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Debate outline: “The Internet technologies produce the positive impact on the economic and social development of the modern society”

Divide into the affirmative and negative side groups, research the additional literature and prepare to debate on the resolution according to the rules described in part 1.

2.7. Crime and Punishment

Text 1

SENTENCED TO LIFE

Dmitry Babich

MOSCOW NEWS October 4-10, 2000

At night, when the entire Vologda region is plunged into darkness, one of the islands in the middle of lake Novoye commonly known as Ognenny, or Fiery, is ablaze with light. True, the source of this light is not fire but electricity: powerful searchlights illuminate the white walls of a 15th-century monastery topped with barbed wire, armed guards peeping from under the roofs of monastery towers.

In the daytime, the island looks indistinguishable from scores of other inhabited islands in the area. Nearby, children play, jumping from a planked footway into the water, and elderly people sit in front of their log cabins. It is just that the number of servicemen in camouflage fatigues seems disproportionately large on the island, which is not really surprising: Ognenny is home to Institution OE-265/ 5 - the country's first and largest penal colony for prisoners serving a life sentence, that is, people once sentenced to death who then had capital punishment commuted to life imprisonment on the island by presidential decree.

Abandon all Hope

Quite. It is unlikely that any of these men will ever be let out. Formally, they still can hope to be free. To this end, they have to spend here 25 years, working conscientiously, and then, if a convict has had a clean record for the past 10 years, he may be released. For this to happen, however, approval has to be obtained from a number of officials, including psychologists who monitor the convicts' mental state and behavior. But it is highly improbable that any of the inmates will ever get such approval - either now or in 25 years. Not because psychologists, like so many people in our society, detest lifers, convinced that no punishment is too severe for them. It is simply that after 25 years of such life none of these wretches will probably be fit to lead a normal life at liberty. "As long as I'm alive, I will not have any of them discharged, given the condition they are in now," said a psychologist who requested anonymity. "If released, these men will never be able to adapt to

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freedom. They will be left with no option but to reoffend and return here, to a familiar environment."

Three Days - and Never Again

The life of every new arrival begins with a kind of initiation rite: As soon as he's out of the paddy wagon, the new prisoner has to crawl to the island on his knees along a planked footway, to the barking of leashed police dogs. The ceremony is supposed to produce a psychological effect: the man has to realize once and for all where he has got to and what will happen to him should he try to escape. Given that visits by relatives - the traditional "carrot" for prisoners are banned here, the prison administration can only resort to the "stick": dogs, solitary confinement, and clubs.

Visiting ended in 1997, following the adoption of a new Criminal Code. Prior to that, lifers could see their relations for three days once a year, on a par with ordinary convicts. In 1997, the lawmakers chose to deprive them even of that small joy: Let them suffer for 10 years. After 10 years, provided they have a good record, lifers are granted standard security status and allowed visitors.

"Before the prospect of seeing a family member was an incentive for an inmate," says Sr. Lt. Vasily Smimov, who has been working at the colony for six years. "In order to see their mother or girlfriend, every prisoner took care to keep out of trouble and tried to work hard. no longer."

Lawmakers imagine they have given convicts a new incentive: if you behave for 10 years, you will get a chance to see your nearest and dearest. But 10 years is an eternity. During this time parents can die and even the most faithful of wives may not hold out for so long. I found myself agreeing with the prison psychologist: "Those who established these rules haven't the slightest inkling of what it's like to live in such a 'colony'."

Some might say that these people richly deserve it. But do we always have the right to pass such hasty judgment? Among the island colony's 150 inmates, there is not a single hired killer. Persistent offenders, who killed to rob, make up not more than 10 percent. Most of the men here are domestic criminals who killed a relative or a friend in a violent quarrel, out of jealousy, or simply because they were blind drunk. True, there are some notable exceptions. Alexander Biryukov killed an officer when doing a stint of compulsory service in the army. He says he could no longer endure molestation by his homosexual superior. That failed to impress the court, however: Murder of an army officer is punishable by death. Then, under presidential decree, he had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment and was moved to this colony.

"We knew that Alexander was not a criminal. After years of working here we have learned to understand who is who," colony officials told me. So when, two years ago, his mother came to see Alexander for the last time, colony chief Alexei Rozov allowed Alexander Gutman, a St. Petersburg-based journalist, to film the meeting. The documentary was appropriately named "Three Days - and Never Again": A 10year separation could easily prove fatal for Biryukov's elderly mother. When the film was shown in the colony, all women officers sobbed. As a result, a presidential decree commuted Biryukov's life sentence to a 15-year term.