Russia behind bars: the peculiarities of the Russian prison system. OSW Commentary NUMBER 293 | 06.02.2019

Strzelecki, Jan (2019) Russia behind bars: the peculiarities of the Russian prison system. OSW Commentary NUMBER 293 | 06.02.2019. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Russia is among the countries with the highest number of prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of inmates are supervised by an elaborate apparatus of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). This extended system is used as a tool for exercising control over society and solidifying the system of power. At the same time, it impacts the process of how shared norms and values are being formed in Russian society, in connection with society’s frequent contact with the so-called prison culture. Due to the absence of a major overhaul of the prison service, whose institutions and code of conduct date back to the time of the Soviet Gulag, the prison system is an excellent example of pathologies that are also present in other elements of the Russian state apparatus. These include the poor state of infrastructure, endemic corruption and the primacy of informal rules over the rule of law, consent to harsh exploitation of working prisoners and the omnipotence of the coercion apparatus.

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