Prison people. Offended

Continuation. Beginnings in The New Times # 27 , 29 , 35 , 38 , 42 for 2011 and # 1–2 , 9 , 17 for 2012

In prison, they are also called “informals”, “lowered” and a bunch of other, less decent-sounding names. They are a prison “caste of untouchables”, with whom one cannot sit at the same table, eat from the same dishes, use the same things, etc. Their word has no weight in the "showdown" within the prison team, that is, they can not count on protection.
Today, fortunately, these "concepts" are gradually blurred, but much remains the same. The prison is very conservative.
At large, they believe that only homosexuals and people who have committed the most heinous crimes such as rape, attacks on children, etc. find themselves in such a position.
This hasn't been the case for a long time. No one trusts the courts any more, and any person can explain his sentence by someone's usual commercial interest. It is not always possible to check, and the proportion of truly “commercial” solutions is large.
There are few real homosexuals in prison, so the “offended” category, as a rule, includes those who are not able to stand up for themselves, who have shown weakness. They are forced to do various unpleasant jobs.
But it happens otherwise.
Ostap * * Names and details have been changed. This is not a description of the Karelian zone. - one of a dozen "offended" who lived in our barracks. The barrack is one large common room, so everyone and everything is in plain sight. This guy was nothing special. Small in stature, calm, he, like all the other members of his "caste", was engaged in cleaning, taking out the garbage, washing other people's things. However, today it is necessary to pay for such services with tea, cigarettes and other trifles.
It is not accepted to be interested in how someone got into such a position.
Self-respecting prisoners try to communicate with the "offended" evenly, without rudeness, but the infringed, ambitious people often strive to assert themselves at the expense of this defenseless category.
Ostap was fiddling under the bunk when a hooligan guy passing by demonstratively patted him below the waist, accompanying the extremely offensive action with an equally offensive comment.
The situation is common, and, as a rule, the “offended” endure. So Ostap, not straightening up and muttering something softly, slowly moved to the nearest corner.
The mutts who were standing at a distance giggled. After all, only being very close, one could hear exactly what Ostap was muttering. And he muttered one word - I will kill.
When Ostap straightened up half a minute later, in his hand was a monstrous “sharpening” taken out from somewhere - a 30-centimeter piece sharp as a dagger, a sharpened file.
I literally jumped to the side. I had no desire to get such a piece of hardened steel in my side.
But Ostap was already on his way to his offender. He rushed to the door, but the only door was blocked by people rushing to the exit, also not at all striving to fall under a hot hand. Others were numb. „

Self-respecting prisoners try to communicate with the "offended" evenly, without rudeness, but the infringed, ambitious people often seek to assert themselves at the expense of this defenseless category

” Ostap did not move quickly, but purposefully, and his opponent began to howl. There is no other way to call this long, eerie cry of a man who has only a few seconds left to live.
Here we woke up. Someone also screamed, someone, more cold-blooded, moved the beds, separating Ostap from the “target”. His friends jumped up, grabbed his hands, dragged him away ...
The unhappy victim finally escaped from the barracks. He did not return back - "refusal of the detachment to ensure security." Shameful wording for the camp...
The next day, Ostap was again cleaning the barracks, but they looked at him differently. And when the regional prosecutor drove into the zone with a check and invited those who wished to a personal reception (and this is fraught with consequences), no one was surprised that Ostap was the only visitor who marched through the seemingly extinct camp.
"Our Ostap," as they now called him with a hint of pride in the detachment.