Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Imprisoned Pussy Riot Member, Hospitalized

[bananas]

Source: Associated Press

A jailed member of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band has been hospitalized for a full medical check-up after complaining of headaches and suffering from overwork at a prison colony known for its tough conditions, her lawyer and a fellow band member said Friday.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has suffered from headaches since last spring and her condition has worsened since October when she was sent to a prison colony to serve her two-year sentence for the band's irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral, her lawyer Irina Khrunova said.

<snip>

"They don't allow her to have any rest; she works nearly round the clock," Samutsevich told independent Rain TV on Friday. "She said she feels tired, extremely tired."

<snip>

In an interview published last week in the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Tolokonnikova stoically described harsh prison conditions, saying she doesn't expect any leniency from authorities.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/nadezhda-tolokonnikova-hospitalized_n_2597552.html?utm_hp_ref=world

[Hissyspit]

1. Disgusting.

Shouldn't be in prison at all.

[happyslug]

2. Her treatment seems to be the norm in that prison

From someone who served in that prison"

The administration was very strict with us – rumours of beatings circled around the colony, although I didn’t witness any personally. More often there were fights between the inmates themselves.

Mass beatings are usually a feature of male camps – the so-called ‘black colonies’.

There was no torture in FGU IK-14, but anyone disobeying the prison rules would be punished by getting sent to “shiza” [Russian abbreviation for schizophrenia] – a solitary cell.

The daily routine was also strict – they would wake us up at 06:00, and we would have morning exercises five minutes later. We had breakfast at 07:00, then work until 13:00 when we would have lunch. There was more work after that until 16:00, followed by dinner. Lights out was at 22:00.”

http://timesofnews.co/2012/10/22/russian-womens-prison-camps-an-ex-inmates-account/

Nothing is the above statement says her treatment is out of the ordinary for that tye of prison, Wake up at 6:00 am, Exercise at 6:05 AM, Breakfast at 7:00 AM, Work from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Lunch 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM. Work from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Diner 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Then "Free time" (Or what ever they call it) from 5:00 pm to 10:00 PM. Sleep 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm (Eight hours).

Five hours working in the Morning till Lunch (at 1:00 PM) more work 2:00 to 4:00 PM. total seven hours, eight if you include lunch (Could be eight hours of work if Breakfast and lunch are only 30 minutes, 7:30 am to 1:00 pm. 1:30 pm to 4:00pm).

That is what I have read, it is a prison, some place no one really wants to be, but nothing really bad about the prison except its isolation. Hard for family members to visit people in the prison. While the number of Cars in Russia is way above what it was in Soviet Days, the number of cars are way below the level of car ownership in the US and Western Europe. Given most prisoners are from the lower echelons of society, where car ownership is even less, the isolation of these prisons makes them hard for family members to come and see the prisoners.

She was transferred to a Prison Hospital on January 24, 2013 as the request of the Prison.
http://www.factmag.com/2013/02/01/jailed-pussy-riot-member-transferred-to-prison-hospital-following-severe-headaches/

[DLnyc]

3. Nothing really bad about the prison?

Guess you've never been in prison.

When human beings are given unlimited authority over other human beings, bad things happen. Trust me on this one.

Or just pretend what you haven't actually seen must not exist.

[happyslug]

5. She was convicted of a Crime??? And sentenced to Prison?

I have been to various Prisons in the US (as a guest, I left the day I arrived) and NONE of them were places I wanted to stay any longer then I had to. From What I have heard the Russian Prisons are not nice places, nor are they intended to be nice places, but the Barracks sounds like what I had to deal with when I was in the Army (Through our latrines were in an outside building and had flush toilets that worked, but I did NOT have then when I went out into the field).

Maybe it is my background, but working 8 hours a day under a strict regime is something I had to do when I was in boot camp and other times when I was in the Service. I have had to deal with people who had almost total control over me, people who hated me, but I learned to deal with it and went on with my life. In the article I posted, the Writer clearly states she "heard" of beatings, but saw none, she new of what punishment would be done to her if she disobeyed (and it was NOT abuse, just solitary confinement).

Maybe its me, but if I did a crime, I expect to be punished and under the right circumstances take that punishment and wear as a badge of honor. The best example of this is Martin Luther King during Birmingham campaign of 1963. King violated a COURT ORDER NOT to attend a rally, he went to a rally anyway and was arrested for violating a court order. He knew that the proper action was to appeal the illegal court order, but that would take time, he had to do something that day and he did and disobeyed a court order. He spent his time in jail, a jail run by the same man who was setting dogs and firehouses onto other peaceful demonstrators. King knew that he was going to be arrested AND be under the custody of a man who hated him, but it was worth it to King to show the world what was needed to be done.

Martin Luther King and the Birmingham Campaign:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_campaign#Martin_Luther_King_jailed

Another example is Nelson Mandela, he spent 27 years in jail, for sabotage actions in South Africa to protest apartheid. When he became President of South Africa he gladly worn his time in prison as the price he had to pay to achieve what he did (A South Africa without Apartheid).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela


The same with the protesters, if you are NOT willing to take the punishment tied in with the protest and wear it as a badge of honor, why are you protesting?

[Hissyspit]

6. ???

[Hekate]

7. I don't know if the nature of Russian prisons has changed substantially since Soviet times...

Or the government's attitude toward dissent, either.

Russia is a country that has never in its entire history had a democratic form of government (nor has China, but that's a different conversation). Just because individuals want to express a freer way of thought, speech, and art, and just because the government sometimes gives lip-service to those aspirations, does not mean any of it is true in real life. Pussy Riot got its leash yanked very hard indeed.

In today's Russian prison system, both AIDS and drug-resistant tuberculosis run rampant. Hard-labor still has the potential to simply work someone to death. She'll be lucky to get out without her health completely broken.

[Ash_F]

8. 10,000 posts

DU 2013

[glinda]

4. Terrible.