Турма, мужчына i жанчына

“Prison, Man, Woman: Serving Time in Today’s Belarus” is a collection of interviews with former Belarusian prison inmates and jail officials, culled from the Radio Liberty series “Svaboda in Prisons”, which the station aired from 2011 through 2017. In 2014, midway through its run, the series earned its author Alena Struve the title “Journalist of the Year” from an umbrella group of Belarusian human rights organizations. (Apart from her work as a journalist, Struve is also a highly respected educator whose name is associated with many German-Belarusian charitable projects.) Belarus has one of Europe’s largest prison populations, and Struve’s research uncovers all the mores and traditions of that populace. Here are stories of despair and joy, evil and nobility, love and hate, disease and death, political and social conflicts, creativity and humor — all as experienced by those whose lives have been touched by the Belarusian penal system.