“This System Only Breeds Future Prisoners”: The Problematization of Correctional Discourse by Former Prisoners

Abstract

Russia has a relatively high imprisonment rate due to its repressive penal policy. About two-thirds of the prisoners in Russian correctional colonies have been sentenced to imprisonment for the second time or more, even though the main declared goal of the criminal legislation and the punishment system is the correction of convicts. Most Russian penitentiary institutions are called correctional. The article analyzes statements of former prisoners about the possibility of “correction” in prison conditions. The focus is on the motifs, metaphors, and arguments concerning the impact of incarceration. The statements of former prisoners contradict the official correctional discourse. They talk about practices in penal colonies, using the motifs of “destroying a human being”, “slavery”, “turning us into robots”, and “retribution”. Another motif is the “human attitude” which is necessary for the change of prisoners’ lives, but which is absent in prisons. Prisoners report beatings, torture, murders, and blackmail, and point out that these actions in pre-trial detention centers and correctional institutions’ administrations are criminal and do not promote correction. The metaphors used by our informants concerning the punishment system (e.g., “meat grinder”, “razor”, “big machine”) are similar to the metaphors of former GULAG prisoners. The former prisoners’ statements suggest that in most cases, prison is not capable of making a difference to human lives and point to the need to move away from the discourse of correction.