WNBA star Brittney Griner was convicted of hashish possession and smuggling in Russia on Thursday and was sentenced to 9 years in jail.
Whereas it’s not clear precisely the place she will likely be serving out her unusually harsh sentence — which she is interesting — Griner could return to the feminine penal facility the place she has spent the final six months exterior of Moscow.
The jail, dubbed Correctional Colony No. 1 or IK-1, isn't any Stalin-era gulag however appears bleak at finest.
The power is a former orphanage, rebuilt and transformed ten years in the past right into a pretrial detention middle and jail the place girls reside out their sentences, the New York Instances reported final month.
Situated within the village of Novoye Grishino, the overwhelmingly grey and artificially lit jail has its personal stitching manufacturing unit and Russian Orthodox church inside.
Video footage of the power reveals towering grey partitions topped with barbed wire and offers a glimpse within the stitching manufacturing unit the place dozens of girls seem like working.
A big, rusting statue of Lenin sits in a snow-filled courtyard.
Journalist Yekaterina Kalugina visited Griner whereas she was on the facility, and advised The Instances that every day is repetitive and monotonous for the Phoenix Mercury Heart.
Every morning inmates get up, and eat a primary meal in her cell, Kalugina mentioned. They're then permitted to stroll across the courtyard. They then spend the remainder of the day both studying books or watching Russian tv.
Uniquely, the cells have a non-public washroom however the inmates are solely allowed to bathe twice per week, she mentioned. They're permitted to order meals on-line and preserve meals in an accessible fridge.
The jail was additionally previously residence to Israeli-American Naama Issachar, who was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to over seven years in jail after Russian police mentioned they discovered marijuana in her baggage whereas she was connecting flights in Moscow. Vladimir Putin later pardoned her for drug trafficking in 2020.
Issachar was detained as a political pawn between Russia and Israel, simply as Griner is with america now.
Yaffa Issachar, Naama’s mom, advised The Instances her daughter spent three months at IK-1. She mentioned filling out the paperwork to enter the jail to go to Naama might take as much as 4 hours adopted by a tedious inspection of every merchandise of meals she had introduced.
She was handled comparatively nicely, her mom mentioned, and was allowed a go to from a rabbi as soon as per week. Issachar recalled the statue of Lenin in addition to the sound of guard canines barking.
Issachar’s mom advised The Instances her daughter sobbed when she heard about Griner and is frightened that as a homosexual lady she might be subjected to a lot harsher remedy in conservative Russia.
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