Report: 4,000 Russian inmates died in prisons in 2012

According to an annual report by Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, nearly 4,000 inmates died in Russian prisons in 2012.
 
The report accuses Russian prisons of failing to follow the law on health care, as prisons do not have sufficient medicine or cleansing supplies.
 
About 50 percent of prison suspects and convicts are reportedly suffering from tuberculosis, HIV, drug addiction, and different mental disorders.
 
It also says that there were numerous violations of criminal and penitentiary laws in Russian jails last year.
 
More than 43,000 violations of the law related to poor living conditions of inmates were found in the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service's prisons.
 
“Every year we get 3,000 complaints, on average 10 percent are medical problems, 20 percent inhumane treatment, 40 percent is over unfair sentencing. The rest is over conditions of imprisonment and transfers to another prison,” Valery Bazunov, Russia’s commissioner for prisoners' rights said.
 
The report was handed out to members of Russia’s upper house of the Federal Assembly on Wednesday. It will be presented to Moscow’s Federation Council on April 24.
 
As many as 54 prisons in the country fail to comply with the standard of four square meters per prisoner. Also, one out of every three detention centers has been functioning for more than a century.
 
The current worsening trend in Russian prisons comes after reforms to the country’s penitentiary system were launched in 2009. Experts say the reforms have failed because they are not based on Russian standards.