Kazakh prison construction programme: Kazakhstan is going to invite foreign companies to bid for the right to build of a number of new prisons across the country, the deputy chairman of the State Penitentiary Committee at Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs Zhanat Keshubayev said last week. The tender process is expected to run over the next two years, with the successful bidders being allowed to employ inmates to help build the new facilities. In the past, Kazakhstan has been heavily criticised for the conditions in its prisons and pretrial detention facilities for many years and the prisoners themselves have both rioted and self-harmed in protest. There are about 42,000 prisoners in Kazakhstan, according to its Prosecutor-General’s Office. Times of Central Asia