Silvie in prison

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The state prisons in Brazil are awful. Not only in Brazil, as Angelika told me. Angelika is the leader of the prison ministry EMMAUS in Germany and I have accompanied her for 2 weeks as a translator when she visited a non-state, alternative prison in Itauna, Brazil.
Inside prison walls it is easier to get drugs than outside. Apart from the prisoners even the police and security personnel are dealing drugs. Often prisoners are forced to take drugs in order to make them dependant. They are daily faced with violence, mistreatment, humiliation and raping. Usually the prison cells are overloaded, if there are 12 beds, they put in 30 people. The conditions under which they have to live violate human rights and the prisoners are in constant fear because of the random treatment of security and police.
The prison which we visited is different
The prison that we visited was DIFFERENT in all aspects. At the entrance door it read in large letters “Only the human being as access here, the crime stays outside”. At the gate a prisoner opens the doors for us. By the way, all keys of the security doors are in the hands of prisoners. The motto of APAC (Associação de Proteção Aos Condenados, www.apacitauna.com.br, associated with Prison Fellowship International www.pfi.org) is to respect the human being, regardless of the crime he has committed, knowing that each of these persons has usually had an awful and very sad past and childhood and that it was not without a reason that they have become criminals. Knowing that the only thing that can actually help them is working up their past and healing of the trauma and injuries of the past. Unfortunately what happens in the public prisons is the exact opposite: the trauma that a person has not suffered yet he will suffer there. As far as crime is concerned they will learn everything they did not know yet from other prisoners. The old word “reformatory” that we use in the German language is highly ironic. Worldwide 90% of the prisoners released slide back, in Brazil it is 80%. This is also true for juvenile prisons.
I had the privilege to hear story after story about the prisoner’s pasts. Angelika, a catholic sister (the most unconventional and craziest one that I have ever met... and a person with whom there does not seem to exist a gap between Catholics and Protestants!) had offered prayer and talking to the prisoners at the chapel of the prison. There was such a high demand! Most of them started out telling what a happy childhood and good family they had. And then, all of a sudden things come up that really make you stop wonder why they are in jail.
For me this visit was very intense and extremely moving. The stories that the people there told us are exactly the ones of the kids that we work with at GENESIS. I have been motivated once again for our work. I realized that if we manage to help the street kids process the horrible experiences and the pain today, and if we can help them to stand on their own feet then they are not going to jail tomorrow.
The prisoners that we had the privilege meeting at APAC, Itauna, just vaguely reminded of criminals. Merely in the sense that some of them have remained a bit of a rascal. They are given the opportunity to attend (elementary !!) school, can benefit from psychological services, from weekend seminars that help them face and work up their past, the Catholic and Protestant churches offer regular services, they benefit from dentists and medical care. All of these services and more are OFFERED BY VOLUNTEERS!! Apart from a handful of employees which are indispensable, all workers are offering their services voluntarily. It is part of the APAC concept and an expression of true love and respect for the prisoners. People who come from crime have very little trust in people who do their job for money. But all the volunteers that sacrifice their time to even visit the prisoners regularly, the respect and trust with which they get treated breaks even the hardest hearts. For the first time in his live the prisoner experiences something that he should have experienced in his childhood but never has. He learns to be responsible, starts to stand on his own feet and discovers his value, dignity and abilities. Even though the keys are in their own hands, no-one takes flight. And by the way, there is not one police or security officer. The prisoners encourage each other to live a better life. One of them told us that it was actually easy for drugs to enter inside prison walls (because of the great trust the controls are quite loose). However it is practically impossible for anyone to consume those drugs. And this is not because of the supervisors but because of the fellow prisoners.
I could write endlessly about what they do all day long, about hilarious methods and rules that the prisoners invented by themselves, and so on. One thing I would like to mention: the backslide quota at APAC is between 13 and 20% (one figure is with, the other without the APAC method).

It was a highly interesting and moving time. A true blessing. I had never before thought about our prisons and the people that are in there. But I have come to the conclusion that our society carries a lot of guilt as well. There are people in our direct neighborhood that live on the edge, socially and economically, and neither do we attempt to understand their situation nor do we even try to help them.