Draft legislation would free 14,000 Russian prisoners immediately

In late June 2018, ten years after the bill was first submitted to the State Duma, federal lawmakers adopted a second reading of legislation that would mean less time behind bars for Russians convicted of many crimes. The draft law recalculates how pretrial detention is weighed when determining how much time should be considered “already served” when suspects in pretrial detention are sentenced to time in prison.

The bill’s supporters originally said the pretrial-detention recalculation would lead to the immediate release of as many as 100,000 inmates. According to the deputy director of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, however, the number of prisoners who would go free immediately is closer to 14,000, though roughly 100,000 inmates would get early parole, eventually.

• Meduza previously explained how this legislation would change the way pretrial detention is weighed by Russia’s justice system. Read about it here.