Russia’s prisons remain full to overflowing.

Based on materials from the St Petersburg Times
Galina Stolyarova, 16 September 2008

If the pardons commission played only a nominal role in the USSR, under President Yeltsin the situation changed. The State Pardons Commission, set up in April 1992, was the only channel through which prisoners could appeal against their sentence.

Under Boris Yeltsin the numbers pardoned reached as many as 800 a year. In the Putin-Medvedev era this process has ground to a halt. Now regional pardons commissions take the decisions and then each case is sent to the local governor for confirmation. After that it is forwarded to Moscow where it ceases to move. In 2005 42 people were pardoned; in 2006, only nine pardons were issued.

It is not part of the commission’s job to re-examine the verdicts issued by the courts. Its task is, rather, to assess the danger that a prisoner will represent to society if he or she is released.

There are too many being held in Russia’s prisons and a number of experts consider that a year spent in a Russian prison is equivalent to 2-3 years in a prison abroad. “About 90% of those released from prison have TB,” says Dr Tatyana Lineva, who works for the Russian Red Cross.