Moscow - Some 30,000 prisoners serving prison terms of up to five years have been granted amnesty and will be freed before the end of the year, a Russian justice ministry said yesterday.
The Duma voted to eventually free 94,000 prisoners to reduce prison overpopulation and limit a tuberculosis outbreak in Russian jails, where some 100,000 cases of tuberculosis have been reported.
Russia has the highest prison rate in the world, surpassing the US, with 685 of every 100,000 Russians currently in prison. Up to 10 people are often incarcerated in a small cell.