Black Dolphin- Russia's Infamous Prison.

I had a hard time deciding what forum to put this in but as this prison has been operating for almost 300 years History seemed the best fit.

This is one of the oldest prisons in Russia and one of the first prisons for life sentences in the Orenburg region. Originally it was a jail (Ostrog) for a lifetime of hard labor. The first mention of this relates to 1745. After the suppression of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1773, the prison was built for the deportation of robbers. The prison got its unofficial name from a fountain with a sculpture depicting a black dolphin, which is set before the main entrance. The sculpture was made by the prisoners themselves.[citation needed] On 1 November 2000, the prison started to hold inmates sentenced to life imprisonment.

It is near the Kazakhstan border. The prison houses approximately 700 of the most serious criminals in Russia. It holds child molestors, murderers, terrorists, cannibals, serial killers and so called "maniacs".[2] Prisoners at Black Dolphin are imprisoned for life.

en.wikipedia.org...

This mornings paper gives us a modern look at the prison.

Inside the four dank walls of Russia’s notorious Black Dolphin Prison reside some of the most terrifying monsters on earth.

Serial killers, cannibals, pedophiles and terrorists.

If the blood on the walls of the 282-year-old prison isn’t literal, there are gallons of it figuratively.

Black Dolphin is reputedly one of the world’s most brutal and inhumane prisons

“The main crime committed by the convicts here is murder. But we also have maniacs, pedophiles and terrorists,” guard Denis Avsyuk said in a National Geographic documentary.

“To call them people, it makes your tongue bend backwards just to say it. I have never felt any sympathy for them.”

It is home to around 700 inmates and 900 guards and prison staff. Since 2000, all its inmates are serving life sentences.

torontosun.com...

I found it interesting that the guards outnumbered the inmates. That isn't the case here. Even with out most notorious of "fun seekers". There's no v there either. Something that is a major part of inmates lives here. There's fights for the remote often.

Our prisons also seem like resorts next to the Dolphin:

When they arrive, prisoners are blindfolded. Anytime they move from building to building, they are again blindfolded. They are handcuffed and walk bent in half. Exercise is 90 minutes a day. They are fed soup and bread four times a day and there is no TV. Books, newspapers and magazines are fine. The Dolphin is so harsh that many prisoners want Russia to bring back capital punishment because it’s more humane.

The Sun article continues with profiles of some of the most notorious inmates. One inmate states:

— Gangster Igor Tischenko was involved in a wild Moscow shootout that left seven people dead and eight others injured. His father is also in prison for the slayings. “You ask me if I would do it again? I’ve thought about it. It would have been better if I had died with them. I probably wouldn’t do it,” he told Russia Today.

That threat alone seems like it would be a deterrent to others.

The Wki piece goes into more detail on daily life there:

Inmates are kept isolated and housed in a cell that has a set of three steel doors. For 90 minutes a day, they are transported to a large cage for exercise. During this time, the cell is searched for contraband or illegal items that inmates are not permitted to have. Prisoners at Black Dolphin are kept under 24-hour supervision; they are not permitted to rest or sit on their bunks from the time they are awoken until it is time to sleep again. Every 15 minutes, a guard makes rounds to check on each cell to ensure inmates are complying with the rules. The prisoners are fed soup four times a day.[2] The prisoners are only allowed books, newspapers and a radio (which is their only link to the outside world). When prison officers make a command to the inmates, they must respond with the words "yes, sir"

The Business Insider gives a good pictorial on the Dolphin:

www.businessinsider.com...-dolphin-is-located-near-the-kazakhstan-border-it-gets-its-informal-na me-from-the-statue-out-front-made-by-the-prisoners-themselves-1

Well I can say that I wouldn't put this place on any travel itinerary. Not a place for anyone really where the only way out is to die.

I think this prison was on a NatGeo special/documentary along with some others from Russia.

It was mind boggling to see this place and hear the interviews with inmates.

Same here in japan, but they work 6 days a week and resp ect the warden and the officers guarding them. Fights, kind of unheard of because its no fun with no sunlight in a rabbit cage 24 hours a day with no place to take a shiiite. Foreigners here think they are tough, well, I'll tell you since I live close to the main prison. The landscape going into the prison is beautiful during the spring. Flowers in bloom, green grass, a nice fruit stand at the entrance selling fruit to the tourist and most importantly, one does not see the main gate. Only the prisoners see it upon their new home. Japan prisons are not like the vids you see on youtube in the US. That is dreamville manga stuff. Real prison time is here in japan, you work 6 days a week, screw up, well, ask some fellow americans that have written to the us embassy for help.

a reply to: Shamrock6

I watched that special, jaw dropping.

Great job OP.

It is always illuminating to see the difference between cultures.

Is this it?

originally posted by: intrepid
Is this it?

Should be that way in the States, but they are more worried about toilet rights.

a reply to: intrepid

The only good prison documentary I've seen is about a Russian prison and it sounds like the same one as yours. Full of murderers and isolated out in Siberia 100s of miles away from the nearest small towns.

It's beautifully filmed which makes it watchable. The main ingredients are how it follows 2-3 prisoners and tells their story. What really caught my attention is there are no gangs, no segregation, no prisoners extorting monies from the families of other prisoners.

Here's the video...

a reply to: Kandinsky

That’s the one that I saw.

They claim no one has ever escaped.

a reply to: musicismagic

I can believe you, just had a quick search and not sure how good or bad these video's are but here are some about Japanese prison.






