| Agency Name: | Federal Penitentiary Service |
| Superseding: | GUIN |
| Jurisdiction: | Russia |
| Headquarters: | Zhitnaya Street 14 Yakimanka District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow |
| Employees: | 224,042 |
| Budget: | 251.7 Billion Rubles (2024) |
| Chief1 Name: | Arkadiy Gostev |
| Chief1 Position: | Director |
The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN, Russian: Федеральная служба исполнения наказаний (ФСИН), Federalnaya Sluzhba Ispolneniya Nakazaniy) is a federal agency of the Ministry of Justice of Russia responsible for correctional services.
The FSIN is the federal authority for the detention of suspected and convicted persons, the security and maintenance of prisons in Russia, the transport of prisoners, and rehabilitation programs. As of March 2022, it operates 872 institutions (204 pre-trial SIZO institutions, 642 corrective colonies, 8 prisons, 18 juvenile colonies), with pre-trial detention facilities housing adult and juvenile offenders of various security levels, with the majority of penal facilities being corrective labor colonies. Its head office is located at Zhitnaya Street 14 in Yakimanka District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow.
The FSIN was established in 2004 as a new federal correctional service agency for the Ministry of Justice to replace the Soviet-era Main Administration for the Execution of Punishments (Главное управление исполнения наказаний, GUIN), formerly of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and received its current name in 2006. It claims succession from the Main Prisons Directorate of the Russian Empire founded in 1879, and directly succeeds the correctional services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union including the Gulag agency.
The Federal Penitentiary Service is considered to be successor to the Main Prison Administration, established on 27 February 1879 as the first government body dealing with maintenance and security of detention and prison facilities in the Russian Empire. On 13 December 1895, the Main Prison Administration was transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Empire. Following the October Revolution, a new prison administration was established by the Bolsheviks with a system composed mainly of forced labor camps across the Soviet Union. On 7 April 1930, the Gulag agency was established which oversaw an expansion of the labor camp system in the Soviet Union. In 1960, the Main Administration for Execution of Punishments (GUIN) was founded under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union following the dissolution of the Gulag agency. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia maintained GUIN unchanged as part of its own Ministry of Internal Affairs until 1998, when the prison service was returned to the Ministry of Justice after nearly a century. The FSIN was established in 2004 as part of various administrative reforms occurring in Russia reforming executive bodies from 2004 to 2005, maintaining the GUIN name but specially re-created for the Ministry of Justice. In 2006, the FSIN received its current name as the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments (Russian: Федеральная служба исполнения наказаний (ФСИН)) under the Russian Ministry of Justice. The FSIN is commonly known in English as the Federal Penitentiary Service.
The main tasks of the FSIN are:
The FSIN is headed by the Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, who is appointed and dismissed by the President of Russia on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Russia. The Director is authorized to have six deputies, including one first deputy, who are appointed and dismissed by the President.
In 2007, Rabbi Aharon Gurevich was appointed the chief military rabbi, the first time to hold this position in Russia since 1917, serving as the chief rabbi for Jewish inmates and officers in Russian federal prison system.
As of March 2019, the FSIN was responsible for 558,778 inmates, including pre-trial detainees. Only 8% of prisoners in Russia were female, and 0.2% were juvenile offenders. As of 2018, Russia had one of the highest incarceration rates in the world at 416 per 100,000 people with a prison population ranked fourth behind the United States, China, and Brazil. Before 2000 Russia was ranked as having the highest incarceration rate per 100,000 people internationally until it was overtaken by the United States. between 2000 and 2018, Russia’s prison population dropped substantially with a decline of over 400,000 inmates, thanks among other factors, to the socioeconomic reforms and overall increase in standards and quality of life.
The FSIN operated 705 places of worship within its facilities for inmates of various faiths including Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Catholicism.
As of 2019, the FSIN operated 954 facilities of various types located across Russia. The majority of prisons are "corrective labor colonies", a type of penal colony that combines detention with compulsory work introduced during the Soviet era, but also operates a number of traditional prisons.
The FSIN has eight special correctional facilities only for prisoners serving life sentences and those formerly sentenced to death:
| Common Name | Full Name | Location | Opened | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ognenny Ostrov Огненный остров ("Pyatak/Volgoda Nickel") | Federal State Institution "Correctional Colony No. 5 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Vologda Oblast" | Belozersky District, Vologda Oblast | 1953 | Capacity of 505 inmates, including 55 cell high-security section. | |
| Snowflake Snezhinka Снежинка | Federal state institution "Correctional Colony No. 6 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Khabarovsk Territory" | Elban, Khabarovsk Krai | 2017 | Capacity of 378 inmates. | |
| White Swan Belyy Lebed Белый лебедь | Federal State Institution "Association of Correctional Colonies No. 2 with special economic conditions for the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Perm Territory" | Solikamsk, Perm Krai | 1938 | Capacity of 962 inmates. | |
| Black Berkut Chyorniy berkut Чёрный беркут | Federal state institution "Correctional Colony No. 56 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Sverdlovsk Region" | Ivdel, Sverdlovsk Oblast | 1935 | Capacity of 469 inmates. | |
| Torbeyev Central (ru) Torbeyevskiy tsentral Торбеевский_централ | Federal state institution "Correctional Colony No. 6 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Republic of Mordovia" | Torbeyevo, Mordovia | 2015 | Capacity of 210 inmates. | |
| Black Dolphin Chyorniy delʹfin Чёрный дельфин | Federal State Institution "Correctional Colony No. 6 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Orenburg Region" | Sol-Iletsk, Orenburg Oblast | 1773 | Capacity of 1600 inmates. | |
| Polar Owl Polyarnaya sova Полярная сова | Federal State Institution "Correctional Colony No. 18 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug" | Kharp, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug | 1961 | Capacity of 1014 inmates | |
| Mordovian Zone (ru) Mordovskaya zona Мордовская зона | Federal State Institution "Correctional Colony No. 1 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Republic of Mordovia" | Zubovo-Polyansky District, Mordovia | 1931 | Capacity of 1005 inmates. |
| Common Name | Full Name | Location | Opened | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Segezha Correctional Colony (ru) Segezhskaya ispavitel'naya koloniya Сегежская исправительная колония | Federal state institution "Correctional Colony No. 7 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Republic of Karelia" | Segezha, Karelia | 1968 | Capacity of 1342 inmates. | |
| Lgov Prison L'govskaya koloniya Льго́вская коло́ния | Federal State Institution “Correctional Colony No. 3 of the Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Kursk Region” | Lgov, Kursk Oblast | 1961 | Capacity of 1,560 inmates. |
Every regional office of Federal Penitentiary Service has its own special purpose unit, whose tasks include rescuing the hostages, providing security during transportation of prisoners, anti-riot tasks in penitentiary facilities etc. The special purpose unit of FSIN's Moscow department is called Saturn. Most of FSIN special purpose units were involved in special tasks during both Chechen Wars and their aftermath.