MOSCOW, September 12. /ITAR-TASS/. The death rates in Russian prisons are 2.3 times down death rates in Russia in general, said Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Execution of Sentences (FSIN) Alexander Sapozhnikov at a news conference Friday.

"The death rate figures at FSIN establishments are 2.3 times down than in Russia in general," Sapozhnikov said.

Most often prison inmates die of contagious diseases which kill every four out of ten prisoners; every third out of ten prisoners is killed by the HIV; cardio-vascular diseases are the second fatal threat that kills three out of ten inmates on average, he said.

Nonetheless, death rates at FSIN establishments have been declining. In the first half of 2014 the prison death statistics was 10.7% down than in 2013; lethal cases caused by tuberculosis have dropped by 27.7%, Sapozhnikov said.

By July 1 the number of prison inmates in Russia in general was over 780,000.