The last one is the best.



But on the opposite end of the extreme how about the cushiest prison's in the world, country's that seem to reward there prisoners.

a reply to: whywhynot

They probably haven't wanted to. There are hundreds of square miles of empty forest and snow drifts.

What I noticed in the doco is how the inmates get to keep their dignity. Sure, they're animals by most standards and convicted killers to a man. In the prison they have their own space and a few responsibilities. They get to be humans.

Contrast that with a few of the US prisons and I know where I would prefer to do a life sentence! Russia all the way. US prisons look scary as hell...the literal Hell.

a reply to: intrepid


Do you think they offer an exchange prisoner program??

I can think of a few guys incarcerated here in the states who I would love to recommend...

originally posted by: GuidedKill
a reply to: intrepid


Do you think they offer an exchange prisoner program??

I can think of a few guys incarcerated here in the states who I would love to recommend...

Hehe and a few who aren’t incarcerated!

originally posted by: musicismagic

originally posted by: intrepid
Is this it?

Should be that way in the States, but they are more worried about toilet rights.

You think your prisons are bad? Come to the UK our prison system is a joke. Rumour has it a few years back prison guards had to call the prisoners 'sir/madam' but I think that was some crap made up by the tabloids anyway they couldn't do that now as that would be sued for assuming the prisoners gender. Either way our prisons are like holiday camps for crooks.

Had to catch thieves years back doing security work, one guy said he stole something so he could go back to prison as he had everything he needed. 3 meals a day, gym, TV, radios you name it. Then there's our sentencing, someone will get a life sentence but not actually ever have to serve life. 10 years on good behaviour and you could be out on parole. The way I see it, you get put in the slammer for a reason because you f'ed up time for you to pay back what you've done and take a punishment. Prison shouldn't be easy but at the same time I believe the prison systems should work harder on rehab and ways of getting people educated so they can lead a better life, of course though you're gonna get the real offenders who you cannot change

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

I will second that, former Initial then finally Mitie myself ( tupee'd more than once and won't say what we called that new company but it began with SH when they took over), I worked retail for over a decade on various Tesco's and one I spent the most of that decade on as my permanent site.

Had a regular whom was a serving prison officer and he had some story's about exactly the same thing they did have to call there inmate's Mr thank's to change in policy but of course they used to use simply the surname or prisoners number but that was seen as inhumane by prisons reformers.

Left security through bad health (Chronic sciatica and a dodgy heart) but was still duel licences - CCTV and front line till about a year ago when they both finally expired as there three years were up, don't miss the incident report's but I do miss the people and the odd bit of fun.

That site took security as a joke and had only partial coverage so there were day's we were simply not there which meant that I had to trawl through hours of footage after the fact time and time again just to catch lifters that had struck while there was NO guard on duty but you know Tesco and there treatment of security in general.

a reply to: LABTECH767
Good old retail security lol I was in the same boat not going to mention where or for whom but it was for a major supermarket retail company. I had probably done it for 7-8 years. We were in house security so we didn't need SIA license. We were technically staff for the shop but given a security guards uniform and a case of 'there you go you're security'. We had a quite a large team as we had a bit of ground to cover, on a bad day there would be say 4 of us when we were fully staffed there would be 7-8 of us but that was for more busier times.

We were all trained on CCTV cameras and how to use them and had around 160 or so cameras to use and monitor, the job was fun at times but the majority of the time you were dealing with all sorts of people from your local heroin addicts and drunks to your sophisticated shop lifters using all sorts of gadgets to get away with it. I quit because I had enough of the abuse and violence we had to deal with especially when I found out people in the same shopping areas were on better pay than I was. Won't lie though it was a bit of a buzz watching the world go by and watching peoples activities and after a while you begin to get a 6th sense about someone when they walk in

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

My main site, ten years was not an extra just a supermarket but a medium to large sized one about a third the size of most extra's, had one occasion I nabbed a guy stealing the expensive champers, you know the £105 stuff or it was back then off the top shelf, he made the mistake of walking in on the day I was on duty after I had identified him stealing from the shop on a day I was not there by reviewing the footage of the incident.

The duty manager, nice guy but clueless discussed it with him and barred him, I stepped almost between them when I saw the guy fumbling in his pocket and was itching to tackle him, later when we were putting the stuff back as you do we found a broken bottle concealed in the shopping the top missing so he was actually going to stab the duty manager with that except that I suspected he was about to attack him and moved over to stand like I say almost between them, you know how it goes, of course then after the fact, after he has verbally barred this guy whom has already stolen over a grand's worth of stock he want's us to call the police in, of course they did nothing since he had fowled up the situation and mishandled it badly.

Knives, syringes and the general run of the day, we had no in house and I always regarded you lad's as having the best situation because you had security in your job which we as contractors most certainly did not, I nearly lost my Job at my contractor level - not the store because I chased a shoplifter down off the premises when he ran past me and you know we are technically not insured to do that but I was not going to let him get away with a bag full of console game's.

On the Extra's and some larger or busier supermarkets you had the advantage of dedicated security managers and team's but as you know most site's when and if they do have guards only have contractors and that is a bit hit and miss, you can have a good guard one day and a crap one the next with them especially were the guard does not have a permanent site.

You don't have to look outside the United States to find a prison that abuses it's inmates. I wish they would allow a camera crew just once inside ADX Florence.