Suicide Rate Doubles In Kazakh Jails

(RFE/RL) 14 February 2006 – The number of prisoners who committed suicide in Kazakhstan doubled in 2005, a Kazakh justice official said today.

Yergali Sagalabaev, the chairman of the Kazakh Justice Ministry's criminal justice system committee, said 43 inmates killed themselves in 2005, twice as many as in 2004.

However, Sagalabaev reported that the number of cases of self-mutilation dropped significantly.

Sagalabaev cited detention centers in Almaty, Kostanai, Kokshetau, Semipalatinsk, and Shymkent as places where the mortality rate is on the rise.

(Interfax)