PRISON “A PARADISE”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29179, 13 April 1960, Page 27

PRISON “A PARADISE”

Russians Like Life Inside

(From a Reuter Correspondent) MOSCOW.

Life is so good in at least one Soviet provincial prison that drunks and hooligans go out of their way to get arrested for a “free pass to the local branch of paradise.” The prisoners sleep late in the morning, lie around listening to the radio and swapping yarns, and are waited on at table and dodge work. This free and easy life, in the prison at Ribinsk, a picturesque town on the banks of the river Volga, was revealed in “Komsomolskaya Pravda,” organ of the Young Communist League. The newspaper’s correspondent, who brought the conditions to light, was so impressed that he tried unsuccessfully to get 10 days “inside” (the set sentence for minor misdemeanours) himself.

He stumbled on the story when he noticed that his neighbour was constantly disappearing for a week or two at a time. One day, the neighbour let him into the secret. Whenever he wanted a change and a rest, he fixed himself up with a spell in the local prison.

After spending the morning in rest and idleness, prisoners, he said, were driven to work in cars. This man, for instance, worked in an elderly people’s home where the food was “good and tasty.” He even got special invalid food. His job was to unload coal brought from the nearest railway station. But, in fact, he and the other prisoners leaned on their shovels nearly all the time and had to be bribed with food by the head of the old people’s home to do any work at all. After lunch, the prisoners had a nap and then went back to prison for dinner, games and supper. They even complained about the beds and suggested that it would be a good idea if they were sent home for the night. The “Komsomolskaya Pravda" correspondent, indignant at the easy life accorded the "criminals,” made a few investigations of his own. He discovered, for instance, that for every 100,000 roubles spent on the prisoners, they did about 11,000 roubles worth of work.

But, when he went to the local police and begged to be arrested, they failed to understand him—and insisted that he must first break the law either by swearing in the street or beating someone up in order to qualify for 10 days in Riblnsk prison.