The ‘slave-like’ prisons Britney Griner faces as she’s moved to Russian penal colony

Brittney Griner’s legal efforts to escape a nine-year drug sentence in a Russian penal colony have been exhausted, and now the American basketball star is facing ‘harsh’ and even ‘life-threatening’ conditions, according to a 2021 State Department report on human rights issues within the country.

Well-known Russian dissident Nadezhda Tolokonnikova described one camp in 2013 as having ‘slavery-like conditions,’ where she worked in a sewing shop for ’16 to 17 hours a day’ while getting ‘four hours of sleep a night.’ And even when she is permitted to rest, the 6-foot-9 Griner will be doing so on a tiny bed in a cramped cell.

Others, such as former presidential candidate Alexei Navalny, have faced torture through sleep deprivation and isolation. Furthermore, the State Department has described prisoner physical and sexual abuse by guards as ‘systemic.’ 

A Russian court rejected an appeal of Griner’s nine-year sentence last month. The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist was convicted August 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

Her arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and the politically charged case could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow.

Griner’s legal team said she left a detention center on November 4 for a penal colony — a common type of Russian prison where detainees work for minimal pay. Her lawyers said Wednesday that they did not know exactly where she was or where she would end up — but that they expected to be notified when she reached her final destination. Such transfers can take days, and can be as torturous as confinement in Russian prisons. 

A State Department spokesperson declined to give DailyMail.com specifics on Griner’s whereabouts and the camp where she’ll be imprisoned. 

‘As we work to secure Brittney Griner’s release, we expect Russian authorities to provide our Embassy officials with regular access to all US citizens detained in Russia, including Brittney, as is their obligation,’ read a department statement Tuesday. ‘Ensuring the health and welfare of US citizen detainees in Russia is a priority, and we will continue to press for fair and transparent treatment for them all.’

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Much of what is known in the west about the penal colony conditions in Russia comes from political prisoners, such as Vladimir Putin rival Alexei Navalny, who is currently being imprisoned at Corrective colony No. 2 in the Vladimir Oblast, roughly 60 miles east of Moscow.

It was at Colony No. 2, where the former presidential candidate was allegedly tortured through solitary confinement and sleep deprivation.

‘…on March 31, Navalny initiated a hunger strike to protest authorities’ failure to provide him a requested medical examination and treatment for pain and loss of mobility in his legs after he was transferred on March 15 to the Penal Colony No. 2 (IK-2) in the Vladimir region, read the 2021 State Department report. ‘Prison authorities also subjected Navalny for months to hourly wake-ups through the night by prison authorities on the pretense that he was a ‘flight risk.’ Navalny likened this treatment to torture through sleep deprivation.’

Around 520,000 inmates are imprisoned in roughly 680 Russian penal colonies, according to reporting by The New York Times and Associated Press. Statistics for women’s colonies have not been published by the government, but there are believed t be 60 female penal colonies, the Russia Behind Bars Foundation told Axios. Within those camps, there are believed to be 39,000 female prisoners.

Inmates face poor sanitation, food shortages, limited healthcare access, and even physical and sexual violence, according to the State Department.

In October, one human rights group, Gulagu.net, claimed to have obtained more than 1,000 videos showing prison officials sexually abusing inmates. Other inmates were forced to abuse prisoners, according to the group.

Even the process of being transferred to a penal colony has been described as ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.’ According to Amnesty International, trips ‘can take from two weeks to a month or more.’

Griner’s case is particularly troubling because she’s married to a woman, Cherelle, and the Russian government’s hostility towards gays and lesbians remains a constant threat.

‘Russian prisons are grim, even relative to prisons in other countries,’ Muriel Atkin, a Russian history professor at George Washington University, told NBC News. ‘And the Putin regime has ramped up hostility towards gays and lesbians as part of its broader policy of hard-line nationalism.’

Naturally, concern for Griner’s safety has only increased since news of her transfer surfaced Tuesday.

‘We’re in constant contact with Russian authorities to get Brittney and others out,’ President Joe Biden said Tuesday. ‘So far we’ve not been meeting with much positive response but we’re not stopping.’

‘Brittney Griner’s nine-plus year sentence is regarded as harsh and extreme by Russian legal standards,’ Colas said in a statement Tuesday on Twitter. ‘Today’s disappointing, yet unsurprising, appeal outcome further validates the fact that she is being held hostage and is being used as a political pawn. Brittney Griner is being held by Russia simply because she is an American.’

Griner’s February arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner was returning to Russia, where she played during the US league’s offseason.

Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.

The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner’s lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.

Before her conviction, the US State Department declared Griner to be ‘wrongfully detained’ — a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.

Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a ‘substantial proposal’ to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.

Blinken didn’t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the US and once earned the nickname the ‘merchant of death.’

The White House said it has not yet received a productive response from Russia to the offer.

Russian diplomats have refused to comment on the US proposal and urged Washington to discuss the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements.

In September, US President Joe Biden met with Cherelle Griner, the wife of Brittney Griner, as well as the player’s agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden also sat down separately with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister.

The White House said after the meetings that the president stressed to the families his ‘continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.’

The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the US releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.

Moscow also has protested the arrest of another Russian currently in US custody, Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of dollars via an illicit cryptocurrency exchange. Vinnik had been in custody in Greece after being arrested there in 2017 at US request before being extradited to the US in August. It wasn’t clear if Russia might demand Vinnik’s release as part of a potential swap.

Cherelle appeared to acknowledge her wife’s culpability when speaking with CBS last month, but slammed the punishment Brittney has received.

‘I do believe a crime should warrant a punishment,’ Cherelle remarked. ‘But it must be balanced… B.G. has truly suffered beyond her crime already.’

Adding to Cherelle’s grief was the prospect of labor camp: ‘My brain can’t even fathom it.’

The situation is obviously complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has left Brittney feeling like a political pawn.

‘She’s, like, saying things to me like, ‘My life just don’t even matter no more,” Cherelle said. ‘You know, ‘I feel like my life just doesn’t matter. Like, I’m just being tossed around, like, for people’s enjoyment and gain.’

‘Those are all valid emotions to feel and I don’t have answers for, except the fact that your life matters to me, and I wanna get you back home,’ Cherelle said. ‘I’m gonna continue to pray every day that, you know, the people that are the decision-makers in this situation will have mercy and will sit down, and they will, too, see that your life matters, and do whatever they can to agree — on terms.’

Griner has only spoken with her wife twice since being last February, and the latter of the two calls left her partner disturbed and crying for days.

That exchange was in stark contrast to a previous call, where Cherelle says Brittney was more upbeat.

‘I think I cried for about two, three days straight,’ Cherelle told co-host Gayle King. ‘It was the most disturbing phone call I’d ever experienced.

‘I think I cried for about two, three days straight. It was the most disturbing phone call I’d ever experienced.

‘It’s just the most still, I think, moment I’ve just ever shared with my wife,’ she continued. ‘I didn’t have words.’