Eric, prison staff member: “If you don’t talk about it, you’re not going to solve it.”

“It may sound exaggerated, but you get tears in your eyes the moment that people walk out of such an office on equal footing, and that you were able to be a part of that. That’s very rewarding work.” Eric Hansen is a reintegration staff member in the Dordrecht prison. Since two years he’s also the designated officer for recovery-centered work. “In the end, it’s about human-to-human contact.”

“Before I became a reintegration staff member, I was a prison warder for twelve years in almost every department of this prison. It doesn’t matter in what context you work with people, the basis of it is always to build trust. You have to protect your professional role, but in the end it’s about human-to-human contact. If there is a clear frame and a feeling of safety to talk about certain things, you can stimulate anyone into a conversation. As prison warder I was always curious about: why are you in here? Why did you make these choices? How did you end up here?”

Curious

“Reasons for why people are in here are often very different. The standard image of some who is bad on the inside and does something bad, yes, they exist, but others end up in this situation when they didn’t choose it. They were unable to foresee the consequences or have some kind of disorder. I’m curious about that: the things that humans are capable of, unbelievable. As a warder you also understand very well that the step to end up in prison really isn’t all that big. In my conversations with twelve convicts who I mentored at the time, I always asked questions like: what is your situation like right now? How was your situation before you got here? And: where do you want your situation to go?”

I feel so bad

“Look: convicts don’t all sit together to talk about: I feel so bad… that doesn’t sound really tough, does it? They look for safety within what I call exclusivity. That you can vent about things without there being consequences. A listening ear can never do harm. Eventually you can help them on their way. Talking about how you feel in the first place is very important. If you don’t do anything with it, it just keeps building up, with more frustration misery as a consequence.”

Application

When the Dordrecht prison started paying more attention to contact between victims and offenders two years ago, they did a pilot in which the screening and everyone’s contribution to it were central. This is when Eric first learned about restorative mediation. “In the context of that pilot, three parties (the case manager, the prison warder, and I as a reintegration staff member) talked to one of the new convicts. I mentioned the subject of recovery and he immediately said: ‘I think it’s terrible that I’m in here.’ I explained to him what I do, and told him that if he wanted to talk, he could. That same day, or any other day. This way I could immediately follow up on that feeling. 

Mediation meeting

When the Dordrecht prison started paying more attention to contact between victims and offenders two years ago, they did a pilot in which the screening and everyone’s contribution are central. This is when Eric first learns about restorative mediation. “In the context of that pilot, three parties (the case manager, the prison warder, and I as a reintegration staff member) talked to one of the new convicts. I mentioned the subject of recovery and he immediately said: ‘I think it’s terrible that I’m in here.’ I explained to him what I do, and told him that if he wanted to talk, he could. That same day, or any other day. This way I could immediately follow up on that feeling. 

“But once the victim had told his story and the convict was able to talk about why it happened, his view on it, that he would never do it again, and that he wanted to apologize, it slowly shifted again. By the end of the conversation, everything was back in balance again. The convict, with whom I talked about it later, experienced it the same way. They both felt satisfied about the entire process.”

Head held high

"In the end, me and Herman were there more as spectators. The man of over eighty years old went home with his head held high. The convict had been reassured and returned to the unit as a very different person. He also came up with a plan of how he wanted to do things once he got out. He said: ‘I felt so bad when I heard about what that man went through. I could imagine it before, but when he told me about it, it really hit hard.’ The elderly man also exited the building with Herman as a different person. He could tell his wife that everything was good and safe again. It makes me think: you cannot achieve this effect by saying ‘your sentence is over, you’re getting out and you may run into each other again.’ That would be a very different situation. I really thought: this should happen to everyone.” 

Tip

“It’s really all about creating a safe space, within which you can talk about things, regardless of which things. This way you can show that you do what you say and you say what you do. Even if the question is just: what does your home situation look like? I think the social network of a convict is a good entrance into these kinds of processes. And: prison warders have many more keys in their hands, because they’re often masters of initiating contact. You have to invest in that.”