The group of Russians, selected from across the vast expanse of that country to visit the Midwest as part of the congressionally-sponsored Open World Program, is spending about a week in Kansas, living with host families through Friendship Force of Kansas.

The purpose of their visit, said Lynn Harrington, president of Friendship Force in Wichita, "is to build understanding between the two counties as to how social and government programs work, within their own political frameworks."

The visitors were from various positions or professions in Russia, but all generally work with youth and social programs in their hometowns and were here to learn about social and criminal justice program in the U.S.

Different systems

Their visit to the prison, said Russian facilitator Olga Petrova, was to introduce them to different ideas about correction and rehabilitation systems, how inmates are treated and managed and prepared "to better function in society."

None of the group had been inside prisons in Russia, but indicated they were familiar with the prison systems, particularly relating to youth.

There are many similarities between the systems in the two countries, said Vladimir Kondratyer, a legislator in his town in Russia. They also have private industries using inmates to manufacture projects - the group toured a small lawnmower seat manufacturing and assembly operation in a building on the east side of the central unit - but the systems are different.

"It's very logical how they work with inmates to prepare them for the future," Kondratyer said. "In Russia, it's different how the inmates spend their time."

The inmates are also not housed in single- or five-man cells like the cellblocks in Hutchinson, but "are in big cells, with many, many people."

The inmates don't move from maximum, to medium to minimum security, they said, but remain within the same group of people classified by their crime.

The visitors inquired about inmate hierarchies within the walls, about contraband, gangs and how certain inmates were treated by others. They inquired about meals and inmate bank accounts.

"In Russia, it is a big challenge to get a job and live in society (once released.) Do they find jobs here?" Kondratyer asked a correctional officer assisting with the tour.

"Yes," the officer said, explaining that inmates have counselors assisting them in preparing for release, helping them get a driver's license, find housing and sometimes a job through work release prior to leaving.

Each officer has a caseload of about 50 inmates in the main cellblocks, with the highest caseload in the prison's East Unit, at about 85 inmates per counselor.

Alina Orchinnikova, who works with a youth non-governmental organization and is a graduate student in Russia, admitted to some surprise that the inmates "only bonus" for Christmas is a different meal menu and the option to spend more in the prison canteen that day.

"But I'm impressed in general," she said. "It's excellent. The facility itself is very impressive. And it's really, really different than what we have in Russia."

Orchinnikova was particularly impressed with the prison's canine program, which she said benefits both the inmates "in getting a person back to normal life" and the public.

Other stops

Besides the prison, the delegation visited the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, which boasts the largest Soviet space artifact collection outside of Russia.

Their tour began with a two-day stop in Washington, D.C. The group visited Topeka on Monday, meeting the governor, attending a wreath laying ceremony, participating in a Social Services panel discussion and meeting with a criminal justice professor at Washburn University.

In Wichita the group experienced a Christmas Concert featuring a Barbershop quartet and African-American Spiritual group. Later this week they'll visit with a political science professor at Wichita State University, learn about the YOUNITED youth volunteer program at the United Way of the Plains, and meet with a class of civic and government students at South East High School and the schools Kansas Young Democrats and Young Republicans delegates for another panel discussion.