DUSHANBE , July 24, Asia-Plus - Some 12,000 inmates are currently serving their sentences in jails in Tajikistan , Minister of Justice Khalifabobo Homidov announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 24. 

Of them, more than 1,400 inmates suffer from tuberculosis and 117 others from HIV-infection.   

More than 500 women and more than 90 minors are currently serving their services in prisons in Tajikistan , according to the minister.   

On the prison conditions, Mr. Khalifabobo Homidov noted that that the government provided 1.50 Somonis for daily food ration of one inmate.  “International organizations are providing humanitarian assistance to Tajik inmates,” said Khalifabobo Homidov, “Besides, we have a subsidiary farming unit with a total area of 200 hectares of farmland, which grows various agricultural crops for inmates.”  

Although the prison conditions remain difficult, they, however, have improved over the past several years.  “Over the past two years, no case of starvation has been reported among inmates,” the minister noted.