MOSCOW, September 24 (RAPSI) – A member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Andrey Babushkin has visited with inspection a penal colony for life convicts in the Orenburg Region known as Black Dolphin Prison, the advisory body’s press service reports.

According to the check results, a facility for short and long meetings with good conditions has been built; and one more facility is being constructed for living, eating and working. Moreover, nearly all cells were repaired in four years, the statement reads.

During this year, 21 convicts were freed on parole, and punishment was softened for another 5 inmates, Babushkin said. However, the problem of release of seriously ill prisoners is not solved, he added.

In 2018, 7 people, 4 of which were earlier denied release, died in the prison. From January to August 2019, 8 inmates passed away, the human rights advocate noted.  The human rights body has asked the penitentiary institution to provide ill inmates with medical assistance in time.

Black Dolphin is one of the oldest prisons in Russia, and one of the first in the Orenburg Region for inmates sentenced to life.