Translated material
Prison people. History of Roma
Half of the criminals released on parole from places of detention return to the familiar world of the zone
Every morning in our barracks begins with a loud buzzer and a wild scream.
If you think that a cry under 100 dB cannot be meaningful, then you are deeply mistaken.
Shouts Roma - night orderly. His task is to announce the rise. He does it with great ingenuity. The melody, whistled by an ordinary call under his control, and the text accompanying it are practically not repeated. Sometimes the reprises are so successful that it is difficult to get up from laughter.
Roma looks fantastic: a small, strong man with expressive, constantly laughing eyes and a smiling mouth with a single tooth in the middle.
Roma went to prison drunk. Whether it was just a fight, or a robbery during a fight, he cannot explain. "I don't remember" is the answer.
Roma is actively “correcting” and wants to get out on parole. Day work contributes to this.
From time to time I “taunt” him: “Why do you need to be free? It’s good here - they feed, guard, they don’t give drink ... "
Roma instantly becomes serious and dreamily tells how he will get out, put his teeth in, get a job at a local plant. He is waiting...
Then the seriousness flies, and he skips running to the horizontal bar, where he also works wonders ...
And here is the court. Positive decision. There are ten days left until freedom. Roma does not find a place for himself. From time to time he comes up to me, tells me in detail, every day, what and how he will do “behind the fence”. I listen carefully - a person really needs to speak out, but I know the statistics: 50% "stops" back.
„
Actually, a person for our state is less than nothing - a means of reporting
” Roma feels my skepticism and ardently convinces: “I won’t come back here, never!”
I joke: "Roma, at least you have time to insert your teeth." And then I am punished with a repeated detailed story.
Liberation Day. Roma somewhere takes out a tracksuit, sneakers and proudly walks along the “locals”, from where wishes and goodbyes rush to him.
A month passes and another. No news from Roma. Some of the guys are very worried - they gave him the money and are waiting for the ordered transfer.
However, soon the information comes. From the local prison, with a new stage. Alas, Roma is already there. Got drunk. Got into a fight. He took the phone. The village is small - of course, they recognized it and detained it.
Why did he do it? Who knows. Most likely, he did not find himself and subconsciously wanted to return to the familiar world of the zone.
Sometimes one gets the feeling that the police, the courts are playing some kind of strange game, releasing ahead of schedule precisely those who will soon be imprisoned again. Without doing absolutely nothing behind the prison gates so that it happens less often, or at least not so immediately.
However, the explanation is simple: in fact, a person for our state is less than nothing - a means of reporting.
Roma did not have time to insert his teeth ...
Continuation. Beginnings in The New Times # 27 , 29 , 35 , 38 , 42 for 2011 and # 1–2 , 9 , 17 , 23–24 , 29 for 2012
photo: Vasily Popov/The New Times