Black Dolphin Prison

Black Dolphin
Black Dolphin Prison is located in Orenburg Oblast
Black Dolphin Prison
Location within Orenburg Oblast
Black Dolphin Prison is located in Russia
Black Dolphin Prison
Location within Russia
Location
StatusOperational
Population~700
Openedcirca 1745
Managed byFederal Penitentiary Service
GovernorColonel Yuri Korobov

Federal Governmental Institution - Penal Colony No. 6 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Orenburg Oblast,[a] commonly known as the Black Dolphin Prison (Russian: Чёрный дельфин, romanized: Chyorny delʹfin) and formerly known as NKVD Prison No. 2 is a prison in Sol-Iletsk, Orenburg Oblast, Russia, near its border with Kazakhstan.[1] It is one of the oldest prisons in Russia, and one of the first in the Orenburg Oblast to accept prisoners with life sentences. It gets its unofficial name from a prisoner-constructed[2] sculpture depicting a black dolphin, which is set in front of the main entrance.

Originally, Black Dolphin was a jail (ostrog) for those sentenced to life at hard labor, since at least 1745. After the suppression of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1773, the prison was updated for the deportation and confinement of robbers. The prison houses approximately 700 inmates convicted of grave offenses, including sexual violence against minors, homicide, terrorism, and cannibalism.[3] Prisoners at Black Dolphin are all serving sentences of life imprisonment. The prison began accepting these inmates on November 1st, 2000.[1]

Conditions

Inmates are kept isolated in cells that have a set of three steel doors. For 90 minutes a day, they exercise in a large cage; during this time, cells are searched for contraband or illegal items. Inmates are also under 24-hour surveillance and supervision; they are forced to stand and forbidden from resting or sitting on their bunks from the time they awake until bedtime (roughly 16 hours). When prison officers make a command to the inmates, they’re required to immediately respond with the words "yes sir". Guards make rounds every quarter hour. Prisoners are fed soup four times a day,[3] and are only allowed books, newspapers, and a radio.

While the prison has been accused of beating prisoners with rifles daily as a form of physical torture, routine, daily beatings by guards are not officially confirmed, and the day-to-day reality of the prison is built around breaking inmates through enforced psychological control, rather than random violence. That said, human rights organizations and former inmates have widely documented systemic psychological warfare, isolation, and routine physical abuse across Russia's high-security penal institutions, including at Black Dolphin Prison, and have accused such prisons of basically adopting the old system from the Soviet Gulag era.

Prison guards place blindfolds on arriving inmates so that they cannot map out the prison or plan escapes. Inmates are also blindfolded whenever they are transported between buildings. Black Dolphin prison officers have a unique form of escorting inmates: Prisoners are kept bent over at the waist while a guard holds his handcuffed hands behind his back, higher than his hips. This escort control tactic allows for maximum control while depriving the inmate of a view of his immediate surroundings, accomplishing the dual goals of discouraging him from attempting to attack staff and of escaping.[4]

Notable inmates

Current

Former

  • Sergey Maduev (1956-2000), serial killer and brigand; died from heart-failure and diabetes complications.
  • Alexander Maslich (1972-2015), serial killer who committed four murders while incarcerated at different prisons; died at Black Dolphin from undisclosed causes[10]
  • Carola Neher (1900-1942), actress; sentenced to 10 years for Trotskyism; was incarcerated at three different prisons, including Black Dolphin, where she died from typhus[11][12][13][14]
  • Tariel Oniani (born 1952), mafia boss and thief in law, was incarcerated at Black Dolphin from 2010 to 2019 after being convicted of kidnapping and then released.
  • Mikhail Popkov (born 1964), serial killer, was incarcerated at Black Dolphin from 11 December 2018 until 2020 and then transferred.
  • Valery Skoptsov (1951-2004), serial killer, rapist, and thief; died from heart-failure.
  • Tsyben Zhamtsarano (1881-1942), Buryat scholar and folklorist.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Russian: Федеральное казённое учреждение — Исправительная колония №6 Управления Федеральной службы исполнения наказаний России по Оренбургской области, or shortly Russian: ФКУ ИК-6 УФСИН России по Оренбургской области

References

  1. 1 2 "Структурные подразделения." (Archive) Federal Penitentiary Service for the Orenburg Oblast. Retrieved on April 28, 2012. "В исправительной колонии содержатся осужденные к пожизненному лишению свободы."
  2. ↑ "ПУТЕШЕСТВИЕ В ОБРАЗЦОВУЮ ТЮРЬМУ. ЧЕРНЫЙ ДЕЛЬФИН. ПРИГОВОРЁННЫЕ ПОЖИЗНЕННО | Криминальная Россия" [A Journey to a Model Prison: Black Dolphin — Sentenced to Life | Criminal Russia], Criminal Russia, archived from the original on 19 July 2022, retrieved 18 October 2021 – via www.youtube.com
  3. 1 2 "All Videos: Black Dolphin Prison Archived 2012-08-22 at the Wayback Machine." National Geographic. Retrieved on April 28, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Inside Russia’s brutal Black Dolphin prison where the only way to escape is dying" Archived 23 April 2024 at the Wayback Machine The Mirror, 7 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Оренбургская ПОЛИТИКА - Осуждённый за убийство и теракт экс-мэр Махачкалы будет отбывать наказание в Соль-Илецке" [Orenburg Politics – Former Mayor of Makhachkala Convicted of Murder and Terrorism to Serve Sentence in Sol-Iletsk]. orenpolit.ru. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  6. ↑ "Решение № 2А-4721/2016 2А-4721/2016~М-3784/2016 М-3784/2016 от 5 мая 2016 г. по делу № 2А-4721/2016" [Decision No. 2A-4721/2016 (2A-4721/2016~M-3784/2016 M-3784/2016) dated May 5, 2016, in Case No. 2A-4721/2016]. sudact.ru. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  7. ↑ "Пожизненно осужденный маньяк признался в убийстве 18-летней давности" [Life-sentenced maniac confesses to 18-year-old murder]. REN TV (in Russian). 18 May 2021. Archived from the original on 29 October 2022.
  8. ↑ "Каждый день ближе к свобод" [Every day closer to freedom]. ripo.com.ua (in Russian). Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  9. ↑ Alexey Fishev (4 December 2013). "Buryatia Supreme Court sentenced serial killer to life imprisonment" (in Russian). Arigus.tv. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  10. ↑ "Cannibalism Latest Gruesome Symptom of Russia's Social Ills". Los Angeles Times. 25 May 1997. Archived from the original on 26 February 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Hans Schoots, Living Dangerously – A Biography of Joris Ivens
  12. ↑ Reinhard Müller, "Menschenfalle Moskau. Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung" Hamburg 2001
  13. ↑ Carola Neher biography Archived 3 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine, IMDb. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  14. ↑ Walter Held "Stalins deutsche Opfer und die Volksfront", in der Untergrund-Zeitschrift Unser Wort, Nr. 4/5, Oktober 1938, S. 7 f.; Michael Rohrwasser, Der Stalinismus und die Renegaten, Die Literatur der Exkommunisten, Stuttgart 1991, p. 163
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