Several prisons in an area of Russia’s Siberia region are to close as army recruitment has led to fewer prisoners, according to a report.

The Russian daily newspaper Kommersant cited Mark Denisov, human rights commissioner in the Krasnoyarsk region, as saying a “number of institutions” would be shut.

He told the paper there has been a “one-time large reduction in the number of convicts” due to what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russia is believed to have recruited thousands of inmates since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former boss of the Wagner mercenary group who died in a plane crash last summer, was the first to adopt the practice. He toured penal colonies a few months into the war and offered prisoners a pardon in exchange for service.