Virtual Reality of Imprisonment in Russia

Laura Piacentini is Professor of Criminology and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. A trained Russian speaker, she has been researching Russian prisons since 1994. She is widely recognised, through grant capture, articles and books, as a leading international expert on Russian penal culture. Her work is multi-disciplinary and she is a passionate advocate for innovative research methods. She is a penal abolitionist.Elena Katz is a Research Consultant for the ERC Gulag Echoes project run at the University of Helsinki. Her research and teaching are in Russian Area studies and Elena has published widely in the humanities and cultural studies. Her most recent book is a collaboration with Judith Pallot: Waiting at the Prison Gate: Women, Identity and the Russian Penal System (2017). She has served as an expert witness in extradition proceedings. She is Senior Member and College Advisor at St Antony's College of the University of Oxford where she first came as a Max Hayward Fellow in Russian Literature.

• Introduction: Against the past or towards the future1. Russia, 1991: Carceral modernisation begins, prison doors shaken? 2. Methodology: Being locked up and ‘being free online’ 3. Conceptualising carceralilty and human rights in prisons 4. Pain and banality of jail: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’5. Seeking life, looking for justice: Rights consciousness of prisoners and their families 6. Prisoners’ rights in the online world in the global contextConclusion: Crossing the boundary of illusion: What next for Russian prisons?