Justice or Human Rights Violations?

RT's motto is Question More and Explore Russia. For whatever reason, American television is exploring Russia. The Russian arctic episode of Wild Russia was beautiful and effectively debunked global warming. Wild Russia airs on Animal Planet and features rare animals that can only be found in Russia. National Geographic is also exploring Russia with Russia's Toughest Prisons. Three Russian prisons are featured--Black Dolphin, Vladimir Central (Stalin's son was a prisoner there) and another prison, Prison Camp 17 (KK-17). Vladimir Central seems like an extreme example of any tough prison in the United States. Black Dolphin and Prison Camp 17 are more disturning for differnt reasons. It is a supermax prison, which seems to violate basic human rights. It makes Gitmo look like a five-star hotel. Black Dolphin houses the most vile of prisoners. This portion of the show should have definitely come with one of those "this program may be unsettling for sensitive viewers.

Viewer discrection is advised." Inspite of the horrendous crimes the prisoners have been tried and convicted of I found them sympathetic compared to the Lt. Guard Denis Avsyuk (sp). Two prisoners are confined to a cell within a cell. Cells with three metal doors. Each cell is 50-square feet, slightly larger than my bathroom. Prisoners can't sit on their beds at all for 16 hours a day from 6 a.m. There is no prison yard. They're allowed to pace like caged lions for one hour a day. The "yards" are indoors and inmates can't even look at the sky. Inmates sentenced to life terms can't use the dinning hall, and are fed either soup or barley and bread. When guards move them from their cells to the prison "yard" they are blind folded and put in a stressed position. Does this sound like Gitmo? Yes and no. The inmates at Gitmo have not been tried or sentenced. Extreme isolation, the stress positions etc (basically torure) are used to extract information. This is not the case at Black Dolphin.

Human rights activist have blasted Gitmo for torture. Is it torture to treat the tried and sentenced prisoners this way, yet we never hear about it in the media.


Prison Camp 17--right in the heart of Siberia. The horror stories about being sentenced to a prison in Siberia looks ghastly. Not so much for the prison conditions but for the types of people sentenced to the prison camp. Dmitry, 21, was sentenced on a drug-related charge. Though he is 21 years old, he looks like a 15 or 16-year old. Why sentence this sweet boy, who carries a small photo album of his family around and which can be seen in virtually every scene he is in. He seems like such a sweet kid. He describes his best friend as George, a fellow inmate also sentenced for drugs. George and Dmitry "live together, work together and do everything together. George describes his greatest fear--being alone. Dmitry's family can't visit him because the prison camp is a three-day trip away.

Three thoughts--presentencing investigation. Both young men come from stable families. They have committed non-violent crimes. Yet they're sentenced to years in a maximum security prison in Siberia. It made me sick. In the US a presentencing investigation would have most likely sentenced them to probation. First time offenders.

The narrator says explains that there is a lack of cheap labor in Siberia. Is the Russian prison system sentencing young, first time offenders to prison as slave labor? Sentencing kids to prison just to provide cheap labor?

Watch the video. Tell me if you think this is the case and if these young men deserved to be sentenced to a maximum security prison. First time offenders for non-violent crimes. It seems like Russia is sentencing  kids to prison. Shipped off to Siberia as slave labor?

Is Black Dolphin worse than Gitmo in that the prisoners are not terrorist and the cruelty is not used to extract information? The video is about an hour long, but worth watching. Decide for yourself if this is simply another country's criminal justice system or abusive.

Dmitry explains how a kid in a Russian village can be sentenced to prison for half a year just for stealing a sack of potatoes. In the US a first time offender for such a crime would result in an ACD (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal). Keep your nose clean for six months and the charges are totally dismissed.

Is it really possible that Russia is sentencing these kids to prison in Siberia just as a form of cheap labor? Remember, non-violent crimes, first time offenders.