Welcome to Hell: Brittney Griner and the Russian Prison System

Brittney Griner, a WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, recently returned home after what she described as a 10-month-long “battle at every turn,” referring to her experience in the Russian prison system. Even though she was deemed well enough to return home to Arizona after spending a week at a medical facility and military base in San Antonio, the extent of any long-term consequences on her physical and mental health following her harrowing Russian prison experience — or “hell” as Russians characterize it — is yet to be seen.

The Phoenix Mercury player’s traumatic journey began on February 17 of this year when she was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport on her way to join her Russian teammates in Yekaterinburg, where she had been playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA off-season since 2014. Russian officials claimed that Griner was arrested on drug possession and smuggling charges — an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison — after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. Griner later pleaded guilty, but stated that she had no criminal intent; she said the substance was prescribed by her doctor for pain management from sports injuries, and that she accidentally put the cartridges in her luggage while packing in haste.

The Russian Prison System

Medical use of cannabis is not legal in Russia, and sentences for possession and trafficking of banned and controlled substances are quite severe for both Russians and foreigners. Around 25% of inmates currently held in Russian prisons have drug-dealing sentences (second in number only to homicide). Housing close to half-a-million prisoners, Russia’s penitentiary system is notorious for a wide range of human rights violations, from physical and psychological abuse to coercive labor, poor nutrition, overcrowding, and lack of access to medical care. According to a 2019 report, Russia’s federal penitentiary service (FSIN) “operates as a unique ‘state within a state’ with no supervision mechanisms, but with a separate health care service, transportation system, education system, a unique system of trading in goods characterized by widespread corruption, and the primacy of informal rules and hierarchies over formal ones.” One of the most horrific aspects of the Russian penitentiary system is the widespread use of rape and other types of torture by special groups of inmates (pressovschiki), who act on the administration’s orders to force confessions.

Not all the prisons in Russia are the same, and within the standard categories the differences between men’s and women’s facilities are stark. Divided into four categories based on the severity of conditions — from very strict, strict, regular, to open, where prisoners can even leave the facility and see relatives and friends — Russian penal colonies (ispravitelnaya koloniya) house inmates in overcrowded barracks and multiple occupation cells, making the spread of infectious diseases unavoidable. In addition to inadequate living conditions and a harsh climate, other complicating factors include long transportation in cramped cars or vans, lack of medical treatment, and shortages of basic drugs, equipment, and personnel, which can all contribute to high rates of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, syphilis, and other chronic and acute infections. In 2010, Reuters reported that at least half of Russian prisoners were ill, and the situation has not changed much since. Access to medical care is often used as a bargaining chip by the authorities and prison administration to pressure the detained into confessing, frequently leading to the worsening of their health and even death in case of the inmate’s refusal to meet the administration’s demands. One of the most high-profile examples of intentional medical neglect and torture at a Russian penal facility was the death of Sergei Magnitsky, an accountant who exposed a large-scale tax fraud scheme involving high-ranking Russian officials. Magnitsky was denied medical care for several conditions, including his diabetes and pancreatitis, and was found dead in his cell. In 2012, the U.S. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, banning U.S. entry of Russian officials suspected in his death and freezing their assets. In 2017, it was expanded into the Global Magnitsky Program, targeting individuals suspected of large-scale corruption or human rights violations.

Griner in Mordovia

In Russian women’s prison facilities, physical and psychological abuse often take the form of 12- to 16-hour shifts of physically exhausting labor, lack of sleep, exposure to cold, and poor nutrition. Griner ended up in the notorious IK-2 in the remote region of Mordovia, meaning that if she had stayed there for the duration of her 9-year sentence, she likely would have experienced terrible and irreversible psychological and physical trauma — if she even survived. Colonies in Mordovia are considered to be among the worst in the world in terms of psychological and physical abuse, administrative arbitrariness, and geographical remoteness, making access to inmates extremely difficult. One of the former inmates shared, “When the girls find out that they’re going to Mordovia, they cut their wrists, do everything possible: get sick, swallow nails, just so they don’t have to go there. Its reputation is known, especially after the letter by Nadia Tolokonnikova.” Tolokonnikova, of Pussy Riot, served 2 years in one of the colonies in Mordovia and exposed rampant human rights violations in those facilities in 2013.

From what is known now about Griner’s detention, she was exposed to the same harsh conditions as many Russian inmates, including isolation, cold temperatures, poor nutrition, and hard labor. Thankfully, her detention was much shorter than it might have been, and while the full extent of physical and psychological trauma she has experienced is yet to be revealed, we can only hope that it’s minimal.

Marina Alexandrova, PhD, is an associate professor of instruction at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies.