Siberian prison installs red phone booths to create ‘London atmosphere’

Though it’s located in Russia’s Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Correctional Facility No. 8 has adopted some of London’s style. The phones available to prisoners in the facility are now housed in bright red booths, complete with the word “Telephone” in English. 

These “London telephone boxes” are set against a wall decorated with a mural of Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster.

Regional prison officials said that the decorations in the phone room are meant to convey a “London atmosphere,” in which prisoners can “preserve and restore socially useful ties” and exercise their right to phone calls.