Surviving Russian prisons : punishment, economy and politics in transition / Laura Piacentini.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Piacentini, Laura, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Corrections--Russia (Federation).

Corrections.

Prisons--Russia (Federation).

Prisons.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cullompton, Devon, U.K. ; Portland, Or. : Willan Pub., 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What do Russian prisons look like? Who is sent to prison in Russia? How is punishment allocated and administered? This pioneering book aims to answer these and other questions by embarking on a journey that begins by exploring how the prisons have survived the collapse of the USSR, and ends with a discussion of global penal politics. It is the first book to have been written in English on penal practices in the contemporary Russian prison system. Surviving Russian Prisons focuses in particular on the reality of work and labour within Russian prisons, exploring its changing function. From being

Contents:

Surviving Russian Prisons Punishment, economy and politics in transition; Copyright; Contents; List of tables and figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Aims of the book; Themes; Plan of the book; Translation and transliteration from Russian into English; Chapter 1 Context of research and methodology; Initial research interest; The strategy for the main phase of the research; Main study; Russia's prison landscape and juggling researcher identity; Chapter 2 Prison labour, reform and economics: a review of the literature

Soviet prison labour and the greedy consumption of prisoners by the stateTheorising Soviet prison labour; Prison labour around the world; Prison labour and international law: soft or hard protection?; Russian prisons after the USSR: turmoil and the penal system; Chapter 3 Filling the void: Russia's new 'penal identities'; The new penal identities in Smolensk and Omsk; Imprisonment in Smolensk prison region; Imprisonment in Omsk prison region; Comparisons between Smolensk and Omsk; Chapter 4 Barter: Russia's 'penal micro-economy'; Central government funding of the prison regions

Bartering for survival in non-prison and in prison lifeBranding prison barter; Views on barter; Chapter 5 Penal ideology in transition: identification in geographical spaces; Identities and social research; The first occasion of penal identification: the death of Soviet penal identity; The second occasion of penal identification: theoretical improvisation; The third occasion of penal identification: the universalisation of penality; Chapter 6 Prison practices that test the limits of human rights norms; The peculiar role of barter in prisons; Prison labour and exploitation

Prison labour and social welfareChapter 7 Western borrowings: how human rights have 'travelled' to Russian prisons; Russia's path to penal modernisation; Globalisation and universalism; Human rights as Russia's new penal ideology; Localising human rights: prison officer narratives; Chapter 8 Beyond the metaphor: the phenomenon of 'failed penal societies'; Carceral disgrace; Carceral discreditation; Mainstreaming discourse and new ideological boundaries: can the prisons survive?; Concluding thoughts; Appendices; 1 List of interviewees

2 Research questions and prompts used to guide the interviews3 Aerial plan of a Russian penal colony; References; Index

Notes:

Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-134-04466-6

1-134-04459-3

1-282-23800-0

9786612238000

1-84392-680-6

OCLC:

609842684