The prisoners' rejection of freedom, so surprising to the British, caught the Kingdom's authorities off guard. The government had to take decisive steps: refuse prisoners a planned salary increase so as not to improve the already comfortable conditions. Prime Minister Gordon Brown banned this indexation at the request of the Deputy General Secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, Glen Travis, who said that many prisoners refuse to leave the zone because, for example, medicines are cheaper there than on the outside.
The opposition, for its part, criticized the Labour Party: 'How safe are our prisons if criminals can infiltrate them?' asks shadow justice minister Nick Herbert.
The main reasons why people voluntarily stay behind bars, according to the British Ministry of Justice, include the lack of a place to live and the fear of missing the registration deadline after release. But the main thing is the comfort of British cells. As Neil Bentley, head of the utilities department, notes, the quality of services in prisons is so high that it leads to a rapid increase in the number of recidivists: two-thirds of convicts find themselves back behind bars within two years of release, and among teenagers the share of 'returners' reaches 75%. According to the latest calculations by the Confederation of British Industry, the justice system spends £60 billion of budget money per year, which is about 5% of GDP.
However, it is not only in the UK that prisoners love their cells so much. Recently, a 59-year-old German who spent the last 34 years in prison again declined an offer of early release. The prisoner, whom the media call Gerold H., was convicted of murder by a GDR court in 1972 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
But in the United States, in a similar situation, they did not stand on ceremony and heartlessly threw 92-year-old criminal Covel Russell out onto the street. The prisoner had spent just over a year behind bars for a knife attack on the 70-year-old owner of the apartment he had rented. Blind in one eye and suffering from terminal prostate cancer, Russell wanted to stay in prison as long as possible, but the court decided otherwise. After his release, the unfortunate man jumped off a bridge into a river.
In Russia, such a craving for a prison cell would seem impossible — the conditions of confinement in the country are well known. And yet, according to experts, this phenomenon is also becoming widespread among Russian criminals. 'Every year, in one zone or another, released criminals attempt to return to their cell,' said forensic psychologist Mikhail Vinogradov. 'They are not looking for special comfort: a bunk, a roof over their head, meals, and a bath once a week — that is quite enough for them. It's not about amenities, but about a psychological phenomenon known as "prison syndrome." Prisoners spend so much time in the same conditions that they cannot then readjust to normal life.'
As the expert said, no special tricks are needed to return to the zone. 'As a rule, the released person enters a store nearest to his former place of imprisonment, robs the cash register, and doesn't even try to flee,' says Mikhail Vinogradov. 'He is guaranteed a sentence.'
The extremely high recidivism rate (41%) among Russian criminals is explained largely by prison syndrome. 'Most of those who first served a long sentence return to the zone. This group is particularly susceptible to prison syndrome. After serving 15-20 years, a criminal cannot even buy bread for himself on the outside. Work with him must begin six months before release,' the expert concludes.
Roman DOBROKHOTOV.