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What to do with prisoners who have served their sentence? They live separately in a house in the canton of Solothurn.
Manuel Frei* shares a flat with five other men. Your apartment is in a building on the grounds of Solothurn Prison in Deitingen.
He has been in prison for 23 years, says Frei. He is one of 145 people across Switzerland who are being held because they are at risk of recidivism and dangerous to the community.
Legend:
The house of the shared flat is located outside the normal execution of the prison. All windows are barred.
SRF
After the sentence has been served, detainees remain in prison. They have the right to live as normal a life as possible. That’s difficult, explains Charles Jakober, director of the correctional facility.
You have to separate the rest of the prison operations and those of the detainees. In Deitingen, six out of twelve detainees therefore live in a shared apartment in the former director’s house.
room instead of a prison cell
After a three-year pilot phase, the WG is now a fixed offer in the Prison Concordat in Northwest and Central Switzerland. It is a novelty in Switzerland. The house has a living room and a kitchen, instead of prison cells there are inmates’ rooms.
There is also a patio where the inmates grow tomatoes in the summer. All windows and the seat are barred. Traffic rumbles from the nearby Autobahn.
“I applied for the pilot project and was accepted,” says Manuel Frei. However, the shared prison community is not suitable for everyone, according to director Jakober. Two inmates would have had to leave the shared flat. “Be it because they didn’t follow the rules or didn’t want to work.”
Legend:
Bars also on the patio where the detainees grow tomatoes in the summer. From next door, the highway is noisy.
SRF
As in a normal flat-sharing community, there are also obligations in the prison flat-sharing community. Residents have to cook and clean. And they can’t fight with each other all the time.
The six detainees are also under constant supervision. There is a certain family atmosphere, says residential group leader Gerhard Imfeld. And he emphasizes the quiet in the house.
As normal as possible behind bars
Life in a shared apartment suits Frei: “You are woken up at 6:45 am. You have to go to work at 7:50 a.m. We work until the lunch break, then again until 4:15 p.m. Then you have free time that you can use however you want. You can go to the gym, watch TV or work on the computer. It may have bars all around, but life is as normal as can be.”
Legend:
The kitchen, in which the flatmates cook for themselves or together.
SRF
In contrast to the normal prison, in which the detainee was housed until two and a half years ago, the living situation is much better. “It’s noisy in prison, you don’t show any consideration for one another, it’s always dirty. It’s very quiet in the small group now.”
quality of life in prison
Participation of the inmates, fitness studio, cooking together: is that the much scolded cuddly justice? Prison Warden Charles Jakober denies: “We have an inmate who has been in prison for over 30 years without interruption. For a number of years now, people have not been able to enjoy the freedom outside in detention. And freedom is one of the most important things.”
Legend:
The house of the shared flat (middle left) on the grounds of the Solothurn correctional facility.
SRF
The residential community for detainees in the canton of Solothurn is intended to give those people a little quality of life who may remain detained until the end of their lives. Because despite the gym and rooms instead of cells, the flat share remains part of a prison, with fences and walls, video surveillance and security systems.
* Name changed