Cabinet of Ministers abolished the Penitentiary Service and devolved powers on the Ministry of Justice

The Cabinet of Ministers took a decision on the liquidation of the State Penitentiary Service and devolving its powers to the Ministry of Justice, - reports the correspondent of OstroV.

"I want to note that penitentiary standards have not been changed for 75 years. Most of the institutions are not even Soviet, but of tsarist times. Establishments where our prisoners serve sentences are more than 150 years old. It is the greatest heritage of the Soviet Union which it left for us as an independent state,"- said the first Deputy Minister of Justice Natalia Sevastyanova when presenting the reform project.

According to her, the main objective of the reform is that people, who are waiting for a court’s decision, are not in terrible conditions.

"Reform provides that we abandon the Soviet penal inspections and probation centers are to be built in their place at the district level throughout the country," – she noted.

After that, members of the government unanimously voted for the corresponding decision.