Russians marvel at the niceties in our jails

LARGO -- One of the first things Irina Yepishina notices as she ambles through the halls of the Pinellas County Jail is the toilets.

Yepishina, 32, a lawyer from the southern Russian city of Volgograd, clucks her tongue in disbelief and gestures toward a stainless steel bowl in the jail's maximum security division.

"All the material in our cells is wood because it's considered less dangerous. With metal you can make weapons. Anything can be a weapon in our system," Yepishina said.

She is one of 16 Russian lawyers and lawmakers on board for a weeklong tour of the bay area and a firsthand look at the U.S. legal system. The group's tour is sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by the Florida Suncoast Friendship Force, which has organized international exchanges since 1977.

By the time they leave on Friday they will have seen everything from elephants to election booths, but many said the American prison system and the courts impressed them most.

"Our justice system is much more conservative," said Anna Kolmatsuy, a 23-year-old lawyer from the Siberian city of Tomsk.

And for the most part, the visitors agreed, the differences between the Russian and American prisons are not just political; they are material.

Igor Loskutov and a friend burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter when a guide ushered them toward the jail's law library with its dozens of clothbound tomes and computers.

"In Russia there are no computers in the jails. There is a library, but the books are very old and not very useful," Loskutov said.

Several marveled at the success of a unique six-month drug rehabilitation program for female inmates. "It's amazing. We don't treat our inmates for addiction. But heroin is such a huge problem in our jails," Yepishina said.

The jail's doctors and nurses give inmates physicals in immaculate, almost cheery offices.

"This jail is very nice. The conditions here are very good. It's almost unbelievable," Loskutov said.

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