[Link to document] (uhhhh maybe I shouldn't link it since it's to the CIA's own website... I can't find an archive link unfortunately)

Summary of the report:

Title: FORCED LABOR CAMPS IN THE USSR. CIA-RDP80T00246A032000400001

A 1957 CIA document titled “Forced Labor Camps in the USSR: Transfer of Prisoners between Camps” reveals the following information about the Soviet Gulag in pages two to six:

• Until 1952, the prisoners were given a guaranteed amount food, plus extra food for over-fulfillment of quotas

• From 1952 onward, the Gulag system operated upon "economic accountability" such that the more the prisoners worked, the more they were paid.

• For over-fulfilling the norms by 105%, one day of sentence was counted as two, thus reducing the time spent in the Gulag by one day.

• Furthermore, because of the socialist reconstruction post-war, the Soviet government had more funds and so they increased prisoners' food supplies.

• Until 1954, the prisoners worked 10 hours per day, whereas the free workers worked 8 hours per day. From 1954 onward, both prisoners and free workers worked 8 hours per day.

• A CIA study of a sample camp showed that 95% of the prisoners were actual criminals.

• In 1953, amnesty was given to 70% of the "ordinary criminals" of a sample camp studied by the CIA. Within the next 3 months, most of them were re-arrested for committing new crimes.

These findings didn't agree with the West's "Soviet Union no food" and "Soviet prisons bad" takes of the time.