Prisoners rioting in Kyrgyzstan in October 2005 (AFP)
On 6 January, the International Center for Prison Studies, a London-based NGO, released a report on the world's prison population. According to the center, some 9 million people are imprisoned worldwide, with Belarus, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine having the largest per capita prison populations in RFE/RL's broadcast region. Muhammad Tahir, a correspondent with RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, spoke with center research associate Anton Sheleupanov about the difficulty of getting information about prison conditions in Central Asia.
