E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2 page 59 pressure on the places available and prompted the authorities to open new institutions. One institution, OE 265/5, accommodates 156 people with commuted death sentences, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Justice to a delegation of State Duma deputies visiting the prison in February 2002. Since the first prisoner arrived in the colony in February 1994, the Ministry in 2002 reported that 32 prisoners had died, four of whom committed suicide. This is a mortality rate of around 20 per cent in six years. There are no centralized rules on the day-to-day requirements of prisoners on “special regime”, which allows colony directors too much discretion. Parliamentarians and human rights activists who have visited these colonies describe regimes that are needlessly restrictive in some places, and humiliating in others. Life sentence prisoners in Perm, Vologda and Mordovia, for instance, are handcuffed each time they are moved from their cell, no matter who the prisoner is or how short the distance. Life sentence prisoners in Mordovia are made to adopt a special walk in front of prison staff, with bowed heads and small steps. 265. Recommendation (h) stated: Provision should be made for sufficient food of palatable quality to be available to those whom the State deprives of the means to fend for themselves. According to information received from NGOs the food provision has greatly improved since the early 1990s, but the problems have not been completely resolved. In 2005, the federal budget allocation is 27 rubles 29 kopecks per inmate per day, while the national average minimum food ration in Russia at the 2004 year-end was 34 rubles 73 kopecks per person per day. Moreover, in some institutions inmates are not even getting what is allocated due to theft by the administration. This type of abuse has been specifically mentioned by the Russian Prosecutor General. When the IHF delegation visited SIZO No. 5 in Moscow, they found that the food looked and smelled unpalatable and did not include fresh fruit or vegetables. They further found that medical facilities in SIZO No. 2, and especially in SIZO No. 4, lacked basic medicine and equipment. 266. The Government informed that over the last 10 years, the quality of the food has considerably improved, in accordance with a governmental decree No. 205 of 11 April 2005 “On the minimum norms of food and material maintenance of persons sentenced to deprivation of their liberty, and also norms of food of persons suspected and accused of having committed a crime held in custody in pre-trial detention of the Federal Service of Execution of Punishment and Federal Security Service in peace times.” Based on research done by the Russian Academy of Science an internal order, “Norms of food and material maintenance of persons sentenced to deprivation of their liberty and persons suspected and accused of having committed a crime held in custody in pre-trial detention of the Federal Service of Execution of in peace times,” No. 125 of 2 August 2005, is governing the issue. 267. Recommendation (i) stated: Medical facilities and medicines should be sufficient to meet the needs of inmates, even after the present situation (in which the State effectively subjects inmates to disease by placing them in health-damaging conditions) has been remedied. 268. NGOs acknowledge that health care in correctional institutions has improved. In particular, colonies are supplied with medication. However, for example, in 2002, medical facilities in penitentiary institutions suffered from a shortage of trained staff and up-to-date equipment. Specialized hospitals in the penitentiary system are overcrowded, some are in dire