Just a week ago, WNBA star Brittney Griner was moved from a Russian detention center to a penal colony, where she will serve her nine-year sentence after being convicted of drug smuggling at a Moscow airport.

Former Russian prisoners who spent time in penal colonies have said that the WNBA star will likely have a miserable nine years because the conditions in those colonies are less than ideal, from extreme isolation, bad food, forced labor and authoritarian wardens.

Another US citizen, Trevor Reed, a former US Marine, spent nearly two years in a Russian prison and was freed earlier this year in exchange for a Russian prisoner serving a 20-year sentence in the US for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into New York worth $100 million.

In 2019, Russian authorities accused Reed of assault against two Russian police officers and put him in a detention center in Moscow, awaiting trial for almost a year. In 2020, a Russian court sentenced the former Navy man to nine years in prison, and he was then transported to a penal colony in Moldova. He stayed in the colony for nine months before he was finally brought back to the US.

Trevor Reed described the penal colonies as hell in an interview with reporters. He said that he would often curl up near the hot water pipes in his cell or pile on clothes most nights because of the cold Moldovan weather.

Joey Reed, Trevor’s father, said that his son survived the harsh conditions of the prison as well as the guards because the guards did not assault or abuse him because they knew the government would use him for a trade-off. Even though the guards did not beat him, he lost about 50 pounds because of the horrible food served there.

During his imprisonment, Trevor Reed went on two hunger strikes, protesting against being barred from calling his family and not receiving medical care.

A US State Department report shows that other inmates have not been as lucky as Reed, and the torture in the penal colonies often leads to suicide or death. The penal colonies are full of life-threatening human rights violations, including overcrowding, assault by guards and fellow inmates, no health care access, and poor sanitation.

Daniel Balson, the USA advocacy director for Amnesty International in Europe and Central Asia, claimed that some inmates in the penal colonies were only allowed six phone calls a year. He said that Russian penal colonies were among the cruelest, most inhumane, and most degrading places in the world.

Now, Brittney Griner will face the same harsh environment if she serves out her nine-year sentence. If the White House does not successfully intervene on her behalf, Griner will finish her sentence in 2031 when she is 40 years old. The psychological torture of the prison system will likely haunt her for decades after her release.

Marvin Makinen, a US citizen and former Russian prisoner, said that it took decades for him to adjust to normal life after his release. Makinen was arrested in 1961 and charged with espionage. He was sentenced to eight years and spent two years of his prison sentence at the Vladimir Prison, where he lost 55 pounds during his 28-month imprisonment. He said he had several spans of solitary confinement before his release in 1963 in a prisoner swap.