More than 1,000 of the prisoners, which is 23% of the total number of detainees who are able to work, are employed. Most of these work in the penitentiaries’ amenities service, while others work for economic entities and at the state-run enterprises of the penitentiary system. The prisoners who do paid work consciously and do not violate the detention regime have their jail term reduced.

Answering an enquiry by IPN Agency, the Department of Penitentiary Institutions said three workdays are calculated as four detention days. If the work is noxious, two workdays are taken as three detention days.

The detainees who work in the amenities service of the penitentiaries prepare food, wash the dishes, do the cleaning, etc. Those who work for enterprises of the penitentiary system manufacture metal items and extract and sell chalkstone. There are detainees who produce poles for vineyards and blocks of concrete for walls, make plaster articles, pellets, wooden objects, etc.

The convicts also make clothes, special equipment, uniforms for the law enforcement bodies, decorative items. They perform seasonal agricultural works and work for construction, sanitation and furniture companies. The decorative works are displayed at exhibition and sale events staged by the Department. The proceeds from selling decorative articles and the salary are transferred to the detainee’s earnings account. The prisoners are not paid cash so as to prevent them from purchasing forbidden things, but they can buy products from the kiosks located on the penitentiary’s territory, the payment being deducted from their earnings account.

The convicts can learn a job within the classes affiliated to vocational schools set up inside the penitentiary. They can become plasterers, locksmiths, wood sculptors, welders, cooks, shoemakers, computer operators, tailors, etc.

Under the legislation, the prisoners are involved in paid work in penitentiaries or outside them depending on the category of the penitentiary and the detention regime.