Russian Prisons

After having a brief overview of what three Russian prisons are like, there is no need to say that I would never wish those living conditions upon myself or anyone else I knew. Russian prisons vary greatly from prisons located in the United States.

 

 In Black Dolphin, a maximum security prison in Russia the inmates are kept completely isolated, except for their one bunk mate. There is no mess hall where the inmates gather to eat like in many American prisons, they are fed in near isolation. They have certain practices that are unique to their prison, for example whenever a prisoner is being moved he must assume a crouched over position facing the ground. This is referred to as placing the inmates in a stress position to put them at a significant disadvantage. In addition, whenever moving the inmates across the grounds to other buildings they blindfold them, to prevent them from gaining an understanding of the layout of the prison.

 

 Black Dolphin specializes in incarcerating murders, and well beyond demented murderers. One prisoner killed, dissembled, and ate two people. He then went on to give part of the left over meat to friends who ate it with their family, unaware that they were eating human flesh. It is no surprise that Russia must have specialized prisons for murders as they have a murder rate 5 times that of the United States!

 

This is not the only high security prison that Russia has, there are many just like there are many in the United states. Another one is Vladimir Prison. This prison has similar traits however, it does not practice the stress position, or blindfolding the inmates. At both prisons many of the inmates have prison tattoo's. These tattoos are nothing like those of United States criminals. It does not depict status quo or number of people murdered. These tattoos are illustrations of religious figures that tell a story about the kind of person the carrier is.

 

Although there is a higher murder rate in Russia, I am tempted to say that their approach to smaller crimes in a quick and affective deterrent for crime. At the Prison Camp 13, young men who had their first drug offense was charged and assigned with 4 years in prison. In America you would have to be carrying a lot of drugs to see that kind of time behind bars.

 

There have been some complaints stating that these prison's mistreat and behave unjustly towards the inmates, however, there was no evidence of such at this point in time. It seems to me that in general they are a lot stricter, and have different but approved tactics than in the United States. They also place emphasis on first offenders to be held just as accountable as someone who has been caught before to discourage continuation of the behavior. It almost seems as though their system is better at acting as a rehabilitation center, because it deters the behavior.