Anna Karetnikova

13 March 2026

by Anna Karetnikova

Source: Facebook

In order to address the staffing shortage in the prison system, which has grown to 30% nationwide, the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service [FSIN], Gostev, stated that staff who have been injured serving in the ‘special military operation’ will be called upon to serve within the system, including on short-term service contracts. The relevant amendments will be introduced into legislation.

This seems very strange to me. Aside from the first obvious concern – that people with psychological trauma should not be permitted to work with individuals who are almost entirely under their control – there are also a number of other issues. 

For example, it’s not clear to me how an officer with one leg or one arm (apologies) would escort detainees somewhere. And if their injuries aren’t as severe, why on earth would they, like anyone else, accept this job, from which 40% quit before reaching early retirement? Those who do come will be people who have nowhere else to go – which brings us back to the previous point.

There has always been extremely strict health screening for service in the FSIN. Passing the military medical board was like preparing for a space flight. Not because everyone there was a powerful athlete – far from it, there were plenty of both overweight and underweight people. But it was there to ensure that people took fewer sick days, which had to be paid for somehow, so that everyone was always on duty. For example, a woman with cervical ectropion (which is generally not fatal) would not be hired. If someone had cancer, they would be dismissed immediately, regardless of all their merits and contributions.

So what will they do with veterans of the ‘special military operation’? If one of them goes on sick leave – what then, will they sue them? Any court would side with a disabled hero who is not being allowed to recover properly. And how will this improve the staffing situation, when on paper there are staff, but in reality they are not on duty? It seems absurd. Staff who are absent from work cannot guard prisons, nor escort inmates to the bathhouse, nor supervise the distribution of food. Not to mention, for example, forming teams of four guards to transport sick prisoners to the hospital.

In order to stop people leaving the service, they need to be paid decent wages and provided with housing. That’s aside from all the moral and ethical considerations. For example, the fact that I personally, on a psychological level, would no longer be able to work when you are supposed to be guarding or rehabilitating not maniacs or criminals, but schoolchildren and pensioners suddenly labelled as terrorists, and when the number of such people keeps on growing.

And I think I’m not the only one.

Below there is a link to an article from The Insider about the staffing shortage in the FSIN along with my thoughts.

The staffing shortage in the FSIN has exceeded 30%. A year ago, it was 23%.

12 March 2026 

Source: The Insider

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The staffing shortage in Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has exceeded 30%. This was reported by FSIN Director Arkady Gostev at an expanded board meeting reviewing the agency’s performance for 2025.

According to him, the personnel deficit has reached 30.5%. In 13 regions, between 34.5% and 51% of senior officer positions are vacant. In 29 regions, the shortage of junior supervisory staff ranges from 40% to 50%, and in another 16 regions it exceeds 50%.

Gostev noted that under these conditions, the workload on employees is increasing. He added that more than 40% of staff leave before reaching retirement.

A year ago, the head of the FSIN assessed the shortage at 23%. At that time, he said that the agency was short of nearly 54,000 employees, and in some units up to half of junior supervisory positions were unfilled.

An additional cause of the personnel deficit in the service has been the war against Ukraine. According to Gostev, since the beginning of the invasion, 4,881 current or former employees of the prison system have left to join the Russian army. Of these, 708 have been killed and another 388 wounded.

In light of staff shortages, the FSIN is widening its recruitment eligibility. Gostev announced that starting in April, the agency will be able to hire employees who have been injured in the war, and that the age limit for entering the service will also be removed.

Former senior analyst at the FSIN office in Moscow, Anna Karetnikova, told The Insider that a staffing shortage of 30% is significant but not critical for the system:

“I worked when there was a 25% shortage; this was considered normal. Staff were on edge, but they didn’t run off. However, in large detention centres, when the rate approached 30% or higher, especially during the pandemic, unrest among prisoners began to grow – they could feel that there was not enough staff.

For the system to start collapsing, the shortage would need to remain above 50% for some time. The FSIN has a safety margin due to overlapping functions: one officer can cover two posts, but not three. It’s most difficult to compensate for shortages during prisoner transport.

The fact that more than 40% of employees leave before retirement is an alarming indicator. People take these jobs for the pension and housing benefits; if they leave early, it means that the workload has become too high. The shortage then starts to compound: when someone resigns, their duties are distributed among remaining staff, and they burn out as well.

And there are two factors that have been introduced by the war. First, it’s now possible to enlist under a contract. Second, I’ve been told that it has become psychologically harder. Before, it went like this: your superior had a go at you, so you’d go and take it out on prisoners. Or maybe you didn’t, but at least it warmed your soul that they were inmates and you were a representative of authority. But now you can’t even tell who’s in charge. Today they’re convicts, tomorrow they’re heroes of the special military operation.” 

Translated by Annabel Pedgley