Russia’s penitentiary service unveils prefabricated forced-labor center design, says convicts are ‘disciplined workers’ businesses will welcome
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has unveiled a design for a prefabricated correctional center for convicts sentenced to forced labor.
The agency presented the project at its booth at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (SPILF) and sent the design to Russian regions as a recommended model.
The design calls for a building housing 200 inmates, a sports court, a park, a walking area, a parking lot, a separate yard for rule violators, a diesel generator, and a transformer substation.
An FSIN representative said the park and sports court are optional, and that the modular structure allows such a center to be built quickly and moved if needed.
The agency said the design could be adopted by businesses interested in building such centers at their own facilities. Companies are showing interest, the FSIN representative said, because convicts sentenced to forced labor are “fairly disciplined workers” — motivated to perform well knowing that any violations could land them in a high-security prison.
According to the Federal Penitentiary Service, roughly half of the correctional centers in Russia for inmates sentenced to forced labor have been established by private businesses. Such entities are exempt from property tax.
At the end of 2025, the agency’s head, Arkady Gostev, said that around 400 such centers had been set up across the country, with capacity to house up to 50,000 people. In reality, more than 30,000 inmates were held in them at the time.
In 2026, Russian authorities expanded the list of Criminal Code articles under which forced labor can be imposed as a primary sentence.
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