BBC : Khodorkovsky's prison

YaG-14/10, the penal colony where Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is set to serve out at least some of his eight-year jail sentence for tax evasion and fraud, is a Soviet-era prison in Siberia.
It stands just outside the town of Krasnokamensk, in the eastern Siberian province of Chita, near Russia's Chinese border.



An inmate can expect to earn 23.23 roubles day ($0.81, £0.46) for his prison labour, according to Siberian news website Zabinfo.

In a history of the colony, the website notes that it was set up in 1967 to service local uranium mines.

However, contrary to popular belief, inmates were not put to work in the mines but worked in concrete factories or vehicle repair workshops, the website says.

Today, YaG-14/10 is chiefly a garment factory where inmates sew protective clothing for the prison system and the police, as well as making bed linen and doing private orders.

Young population

Khodorkovsky will find himself about 4,700km (3,000 miles) east of Moscow.

On the evening the name of his prison was revealed, it was -9C in Krasnokamensk; by January, the average daily temperature should range between -18C and -33C.

According to Zabinfo, most of YaG-14/10's inmates are serving between three and five years and the average age is 24 - significantly younger than Khodorkovsky, 42.

The most common conviction is theft with 40% of inmates sentenced for it.

In addition to garments, the colony has a sawmill and workshops producing wooden furniture and souvenirs.

Pigs and cows are reared by the prison farm.

BBC, 10.20.2005