In Russian pretrial detention centers and penal colonies, they will hand out less bread and potatoes, explaining it as concern for health. Human rights advocates called it cost-cutting and a way to “drive them to the front”

In Russian pretrial detention centers and penal colonies, they will hand out less bread and potatoes, explaining it as concern for health. Human rights advocates called it cost-cutting and a way to “drive them to the front”

The Justice Ministry, “for the purpose of improving nutritional standards,” plans to add more vegetables and a little butter to the diet of Russians in penal colonies and pretrial detention centers, while at the same time sharply reducing the main sources of carbohydrates, namely portions of bread and potatoes. This follows from a draft resolution by the Justice Ministry that Verstka noticed.

If men in penal colonies are currently supposed to receive 300 grams of bread made from a rye-and-wheat flour mix and 250 grams of white bread per day, in the future this will be 250 and 200 grams respectively. The standards for women will also be reduced from the current 200 and 250 grams to 150 and 200.

After the new resolution is adopted, potato portions for convicts will be cut almost in half — from 550 grams for men and 500 for women to 300 and 250 grams respectively.

The Justice Ministry explains these changes as concern for the health of convicts, since the menu will include more meat and vegetables, and defendants will also get fruit. In reality, after such a significant reduction in carbohydrates, the meat ration will increase for men and women in penal colonies by only 10 grams.

In addition, men and women in penal colonies and pretrial detention centers currently receive 250 grams of vegetables per day. These portions will be increased to 320-340 grams, but it will be specified that 150 grams of that is cabbage and 40-60 grams is onion.

Olga Romanova, founder of the movement Russia Behind Bars and a human rights advocate, said in a conversation with Verstka that all of these changes are being made in order to save money, which will worsen prisoners’ nutrition and may motivate them to go to war with Ukraine.

The stated weight of the products is the weight after they are peeled, and now it will be clarified that this is the weight before peeling, Romanova interprets the new draft.

“We know what quality of potatoes is delivered to the colonies — there is a lot of peel waste. So this means the weight of the finished product is decreasing — the most filling item on a prisoner’s menu. And potatoes have always been in short supply in most institutions, especially closer to spring,” she says.

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