Cellmates in some Russian prisons will be matched up on the basis of their psychological compatibility as part of a pilot project announced on Thursday by the Federal Penal Service.
The project will be implemented in the regions of Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Komi and Bashkortostan, and will affect a range of different prison facilities, including a women's prison and a maximum-security colony.
The initiative is expected to prevent the "strong" prisoners from bullying the "weak" ones Anatoly Rudny, first deputy director of the Federal Penal Service, told Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Thursday.
It was not immediately clear how psychological compatibility would be determined for purposes of the pilot project.
Russia has the world's third-largest prison population. According to Rudny, 556,000 people — more than half of whom are recidivists — are currently serving out their sentences in Russia's 727 prison facilities.
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