A ten-year sentence, infrequent showers, and a language she doesn't understand.
Brittney Griner's airport inconvenience quickly became an international crisis.
After five months in custody, this is what the WNBA star's life in prison is really like.
In February 2022, WNBA star Brittney Griner was detained in Russia for allegedly attempting
to bring cartridges containing a cannabis derivative into the country.
She has insisted that she uses the substance to treat pain and not recreationally; she
has further insisted that she had no intention of breaking Russian law.
As of July 26, 2022, she has pleaded guilty to those charges and is awaiting sentencing;
she faces as much as 10 years in prison.
Griner's arrest appears within the context of toxic relations between the U.S. and Russia
and, in particular, against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As The Guardian reported, national security advisor, author, and foreign policy analyst
Evelyn Farkas suggested that the Russians would use Griner as a pawn in some scheme
or another.
The expert said,
"It could be a prisoner swap.
They also could use it as an implicit threat or blackmail to get us to do something or
not do something.
Either way, they find it useful."
Meanwhile, Griner remains incarcerated in Russia, which is at once known for notoriously
brutal prisons and a flawed justice system.
Nevertheless, by most reports, she could be doing a lot worse.
"How do you feel?
Do you have complaints?"
"No, no complaints.
Just waiting patiently."
There are worse Russian prisons to be incarcerated in than Correctional Colony No. 1, or IK-1,
as The New York Times reports.
It's not a labor camp in Siberia, for example; rather, it's a former orphanage just outside
of Moscow.
It has a church — a Russian Orthodox church — as well as a sewing factory, although
whether or not Brittney Griner has been put to work sewing is not clear.
Otherwise, it's not unlike any other prison, in Russia or otherwise: the walls are dull
and gray, a statue of Vladimir Lenin is in the courtyard.
David Whelan, whose brother, Paul Whelan, has done time in a Russian prison, said that
conditions are still harsh.
Some cells lack toilets, offering instead a simple hole in the ground.
Whelan also noted that Russian prisons are run either by the guards or the prisoners,
and you want to be in one run by the guards.
Nevertheless, as recently as July 26, TMZ reported that Griner said that she has "no
complaints" about her life in detention.
In the same message, she also wished her wife the best of luck on her upcoming bar exam.
Brittney Griner's daily life inside the correctional facility where she's housed is, by all reports,
not appreciably different from those of the other women incarcerated in the same facility,
according to The New York Times.
Further still, the conditions in the prison are, in some ways at least, not entirely different
from a prison in the U.S.
With long days with nothing to do, Griner has been making use of the prison's library,
although not unexpectedly, the books within are in Russian, which Griner doesn't speak.
Somehow, she's managed to get a hold of an English translation of a book by Fyodor Dostoevsky,
which she's reportedly been reading.
Her cell also has a functional toilet, which is a rarity in Russian prisons, and she watches
TV, although all of the channels are in Russian.
She and other prisoners are also able to order food and store it in a refrigerator.
Unfortunately, she is only allowed to shower a few times per week.
As of July 26, 2022, Brittney Griner's future remains uncertain.
In a worst-case scenario, she'll be sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence and could be
behind bars in Russia for a decade or more.
"The vast, vast majority, about 99% of people who are arrested on drug charges in Russia
are given the max sentence of ten years in prison."
Further still, Yaffa Issachar, the mother of an Israeli-American woman who did time
in Russia for allegedly smuggling cannabis into the country, said that all her daughter
was able to see from her cell was the clouds.
Issachar also suggested that Griner may be at risk for persecution in her Russian prison
because she's gay, and Russia's attitudes toward gay rights are less progressive.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is angling for Griner's release, and the Russians may
be keen to make a prisoner swap.
Now that Griner has pleaded guilty to her charges, only time will tell if the United
States is able to secure her safe release.
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