Russian prisons are notoriously tough, but there's one that's even harder than the rest. Called Black Dolphin, this high-security prison on the Kazakhstan border houses the country's most brutal criminals, including serial killers, cannibals, and terrorists, according to a documentary by National Geographic.
One prison lieutenant told National Geographic that the only way to escape is by dying. From kittens tossed into blazing furnaces to prisoners losing fingers slaving for hours at sewing machines in a rat-infested sweatshop, IK-14 prison for women in Russia’s central region of Mordovia is one of the most dreaded female correctional facilities in the country.
Such is the notoriety of the prison, women condemned to serve there often take extreme measures to avoid it, including slitting their wrists. And Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said the reputation of prison IK-14 was known across Russia.
"As the inmates say, ‘If you haven’t done time in Mordovia, you haven’t done time, " said Tolokonnikova, who herself served prison time at the facility in 2013.
In a letter published in September 2013, Tolokonnikova complained about the slave-labor conditions at the prison, as well as abuse faced by prisoners. She wrote that women were forced to work 16 or 17 hours a day with one day off every eight weeks.
Such was her experience at the prison that Tolokonnikova campaigned for prisoner rights once she was released under an amnesty in December 2013.
According to the latest official data, 557,684 individuals are incarcerated in Russian correctional facilities. Of these, 44,474 are women.
More than six years after Tolokonnikova penned her letter, the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) admitted she was "correct," in the words of FSIN Deputy Director Valery Maksimenko.
On December 24, Maksimenko announced the FSIN had requested that prosecutors open a criminal probe into allegations of slave-labor conditions at the prison in Mordovia. The director of prison IK-14, Yury Kupriyanov, was dismissed, along with other officials, Maksimenko said. Kupriyanov had forced the prisoners to sew clothing for him, his relatives, friends, and business associates, Maksimenko explained.
Some of the inmates who have served time at IK-14 have told of their experience there to the Volga Desk of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service.