ABSTRACT
The evolution of punishment in the former Soviet Union countries has been largely framed by the tensions between the Soviet past and the ‘Europeanisation’ process. However, breaking away from the Soviet legacy remains a challenging process. Although significant changes in the legal framework, the administration, and modernisation of prisons were implemented in recent decades, living conditions and daily life in prisons have not changed as rapidly. Most post-Soviet prisons still consist of a communal dormitory living, where many prisoners share a cell, and elements of collective incarceration typical of the Soviet period influence prisoners’ daily lives and relationships. Collective incarceration that defines post-Soviet prisons, along with informal social rules of the prison order, has been usually examined in relation to men, while women’s experiences of imprisonment remain on the fringes of criminological research. This chapter focuses on the under-researched experiences of women serving prison sentences in post-Soviet prisons drawing on qualitative research conducted in Lithuanian and Latvian women’s prisons. It aims, among other things, to provide a critical analysis of the everyday practices of collective imprisonment and the survival mechanisms of incarcerated women.
