Imprisoned WNBA Star Brittney Griner's Russian Jail Conditions Revealed, Spends 23 Hours Per Day In Tiny Cell
The jail conditions for Brittney Griner, who is serving a nearly 10-year prison sentence in Russia, have been revealed, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Griner’s jail conditions come roughly two months after the 31-year-old WNBA star was sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison after pleading guilty to drug charges on August 4.
According to Alexandr D. Boykov, Griner’s lawyer, the basketball star is currently serving out her sentence within the confines of a pre-trial detention center named Correctional Colony No.1 – a “nightmare” Russian penal colony located one hour outside of Moscow.
Griner shares her tiny cell with two other English-speaking prisoners also behind bars for drug charges. The inmates at Correctional Colony No.1 are reportedly only allowed to shower twice a week.
Even more shocking is the fact that inmates are forced to remain in their cell for 23 hours per day. Griner is reportedly allowed out of her cell once a day to walk around a small courtyard.
“She has not been in as good condition as I could sometimes find her in,” Boykov told the New York Times. He also revealed Griner spends most of her time reading and playing a board game similar to Battleship.
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“She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” Griner’s lawyer, who last spoke to his client on October 11, continued. “She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.”
Griner is set to remain in the pre-trial detention center until she files her appeal against the Russian court’s August guilty verdict. Boykov revealed his client is skeptical her verdict will be reversed, and Griner is more worried about the conditions she will face in the new prison following her appeal.
“Perhaps the verdict will somehow be changed and, perhaps, the sentence will be reduced, because the decision taken by the first court is very different from judicial practice,” Boykov explained.
“Considering all the circumstances, taking into account my client's personality traits and her admission of guilt, such a verdict should be absolutely impossible.”
News of Griner’s prison conditions comes shortly before both President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are set to attend this year’s G20 summit in Bali in November.
“It would depend on specifically what he wanted to talk about,” Biden told a reporter, confirming he would only speak to Putin regarding Griner and her return to America. “I don't see any rationale to meet with him now.”