Folks fearing for the safety of Brittney Griner, doing time in a penal colony, were anxious to find out how she was faring. A 2021 U.S. State Department report on the Russian prison system didn’t seem encouraging. “Conditions in prisons and detention centers varied but were often harsh and life threatening,” said the report. “Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages, and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities.”
However, images taken on November 28, 2022, by Russian state television, published a week later by the Daily Mail, showed Griner seemed to be relatively fine. The pictures featured Griner going through fabric while in standard issue coveralls and kerchief, making her bed, waiting in line for food in the prison cafeteria, and eating with a fellow prisoner. The only visible difference was that the basketball star’s trademark flowing locks were gone.
Griner apparently cut her hair on her own accord, since she couldn’t dry her locks while being confined during a Russian winter. “She was freezing,” noted CNN personality Erin Burnett. “An indication Griner thought she would be serving her sentence for many more months to come.” Fortunately for her, it didn’t come to that. Additional shots taken December 8 revealed Griner signing documents while wearing a green winter overcoat and then boarding a bus. Those papers turned out to be documents signifying her release from the IK-2 complex after three weeks of incarceration.
