Two women from Bern are calling for postcards to be sent to Hindelbank Castle. With this they want to illuminate the everyday life of the inmates in Switzerland’s only women’s prison. Letters to prisoners have a long tradition, especially in the United States.
It was once heard from Princess Diana and now her daughter-in-law Meghan Markle. It is rumored that Charlène of Monaco feels the same way: a palace, this magnificent building for the privileged, can very quickly become a golden cage. In Bern, the circumstances have been clarified: Hindelbank Castle has been a prison for 126 years. The only women’s prison in German-speaking Switzerland.
The former “women’s house” is now called the Hindelbank correctional facility (JVA). Postal address: Von Erlachweg 2. The address is important, as it should be written on numerous postcards and envelopes these days. With their “Bern writes postcards” campaign, the two Bernese women Jrene Rolli and Flurina Schuler are calling on women to write to the women in Hindelbank prison. Because although almost nothing works in prison, you can write and receive letters.
The private campaign by the two women is based on the Zurich city initiative “Zurich writes postcards”, for which postcards were sent to old people’s homes last year and will be sent to patients in the city hospitals this year.
Postcard for the murderess
Bern is also writing postcards for the second time this year. In 2021, 641 units went to the residents of the Bernese retirement home Burgerspittel. In Hindelbank, where the professional boxer Viviane O., who was recently sentenced for the murder of her husband, is also being held, 50 postcards have arrived so far. Writing to offenders seems to be difficult for many. The promotion runs until January 20th.
Although there are many “who would have deserved an acknowledgment postcard as well,” as co-initiator Rolli says, the decision was made in favor of the female offenders, “to remind the writers of how much freedom many of us actually have. And that we should also use them.”
In Hindelbank they are happy about it. “Swiss Post gives the inmates the feeling that they will not be forgotten. They make the valuable experience that there are people who will no longer sentence them after they have served their sentences, but who have an interest in them being able to reintegrate into society,” says Romilda Stämpfli, head of the prison office.
The sender should not be noted, it says in the advertisement. The inmates are not supposed to reply to the messages. Pen pals with prisoners have a long tradition. Organizations such as the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) establish pen pals with prisoners. “Writing to political prisoners can be very fulfilling – get involved!” the website reads.
Not only into, but also from prison is written. For example, there are the collected and published “Letters from Prison” by Rosa Luxemburg and Nelson Mandela. Thoughts of political prisoners, thought, pondered and held behind bars.
politics and love
Mail to political prisoners is often sent by people with a similar political interest. Letters from all over the world are currently intended to make it clear to the Iranian regime, for example, that people around the world share in the fate of the arrested protesters. This is intended to strengthen the inmates – and also to protect them. Because the letters should also convey to the regime: The world is watching.
The situation is quite different when individuals maintain pen pals with criminals. The most coveted here are not the petty criminals, who will soon be free again, but the hardened criminals. Peter Madsen, for example, who cruelly killed the young journalist Kim Wall, soon had many love letters sent to prison. One of these pen pals turned into a marriage two years ago: Madsen married the Russian activist Jenny Curpen in prison.
It is mostly written by women. Some believe they can save the criminals. For others, knowing about the crime gives them sexual pleasure. They suffer from Bonnie and Clyde syndrome, also known as hybristophilia, and are particularly attracted to sex offenders, serious violent criminals and murderers. Many have experienced violence themselves in their childhood.
Specialists in evolutionary psychology therefore assume that women subconsciously classify criminal men as alpha animals and therefore feel attracted to them. In addition, the woman can control a potential relationship with the inmate herself because she decides when to visit him in prison, when to reply to a letter – and when not to.
“I’m a foodie who likes to cycle”
Female interest in delinquents finds its counterpart in many men who are in prison and have plenty of time. The prison mail in the USA is particularly well maintained. «Hi, I’m 33 years old and 1.95 meters tall. I’m in prison for 78 months. I’m a foodie who enjoys biking, fishing, lifting weights and watching Netflix. I’m looking for someone, preferably female, to write letters and maybe make a phone call if we get along well,” writes prisoner Edward Ames in a good advertisement manner. Ames, who describes himself as “straight, white and from Michigan,” is one of 2,700 inmates searching for a first-time penpal through writeaprisoner.com.
Some of the prison inmates are just looking for a pastime. Most, however, are interested in a pen pal that could grow into something more. “Hey, ladies, I’m a young at heart 49-year-old who has a lot of free time right now.” Kenneth Andersen, for example, advertises for Post. In addition to the advertisements, which are reminiscent of the contact advertisements in newspapers, there is usually a picture of the prisoner.
Pen pals always turn into relationships. Sometimes even marriages. Locked behind bars, lived in letters and in the visiting room. Such a story, however, will not emerge from the Bern postcards because there is no sender.
woman post
The question remains why the Berner Post should only reach female prisoners. Just eight minutes by car from Hindelbank Castle is the Thorberg JVA, one of several male prisons in Bern.
As of March 28, 2022, 5,930 men and 380 women were serving a sentence in a prison in Switzerland. Co-initiator Rolli explains why the mail from outside goes exclusively to women, but not to the much larger number of men, with the organizational effort of the private campaign. “Should it become apparent early on that far more cards are arriving than there are women living in the JVA Hindelbank, a transfer to another organization cannot be ruled out.”
Anyone who does not want to ignore the male offenders can also take the advice of the head of department Stämpfli to heart: “Everyone is free to write to prisoners or to volunteer and to visit inmates regularly.”