (35,500); the Moscow region,
Krasnodar Territory, and Tatarstan (more than 30,000 persons in each area). Compared with
1995, the number of convictions for both premeditated and impulsive crimes increased, by
20.6% and 6.4%, respectively. One should note that court records indicate the most active
increase was in the number of less serious crimes committed, particularly economic crimes.
At the same time, the number of convictions for premeditated murder fell by 4%, along with
grievous bodily injury (down by 4.7%), rape (-19.9%), illegal dealing in firearms and
munitions (-12.1%), and robbery (-1.9%). Especially disturbing was the growth in cases
involving persons who belong to the underprivileged strata of society; in particular,
those citizens who are able to work but have no guaranteed wages (up by 38.9%).
In 1996, a small drop was noted in the number of those sentenced to imprisonment. In
1995, this sentence was applied in 36.4% of all cases; in 1996, in 33.9%. Of the accused
in the categories listed below, the following numbers were sentenced to imprisonment:
minors, 27%; women, 18%; and first-time offenders, 21.8%. The application of imprisonment
for crimes presenting no serious threat to society was found in 17.5% of all convictions
for such crimes. The highest number of sentences involving imprisonment were recorded in
the Komi and Ingushetia republics (47.3% and 46.2%, respectively), and the Tyumen,
Sverdlovsk, and Kirov regions (45.2%, 41.8%, and 40.5%, respectively). In 1996, more than
1,100,000 persons were being held in correctional labor colonies and prisons.
