DUSHANBE, February 12, Asia-Plus  -- All penal colonies receive regular electrical power supplies, Bahrom Safarov, the chief of staff of the penal system of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), told Asia-Plus on Tuesday.

According to him, all correctional facilities are rated as “strategic sites”, and therefore, electricity rationing introduced in the country has not affected them.     

“The correctional institutions are also provided with generators and they will be used in case of emergency power cutoff,” the MoJ official said.  

At present there are 14 correctional institutions in Tajikistan, including women’s penal colony in Norak and penal colony for minors in Dushanbe and six pretrial detention facilities.  Some 8,000 people now serve their sentences in penal colonies in Tajikistan, Safarov said.