Siberian Prison System
PRISON SYSTEM IN SIBERIA
My project is dedicated to description of the history of Siberia as a place to where send prisoners--from the days of Ivan the Terrible until today. I will tell about the reasons for choosing Siberia as place of exile, the system of prisons and conditions in Siberian prisons.
Choosing Siberia as a Place of Exile As with other Western powers that gained colonies overseas, the acquisition of Siberia led to making it a place of exile. Criminal and political prisoners had been sent to Siberia for more than three centuries; millions of people, in total, were deported there. Due to its remoteness and severe weather conditions 'Russian Australia' was one huge prison, escape from where was almost impossible and very dangerous not only because of the chase, but because of the Siberian killing frosts, unimaginably long distances, bounty-hunting natives, deep forests and wild animals. Another reason for establishing punishment by exile was the desire of society to banish still cruel and barbarous criminal code of XVII century according to which criminals had been punished by amputation of their limbs, being bastionadoed, and being branded with hot iron. Exile was quick and easy method of getting them out of the way. The punishments, however, didn't become more humane. They just began to happen far away from where most of the people could see them. Before making Siberia place of exile criminals died from being tortured in Moscow; after they died from the hard, exhausting work, cold winters, and diseases in Siberia.
Although originally applied as a corporal punishment, exile can be viewed as a means of population and developing the colony. Government needed people to work in Siberian mines and to build roads, and penal servitude began to replace long prison terms, while list of offences meriting exile steadily lengthened to include even vagrancy, fortune-telling, wife-beating, debts, accidentally starting a fire or drunkenness. In 1754 death penalty was abolished for some years and replaced with exile at hard labour.
Convoy to Siberia Until the middle of the XIX century, most of the convicts had to walk to the place of their exile from their homes. Often the journey took years--the distances walked measured thousands of kilometres. They walked from etape (transit prison) to etape. Until the beginning of XVIII century there was almost no long-range planning and even supervision of exiles was extremely negligent. Convicts had to beg their way because there was almost no food provided for them.
Vagrancy had always been a concern in sixteenth century England, resulting in the passing of four anti-vagrancy bills in 1547 alone. This resulted in legislation so harsh that a person charged with vagrancy could be sentenced to two years enslavement, which could be extended to life enslavement if they tried to escape. When these bills did not seem to prevent the occurrence of beggars on the street, the Vagrancy and Poor Relief Act of 1572 was instated. This act called for a “three strikes and you are out” policy, where on a person’s third vagrancy offense they could be rightfully put to death (Woodbridge 272). This legislation was the policy for over twenty years until it was repealed in 1593 for being too strict. In 1597, the new Vagrancy Act authorized the government to banish anyone caught offending the vagrancy laws. After a 1598 statute reestablished slavery as the proper punishment for vagrancy, there were a number of years where periods of leniency and harshness of punishments alternated. It is important to note the history of these laws since many of them were never entirely repealed. However, it was in the early seventeenth century that a particular legislation finally became the common law that would rule for centuries.
The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work. Google Books. November 10, 2009. http://books.google.com/books.
The “pains of imprisonment” can be divided into five main conditions that attack the inmate’s personality and his feeling of self-worth. The deprivations are as follows: The deprivation of liberty, of goods and services, of heterosexual relationships, autonomy and of security.
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are both treated wrongly because of rumors and stereotypes. These two characters have all this in common but the ultimatum is that Boo is mostly made rumors of because of immaturity and a wacko father, but Tom is treated badly because of his race. But the characters are united in ways that would and should never be wished upon a person. And, in a way Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are both like Mockingbirds and it is a sin to do what has been done to them.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p.90) Miss. Maudie, one of the main protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird, warns the young girl Scout that mockingbirds should not to be killed or hunted down because they represent those who are kind and innocent. So, on a broader spectrum, the term “to kill a mockingbird” symbolizes cruel and improper behavior towards people with good hearts and intentions. In the town of Maycomb, unethical behaviors, such as prejudice and gossip, are most commonly used against the “mockingbirds”. Three of those “mockingbirds” that are featured in this novel are Arthur “Boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch. Due to the depiction of the mockingbird symbol in the novel, the reader understands the consequences that immoral attitudes have towards those who are innocent and kindhearted.
...birds are one of the main symbols. Mockingbirds are innocent they do not harm anyone but makes beautiful music. However, they get killed by people every day. There are many innocent person present in this novel; three main characters that are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond, and they symbolize the Mockingbirds. Tom was a wrongly accused of rape, and he was brutally killed because he was black. Boo Radley did not do any harm to anyone, he was innocent, but people in the Maycomb County were thinking him as a monster which hurt him mentally. Lastly, Mr. Raymond symbolized the Mockingbird because he was innocent, however only because he thought different than others, he was looked down by the people in Maycomb County. Mockingbirds in this novel symbolized the innocent people who are getting wrongly accused and their innocence getting destroyed by evil.
"Today's system, where imprisonment is a common penalty for most crimes, is a historical newcomer." Many crimes during 1718 and 1776 were punishable by death. This was usually done by hanging, sometimes by stoning, breaking on the rack and burning at the stake. Towards the end of the 1700's people realized that cruel punishment did little to reduce crime and their society was changing the population grew and people started to move around more frequently. There had to be a search for new punishments. "New punishments were to rely heavily on new ideas imported from Europe in the writing of such social thinkers of the Enlightenment as the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, Thomas Pain and Cesare Beccaria". These thinkers came to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated."
These were areas of space that people were legally linked to based on their region of registration as stated in their propiska. Persons found without proper documentation where institutionalized, confined to prisons, and sent to detention holding centers (Stephenson, 2006: 159). The propiska “became the precondition for all benefits and civil rights: jobs, housing, medical insurance, public assistance, ration cards, education, the right to vote, even access to public libraries” (Höjdestrand, 2009: 24). For the homeless, this stratification in Moscow meant that they were given a plot of land behind the 101st kilometer, which Stephenson describes as a space where “social waste was removed” (Stephenson, 2006:
Those criminals residing on the Eastern side were punished through acts of stoning, flogging, and amputation of body parts. Although this sounds uncivilized, however when compared with the Western traditional form of imprisonment the lines between inhumanities become blurred. Chapman did a good job giving factual information supporting the inhumanities of Western imprisonment. He clearly identified different facts, in many different states, on how they fail to maintain there
and water (Alchin). Due to Cholera the Russians had a disadvantage and decided to immigrate. Also, Russians were going through religious persecutions. Russian-Jews were being killed by 'progroms' or riots aimed at the persecution of Jews(Alchin). This was a terrible time period for them and it made them immigrate. In addition to the Russians wanting an escape, they were going through a revolution against the British.(Alchin). America's industrial revolution was an influential factor in their decision to leave Russia. They wanted to flee all the persecutions, revolutions, and diseases and get a new life through these industrial revolutions. The reaction of Americans to the Russians when they arrived was not good, they were limited in the opportunities they had hoped for. There were reports against the immigrants which created more prejudice against them. The Russians were not accepted by the Americans after escaping horrors from
During the course of this World Literature class, several stories have been covered that accurately describe Joseph Campbell's mono-myth, or basic pattern found in narratives from every corner of the world. The Hero's Journey in it's entirety has seventeen stages or steps, but if boiled down can be described in three; the departure, the initiation, and the return (Monomyth Cycle). Each stage has several steps, but the cycle describes the hero starting in his initial state, encountering something to change him, and this his return as a changed person. To further explain this concept, there are a few stories covered in this class that can be used.
society. Some choose Rehabilitation and others opt to concentrate solely on Punishment. The Norway prison system has changed their focus retribution to rehabilitation. As we begin to look at the Model of Norway we will lead off to quickly detect that it is widely different when compared to the United States prison system that concentrates most of their energy on Punishment. Rehabilitation has a long haul impact on wrongdoers since it would decrease the crime rates. Additionally, rehabilitation changes the criminal conduct, by providing hope and humane treatment to help the incarcerated have a smooth transition back to the real world. The United States focuses most of its energy on punishment and that's but one piece that leads to crime detection
...eration. Gender norms in regards to tattoos still exist, but as women are working to break out of everyday societal expectations, the expectations surrounding tattoos are also changing. Within our society, the lower class receives a bad reputation when tattooed, whereas the upper class is seen simply as expressing itself. This negative outlook on tattooed, lower class citizens will only change when the middle and upper class stop viewing people this way and allow everyone to be on an equal playing field. It seems to be the majority opinion that tattoos are a growing part of the culture and the negative associations surrounding body art are slowly fading as an individualized and tolerant generation takes over. As this view of society rises, will tattooing lose its appeal, or will it continue to grow, shedding its gender and social stigmas that have long shadowed it?
In the late 18th-early 19th century, punishment was intended to reform, to create penitence (hence the penitentiary system), and to make example of sinners. This system of punishment was a result of Calvinist/Puritanical beliefs within the tightly knit colonial system. As the United States grew bigger so did the jurisdiction of small local courts, the amount of interaction between and amongst other colonial groups, and the types of crimes that were able to be committed (especially property crimes). The sting of years of religious repression and geographi...
Siberia is portrayed as clean and uncontaminated. This portrayal is a little ironic. Siberia is the location of the prison that Raskolnikov is living in. In Crime and Punishment, the prison is not seen as a place of suffering. The suffering of Petersburg is over. “On the banks of a broad solitary river stands a town, one of the administrative centres of Russia; in the town there is a fortress, in the fortress there is a prison” (527). The prison is said to be in a fortress. It is a much nicer place than Petersburg. The prison has changed Raskolnikov for the better. He has developed into a nice and caring man. He does not complain and he is glad to see Sonia. “She wrote that his health was satisfactory; he did his work without shirking or seeking to do more; he was almost indifferent about food, but except on Sundays and holidays the food was so bad that at last he had been glad to accept some money from her, Sonia, to have his own tea every day” (533-534). Raskolnikov has developed from a depressed man to a hardworking man. Siberia has changed his attitude and his look on