Two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time all-star Brittney Griner has been officially sentenced to nine years behind bars in a Russian penal colony after officials found a cartridge of marijuana concentrate in her luggage in February of this year. She was charged with intentionally importing narcotics to Russia, to which she plead guilty with no intent back in July after a long delay in her trial.
Preceding her guilty plea, Griner hand wrote a letter to Joe Biden this past July, stating that “I miss my wife! I miss my family! I miss my teammates! It kills me to know they are suffering so much right now. I am grateful for whatever you can do at this moment to get me home.”
Now, after nearly six months in custody, the WNBA star and her lawyers are looking to appeal the nine-year sentence while Griner is placed in her penal colony. Throughout the country, there are 35 Russian women’s penal colonies that are believed to house 60,000 inmates, according to Ivan Melikov, vice president of the Russian Department of the International Human Rights Defense Committee, via People.
He says that most of the daily occurrences within each colony depend entirely on the prison’s governor, some of which are much stricter than others. Melikov and his colleagues who have been in communication with United States-based news outlets are not permitted to reveal which camp she will be moved to.
Within the colony, it is expected that Griner will have to work eight hours a day, typically sewing, cleaning, cooking, and serving food to other inmates. Melikov says that every morning at 6 a.m., the prisoners “wash, dress, make their beds, stand to attention for the register, go to breakfast and then start an eight hour working day… but we are trying to encourage governors to use the talents of the inmates. For example, working with art.”
With this being said, due to her career as an extremely successful and well-known WNBA player, she may be able to coach women’s basketball to fulfill these hours instead. According to Melikov, the prisoners also get two to three hours of free time a day depending on the rulings of the prison governor, which is where Griner will be able to write letters home, spend time with other inmates, read books from the library, and call friends and family.
While Griner is displaced to one of these colonies and attempts to adjust to this new lifestyle thousands of miles away from home, her lawyers and the United States federal government are not losing hope, with the Biden administration confirming that they are working on a potential prisoner exchange to bring her back home.
Griner’s situation is tragic, and many have pointed out the overly harsh sentencing given how little cannabis she had, the fact that it was prescribed, and that the possession was unintentional. Although there is a push for the U.S. government to intervene from the public, others have also noted the hypocritical response from the Biden administration, given the amount of Americans still serving prison time for nonviolent cannabis crimes and possession charges.
Historically, the criminalization of cannabis and the War on Drugs has disproportionately affected Black Americans, too, and this racism continues to persist in the sentencing of people of color versus white folks with similar offenses.
Over social media this past week, a graphic circulated comparing Griner’s experience to that of a white woman. It says Audrey Lorber was arrested in Russia for 19 grams of THC in 2019 and served roughly two months in jail. Griner was arrested with just 0.7 grams of THC. Snopes confirmed the information on the graphic was indeed true.
For now, Griner will remain in prison until the deal is worked out.
Photo courtesy of @ajplus on Twitter.
