Brittney Griner is facing some of the toughest conditions in the IK-2 penal colony in Russia. Many former inmates have shared the horrors and traumas of doing time inside the infamous colonies of Mordovia. The far-off region is located around 300 miles southeast of Moscow. Moreover, Griner is being forced to bear the inhumane conditions of penal colonies while the US government works on a prisoner swap deal with Russia. Amid fears of forced labor, Brittney Griner could possibly be suffering due to a heinous task inside a Russian prison colony.
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As per the accounts of the former inmates and experts, Brittney Griner could be subjected to slave-like conditions. She is likely being kept in a crowded barrack with other inmates. Moreover, the food that the prison authorities provide is not enough for the inmates. As a result, malnutrition is not uncommon in the penal colonies.
Further, inmates are forced to work in sweatshops for up to 16-17 hours per day. Prisoners are tasked to sew uniforms for the Russian military and police. Brittney Griner is possibly facing all these injustices inside the IK-2 presently. However, there is another atrocious task that could be making life hell for the 2014 WNBA champ.
Brittney Griner could face serious injuries in penal colony
A recent report has suggested that Brittney Griner might be forced to work in dangerous conditions, which could lead to some severe injuries. The machines that prisoners work on are very old and dangerous.
As per the report, “The notorious penal colony is known as a rat-infested sweatshop for prisoners, some of whom have lost fingers during long hours at their sewing machines.”
Thus, Mordovia is one of the most infamous regions in Russia. It is notoriously known as the ‘land of prisons’. The sweatshops are rat-infested and prisoners often end up cutting off their fingers due to inhumane labor on dangerous sewing machines.
Former inmate shares experience of working in sweatshops
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Back in 2019, a former inmate of the IK-14 colony shared the horrors of working in sweatshops. Gelena Alekseyeva, a former deputy minister for investment, was sentenced to over three years in prison under commercial bribery charges.
She spent a little over a year in 2014-15 in Mordovia and was picked for cutting fabric in the sweatshop. Alekseyena shared that working on complicated sewing machines was a tough job and mistakes often resulted in more work. She also talked about how dangerous the fabric-cutting machines were.
Alekseyena said, “I can say that fingers on the saw are chopped off, cut, blood flows. This is definitely unsafe, requiring some training.”
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Brittney Griner could be facing the heinous task of working in these vicious sweatshops on dangerous machines that could cause some serious injuries for the WNBA star.