 south-east of the capital. The phrase penal colony revives memories of the deadly Gulag of the Soviet era, but in this case it simply refers to a prison - with several rows of low-rise buildings housing communal barracks for inmates and separate structures housing workshops for inmates.For days no-one, including her lawyers, knew where Griner had been sent. For Russia this is normal, and when inmates' families cannot afford a good lawyer it can sometimes take weeks for a letter to arrive from the jail.Image source, Federal Russian Penitentiary ServiceImage caption, The women's penal colony in Yavas has a capacity of 820 places (file pic)Her jail is one of Russia's regular prison colonies, where most of 453,000 inmates are held. Repeat offenders or those with sentences for grave crimes are sent to strict-regime or special-regime colonies. The difference lies in the number of visits allowed by relatives, the frequency of permitted parcels with food or clothing and the severity of punishments for breaking regul){kind=link}
US basketball player Brittney Griner has reportedly been sent to a Russian penal colony in a remote region south-east of Moscow to serve a nine-year jail term for illegal drug possession. She joins tens of thousands of Russian women behind bars – and no-one knows how much of it she will serve, as the US is keen to organise a prisoner-swap to release her.
Until that happens, her life inside a Russian jail will certainly not be easy, and she will likely endure conditions as regular as any other inmate.
Griner lost her appeal against her drug conviction in early November and was then moved out of a Moscow detention centre to a penal colony. But it is only now that we have an idea where she is. A source has told Reuters news agency she is being held at the IK-2 women’s penal colony in the remote village of Yavas in Mordovia, 500km (310 miles) south-east of the capital.
The phrase penal colony revives memories of the deadly Gulag of the Soviet era, but in this case it simply refers to a prison – with several rows of low-rise buildings housing communal barracks for inmates and separate structures housing workshops for inmates.
For days no-one, including her lawyers, knew where Griner had been sent. For Russia this is normal, and when inmates’ families cannot afford a good lawyer it can sometimes take weeks for a letter to arrive from the jail.