EXCLUSIVE: US and British prisoners 'to serve sentences in Siberian jails'

Britain and the US are among the countries planning this radical measure, along with France and Spain, say leaked 'secret' diplomatic documents found on a plane. Tough Russian prison officials will be recruited on improved salaries and placed in charge of the convicts, under a plan which has been pioneered already by Germany. 

The scheme will earn the $55,000 a year for each convict it accepts, revealed a local prison official. 

Foreign inmates convicted of sentences of more than four years will face harsh treatment and 'iron discipline' at labour camp prisons in temperatures sinking to minus 50C, described as 'a shocking prospect for non-Russians'  by one jail commandant.

'Our criminals cope with it but this will be alien to these convicts used to comfortable Western prisons', he said.

'My Arctic jail had hardly any security but no-one has ever escaped because wild bears and packs of wolves roam the forests and it's 1,413km to the nearest railway station. The inmates will exercise for an hour a day under open skies, unless temperatures sink lower than minus 56C. 

'They will wash once a week in ice pools in the prison lake before warming up in our banya.'

He warned: 'This is how it is in winter, but in summer it gets unbearably hot. I promise you: they will never commit crimes again after they experience our treatment'.

Some jails could be converted Siberian Gulags from the Stalin era, according to officials.

'Our jails are  too soft with prisoners treated like hotel guests', a British official told his Russian counterparts on a recent 'fact finding mission' to three Siberian regions by apparatchiks from the country's Interior Ministry, known as the Home Office.

'Our Ministers want a tougher approach even though we can't admit this in public'.

A delegation involving US diplomats and Washington officials has already identified a remote site where American prisoners will be sent. 'They will qualify for a 33% cut in their custodial time if they agree to serve their sentence in Siberia rather than a US penetentiary,' said an envoy. 

'The plan is backed by the White House. A German experiment with young offenders showed this scheme can work.'

In the UK, prisoners will be flown out to Moscow on charter planes accompanied by British jailers before being transferred under armed guard into 'cells-on-wheels' on the Trans-Siberian Railway and transported eastwards like prisoners in Stalin times. 

It could take them five days and nights to reach their labour camps. 

A diplomatic document accidentally left on a plane - found by a Russian journalist in Chita - said: 'Prisoners will have to sign written agreements to take part in the scheme to avoid it transgressing Human Rights legislation and other EU regulations. 

'UK prison officials will be paid double salaries to accompany the inmates to their jails and they will be given accommodation on site without charge.'

Secret plans envisage a cut in their jail 'tariff' of up to 50% for  inmates agreeing to serve their sentences in Siberia. 

'Equal rights legislation means that the plan can only proceed if a site for a woman's jail as well as a male prison can be found. We are actively searching for this now on the orders of the Home Secretary. One possible site has been located at Aprelfulovskaya, five time zones east of Moscow.

'A problem is the Russian side do not understand that EU regulations mean each prisoner must be allowed to watch six and a half hours live TV a day in their mother tongue, including live Premier League football. We are seeking to overcome this.

'We envisage offering two flights a year for conjugal visits by prisoners' partners plus weekly phone calls. Prisoners will work no more than six hours a day in keeping with EU protocols'.

Igor Tolkunov, a prison union official in Yakutia, said: 'It looks like Westerners don't know how to run a properly disciplined prison any more and need our help'.

A German experiment sent unruly teenagers to a remote village called Sidelnikovo near Omsk where they have to build wooden outside toilets, walk miles through the snow to education classes, fetch logs for the fire and haul water from a well. 

'I've spent eight months here and I reckon this has worked for me,' said juvenile offender Florian, 16, who took part in the experiment.  

'I'm a better person now. I want to get back home and start a new life. I'll be different when I get back. I know for certain I will.'

He revealed: 'The first thing I had to do was build a wooden toilet by myself. I had to dig the hole in the ground.'

He is one of dozens of German teenagers who have been though the Siberian treatment.

'If it works for German teens, why not for US adults,' said an American official. 'I expect the scheme to be in place by the start of April 2014.'

A UK government spokesman said: 'The plan is at an early stage. We cannot comment on it.'

The French and Spanish embassies refused to comment. 

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Yes this was our April Fool story.  The West loves to see Siberia only as a place of jails, when nowadays it probably has fewer than most European countries - so we wanted to parody this.

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The Siberian Times