Near the prison

A book has been published about the daily lives of wives, mothers, girlfriends and sisters of prisoners. A common place in the interviews of the heroines is evidence of a humiliating attitude towards them, who did not absolutely cross the law, on the part of the state system

Aletheia Publishing House published the book Near Prison: Prisoner Women's Support Networks (edited by Elena Omelchenko and Judith Pallot) about the everyday life of wives, mothers, girlfriends and sisters of prisoners. This is the second work of the Center for Youth Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics on women and the Russian prison system. The previous book, Before and After Prison: Women's Stories (edited by Elena Omelchenko, St. Petersburg, 2012), presents the experience of young women in prison based on biographical interviews.

"Near Prison" belongs to the category of scientific works that reveal the life world of people, invisible, not noticed in public space. The first part of the book consists of articles by Elena Katz, Judith Pallot, Natalia Goncharova, Guzel Sabirova and Elena Omelchenko, analyzing dozens of in-depth interviews with those who are waiting for their husbands and sons, care for them and try to minimize the impact of imprisonment. These articles form a new direction of sociological research and discussion in Russia. The focus is on the historical dimension of the identity of the prisoners' wives, correlated with the image of the Decembrists and soldiers, the practice of "humanizing" the prison machine by women who support their loved ones, their emotional labor, the phenomenon of "correspondence" women who get to know prisoners and build relationships with them via the Internet. and telephone calls, the formation of women's networks of mutual support, waiting and caring for wives and mothers of prisoners.

The second part of the book contains texts of interviews with women waiting for their loved ones. Nadya Nartova, who prepared this part, notes: “The main burden of creating, maintaining and ensuring communication, which, among other things, allows those who are convicted to survive, is borne by women: wives, girlfriends, mothers, daughters, mothers-in-law ... The experience of thousands of people , standing in line for a date, is invisible, hidden, forced out to the periphery of public space. Therefore, as in the last book, we want to give women the opportunity to tell their stories and be heard ... ".

The book ends with an afterword by Irina Andreeva, head of the public organization "Association of Wives and Relatives of Prisoners", who talks about the very important experience of self-organization and mutual assistance of the wives of convicts.

Articles and interviews provide an insight into the identity and everyday life of people involved in prison practices in one way or another. On the one hand, specific stories once again highlight the lack of medicines and adequate medical care in places of deprivation of liberty, poor food, overcrowding in pre-trial detention centers, lack of rights for prisoners, violence during transportation and in colonies, shadow practices of employees of "correctional" colonies that allow them to circumvent official prohibitions (for example, the use of mobile phones), the difficulty of parole. On the other hand, the researchers focus on the lack of any state support for the families of prisoners, the psychological and financial burden of punishment that falls on them (for example, a trip on a date sometimes costs tens of thousands of rubles), stereotyping and social exclusion of family members, humiliating searches of women before visiting prisoners.

In a number of interviews, there are similar opinions of women about their attitude towards them:

When reading the book, the feeling of absurdity, noted by the interviewees and researchers, does not leave. Why, given the scarcity of food and medical care in Russian colonies, is the frequency and weight of parcels limited and the possibility of the legal transfer of medicines and vitamins to prisoners excluded? Why, despite the fact that family ties are one of the key factors in reducing the likelihood of recidivism, are relatives so limited in the frequency and duration of visits with prisoners? Why is it that a huge number of people who do not threaten anyone, who have committed crimes under the influence of situational factors, are kept in custody for years, which undermines their health and socializes them in a prison environment?

In Russia, there are currently about 640,000 people in pre-trial detention centers and colonies (the first place in Europe in terms of the proportion of prisoners in the population and the sixth place in the world among large countries - after the USA, Turkmenistan, Cuba, El Salvador and Thailand). This means that millions of people experience the suffering associated with deprivation of liberty in our country. As Finnish criminologist Patrick Thornudd points out, “there are good reasons to believe that in countries where excessive numbers of people are sent to prison and where sentences are anomalously long, unnecessary suffering is inflicted on people and resources are inefficiently spent.”

Why wouldn't the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service organize regular meetings with members of the Association of Wives and Relatives of Prisoners, who could point out many problems in isolation wards and colonies, as well as ways to solve them? In my opinion, a broad public discussion is still extremely necessary with the participation of all interested parties: prisoners, their mothers and wives, the leadership and employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service, human rights activists, sociologists, criminologists, psychologists, journalists, legislators on how to reduce the suffering of many people inflicted by punishment practices. Near Prison: Women's Prisoner Support Networks could be one starting point for such a discussion.

Iskander Yasaveev, Doctor of Sociology,

Senior Researcher

Center for Youth Studies

NRU Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg)