In this photo taken Aug. 22, 2012 imprisoned women stand during a morning inspection at a women's prison in a town of Sarapul, central Russia. Two members of the punk band Pussy Riot will serve their sentence in a penal colony far from Moscow that is like what a former inmate describes as a "nasty Girl Scout camp.” Although Russia’s prison system is a far cry from Stalin’s gulag, the principle remains the same: to isolate people from their families and wear them down through “corrective labor,” which for women usually means hunching over a sewing machine. Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will have to quickly learn the inner laws of prison life, survive the dire food and medical care, and risk reprisal from inmates either offended by their "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin or ordered to pressure them by higher authorities. (AP Photo/Yuri Tutov)
Pussy Riot members face tough life in penal colony
In this photo taken Aug. 22, 2012 imprisoned women stand during a morning inspection at a women's prison in a town of Sarapul, central Russia. Two members of the punk band Pussy Riot will serve their sentence in a penal colony far from Moscow that is like what a former inmate describes as a "nasty Girl Scout camp.” Although Russia’s prison system is a far cry from Stalin’s gulag, the principle remains the same: to isolate people from their families and wear them down through “corrective labor,” which for women usually means hunching over a sewing machine. Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will have to quickly learn the inner laws of prison life, survive the dire food and medical care, and risk reprisal from inmates either offended by their "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin or ordered to pressure them by higher authorities. (AP Photo/Yuri Tutov)
By MAX SEDDON
Associated Press /
October 14, 2012
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Alekhina and Tolokonnikova, both university graduates, are unlikely to have much in common with their fellow inmates. ‘‘I didn’t think there even were people like 90 percent of the people I met,’’ Bakhmina recalled. ‘‘I never had any idea there were so many drug addicts, or so many people with speech impediments.’’
Spouses are allowed three-day conjugal visits four times a year. Prisoners who show especially good behavior can even be given two weeks’ leave outside the camp. Bakhmina became pregnant while serving her term and was released several months after giving birth to a daughter. She saw her two older sons only twice during her three years in the penal colony, afraid it would be too traumatic for them to see their mother imprisoned.
Mothers with children under the age of 3 can keep them in centers on penal colony grounds, or in the case of one colony in Mordovia in their barracks. Alekhina’s 5-year-old son and Tolokonnikova’s 4-year-old daughter will live with relatives.
The two punk band members can be punished with up to 15 days in solitary confinement for minor infractions such as failing to make their beds or to put their hands behind their backs at roll call or to greet guards quickly enough.
Perhaps the greatest danger for the band members, however, will be posed by their fellow inmates. Physical violence, while a danger, is relatively rare in comparison to men’s colonies. But the psychological pressure can be greater, said Vitaly Borshchyov, head of the Public Monitoring Commission, a human rights organization that works with the government to improve prison conditions.
‘‘Colonies are all-consuming for women,’’ he said. ‘‘Having a large group of women together in a single space is a recipe for tension and conflicts. You might get beaten up, sexually humiliated or forced to be someone’s lover, especially if you’re a young woman.’’
The Pussy Riot members’ lawyers and supporters also fear that Orthodox believers may attack them, either inspired by the extremely negative coverage of their protest on state television or egged on by state officials.
‘‘When things get worse on the outside, it gets transferred into the colonies,’’ said Lev Ponomarev, a Soviet dissident who runs the Defending Prisoners’ Rights foundation. ‘‘Scoundrels think they can get away with more. The authorities are totally indifferent.’’
The band members have vowed to remain defiant.
‘‘We will not be silent,’’ Alekhina told the appeals court Wednesday. ‘‘And even if we are in Mordovia or Siberia we will not be silent ... however zealously you try to smear us.’’
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