WNBA star Brittney Griner may be in even more danger now that she’s in prison, and, according to multiple sources, there may be a threat to her life.
It has been nine months since Brittney Griner was detained at a Russian airport outside of Moscow for carrying cannabis oil in her luggage. Fast forward nine months, and she’s in a Russian prison, and things aren’t looking good for her on the inside according to sources familiar with the conditions at the penal colony.
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What Russian Prison Is Housing WNBA Star Brittney Griner?
The Daily Mail claims that there may be a chance that the Phoenix Mercury star is jumped inside bathrooms, tortured, and forced into “slave-like conditions” while in prison.
“Griner is ‘likely to be jumped in the bathrooms’ and hear ‘slurs no one ever should hear…The Russian government taught people long ago that Americans are the enemy of humankind,” the publication reported.
This comes on the heels of Griner being transferred to the IK-2 Penal Colony, which is one of the worst penal colonies in Russia. It’s unfortunate that this is where she has to serve her nine-year sentence.
A member of the activist group Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova, spent and survived two years in a penal colony in Russia. She went on MSNBC to detail her experience and give us an idea of what to expect for Brittney Griner in her penal colony.
“Prisoners in IK-2 work in slave-like conditions. … Some [prisoners] decide to commit suicide, which is not as easy in penal colony conditions,” the representative said.
“Prisoners in IK-2 work in slave-like conditions…Some [prisoners] decide to commit suicide, which is not as easy in penal colony conditions.” Survivor and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova on the conditions Brittney Griner will face in a Russian penal colony. pic.twitter.com/k4j93FUHt4
— MSNBC Reports (@MSNBC_reports) November 21, 2022
Not only are these possible threats to Brittney Griner in prison, but according to MSNBC Griner will be facing some terrifying conditions as far as labor while in the prison.
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Per MSNBC, Griner will be facing 16-hour workdays. Prisoners often will be sewing Russian army uniforms, and many normally get injured because of the outdated equipment that the prison provides. Also on top of those conditions, it is widely known that getting beaten and tortured are common within the prison, and medical care is practically nonexistent in Russian prisons.
The type of labor they are doing, according to Pussy Riot, extends to much physical work that can be harmful to the body.
“when not working in sweatshops, prisoners are subjected to heavy physical labor like digging trenches, breaking up frozen coal or manually sawing giant logs, if a prisoner refuses to work, they’re sent to a solitary confinement, a freezing cold tiny cell”
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These are terrible conditions that Griner is facing, and while there were tons of options explored in trying to bring the seven-time All-S
tar home, none of them have prevailed.
They even talked about a prisoner swap with notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, which didn’t do the trick either. Many people are protesting and campaigning to get Griner out of the Russian prison, but hopefully, with many outlets talking about the conditions she is facing, there will be more push behind getting a deal done to either bring Griner home or shorten her sentence in Russia.
Since she was handed a nine-year prison sentence, negotiations for her release or altering her sentence have faded from the headlines. It seems like her support is waning. Hopefully, something can change soon for Griner.
