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"Russia to Alter System of Penal Colonies"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this fascinating piece from this morning's New York Times.  Here is how it starts: In Russian prisons, the inmates are divided into barracks housing a hundred or so men without regard to the severity of their crimes.  At night, a guard locks the door and walks away, leaving first-time offenders and people convicted of nonviolent crimes to fend for themselves in a crowd of gang members, hit men and other career criminals. Beginning this year, however, first-time offenders may no longer have to live in fear.  In the first major effort to upgrade a prison system that has changed little since Stalin established it more than 70 years ago, career criminals will be separated from the general prison population and housed in new prisons with cellblocks, rather than barracks...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 23, 2010 (boomark / email).