‘Humiliation, shame and torment’: Continuity and change in the statuses and power hierarchies in the post-Soviet prison system

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the changes in formal and informal power hierarchies, and their impact on traditional prisoner statuses, in Russian prisons. Changes have taken place against the backdrop of the attempt by the Russian Federal Prison Service to re-balance power in its favour after the 1990s, which saw a shift in the power geometry in correctional colonies ( ispravitelnie kolonii) towards prison sub-cultures. This attempt has been accompanied by a heightened level of violence in the management of prisoners, which has generated an atmosphere of uncertainty, human helplessness and unpredictability in correctional colonies. One result has been the emergence of new intermediate statuses as prisoners seek to avoid the binary power structure of the traditional ‘thieves-in-law’ sub-culture and prison authorities and their proxy ‘activists’. The new intermediate statuses and groups typically are unstable but they can be seen as a threat by prison authorities, which respond by intensifying the cycle of discrimination and violence, which we illustrate using the case study of Muslim prisoners.