Russia to build seven new penal complexes with capacity over 20,000
Plan includes mixed pre-trial prisons and penal colonies, with one complex planned in occupied Kherson region.
Russia plans to build seven new penal complexes by 2035 that will combine pre-trial detention facilities and penal colonies with varying security levels, with a total capacity exceeding 20,000 places.
According to official planning documents, the new capacity is split between 5,380 places for pre-trial detention centres and 15,120 places in penal colonies. One of the planned complexes is to be located in the Kherson region of Ukraine, territory currently under Russian occupation.
Regional siting and timetable
Other sites named in the plans include locations in Kalushka, Astrakhan and Tyumen regions, as well as in Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai. The first of the new complexes is scheduled to open in Tatarstan by 2030.
The Russian Ministry of Justice says the mixed-type facilities are intended to reduce the cost of housing detainees and suspects by 25–30 percent. Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko has also said the projects will apply modern organizational and engineering solutions, including information technologies.
Arkadiy Gostev, head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, stated: "Since 1984, not a single new penal colony has been built in Russia."
The construction plan comes as Russian authorities have actively recruited prisoners for the war in Ukraine, including people convicted of serious crimes. At the same time, numerous reports detail the conditions in which Ukrainian prisoners of war are held, with allegations of torture and lack of medical care.
Photo: press material from the event
