I want to become a peasant of Africa.
I mean it… a peasant of Africa
And if possible somewhere far away from the civilization
so that I could reach it when I want to, not when it wants
without asking me
as the present model of civilization seems to me completely churlish.
When you are free you don't know...
what you depend on.
You can realize that everything depends on your will,
your will to do something.
And the freedom to accomplish everything is a characteristic of each person.
It is very easy to get here,
very very easy…
that's it.
But the great shock is when you see yourself here.
This is the greatest shock.
I've already got used with the idea of being here.
I think that I've already been here for a long time,
and it seems to me…
I don't know...I gave up hoping that I can
find myself free again..
and I got used with the idea, I got accommodated.
I live cool here… I don't live here in fact…
I am…a term used in the air-force...airborne.
If you build yourself a certain climate… a micro climate
A personal climate.
You can live very nice this way.
I can adopt positive thinking for my own good by telling myself
that if God had let me out maybe a car would have stroke me or I don't know what
other trouble I would have had.
So God saved me and brought me here.
We created God so that we had someone to blame.
No, we are guilty.
God didn't create us neither stupid, nor warriors.
He created us pure.
Each of us should reflect upon this from time to time.
One should think...
What have I done so that the one next to me be ok?
Because this is the meaning of liberty:
I can do whatever I want as long as I don't disturb
people around.
I think you can't change fate no matter how hard you try.
It's hard to say…
it depends on each person.
It depends on each of us, on the way we see things.
as when you get in a place like this
no matter what...
you had been or what you wanted to be
you become a common thing.
This is a cultural project.
All these labels we have.
all these exaggerations as I can't name them other way,
many of the social rules are idiocies, we are Pharisees.
Within us we are always afraid to tell the truth,
to admit it, to look in the mirror and say:
I am ugly, I don’t look good. And so what?
The society accepts you again, but to get a job
or to build a future is impossible.
Theoretical the society gives them no chance,
it depends on what they did.
I would like to be reintegrated in the society,
to become a normal person again, not to be pointed the finger at,
not to be shown as the one who was in prison.
In my opinion they have chances..
it depends on the crimes they did,
as I hardly see a murderer reintegrated in the society.
Obviously the moment he is out of prison in 10, 15, 20 years
people will look strange at him.
No matter the circumstances in prison you are a destroyer of humanism.
The torture is psychic.
I don't know... I would find another method...
I would agree for them to get into my brain,
and if they find out that I am anti-social because I have
something wrong there... make me a robot for the society
if you like, but let me enjoy the presence of my friends.
We don't think right.
Are we full of prejudices?
Yes, definetly.
If we were over 50% to think:
Ok..we should give them a chance,
they might have a chance of 0.1% chances
to reintegrate, but they have no chance.
Maybe in another country, not in ours.
There are prejudices not only for those who have a criminal record.
In my opinion the state give birth to criminals, to thieves
because the state creates an atmosphere,
it creates even the entourages...
if you have nothing to eat as long as the economy is poor...
He is unemployed for a while and after that he starts to stole, what else can he do?
He has to do these as he has nothing for living.
You see, he has children, family... it is very difficult.
The punishment should be reviewed.
An old woman from the country
that has nothing to eat steals a hen is sentenced to prison for 3 or 5 years,
and another one who steals 10,000 euros gets the same punishment or a smaller one.
It matters because he is in prison for 5 years whether he stole or made drugs traffic,
if he smokes a joint, the same...
You get nowhere like this.
Bad legislation..
He starts making crimes again... there is no other thing he can do.
Yes, he starts again to steal, to hurt people... it's obvious
if he can't get a job, if he has no other solution
the same thing will happen.
Do you know when the human society will be perfect?
When we won't need to write some rules in a code, whether it is civil or criminal,
and they will come naturally.
He is sentenced for 3, 5 or 10 years and we keep him there,
we pay for him from our pocket.
For a child the state allowance is of 42 lei per month
and for a prisoner a few hundreds lei.
We hardly have for ourserves, what to say about them?
It is a cut of life,
because the moment you get here
I don't know if you can say you live…
you simply are.
Well, let's say that prejudices exist.
You are in a society where you are not employed as you have a criminal record.
The state should especially create institutions for these kind of persons.
The society prejudices can't be changed from a day to another,
but institutions can be created for the persons who are out of prison.
There are also irrecoverable persons, let's face it!
There are people that do not want, or they can't, or they have psychic diseases
and they don't belong here.
They told me when I got out... I don't know if you can figure,
at Victoria Square where you go to sign,
"We can't help you."
They don't help those being outside, what to say about those who are out of there?
They have no resources.
They are getting worse every day.
There who hits better survives.
If you have money in prison you can bring in even machine guns.
They should be overlooked when they get out of prison
they should be employed if possible..
I would hire him, because in my opinion if I want to be ok
he should be ok too.
I would forgive him no matter what he did... crime.
If I don't give him another chance it means I sentence him the second, the third time.
I would probably hire him.
I mean I would have nothing against.
It depends on the crime he did.
Yes, I would reflect upon..
I would never hire a murderer.
It depends on the crime he did...
I mean, that person may recover in prison
so that never be what he was, to consider prison a punishment
or he might never committed a crime and be sentenced stupidly
and be in prison for no reason, and that person will become bad person.
It always matters: Why was he in prison for?
I would give him a chance in a non-discriminatory way.
That's what happens in our country: a lot of discrimination.
When you are recidivist...
I am not a recidivist, I have a criminal record by now.
If I commit another crime I would be a recidivist.
The recidivists in prison don't like the re-education programmes,
they don't like anything.
They make their own prison.
They get out for 2 or 3 months
because the life in prison is part of their own life.
They come back because here they feel the best and this is their environment.
The references change once you arrive here.
The cheapest thing becomes...
here things are somehow reversed.
Do you know anyone with a criminal record?
Yes.
He didn't have the chance to be reintegrated.
He doesn't want to speak about what happened in prison
because most of the time people don't get anything good out of this,
they get out even worse than they were before, more drugs addicted, more violent.
To the law representatives, what they should do?
They should abuse less from all the points of view,
to be more vigilant in certain cases as many things happen
and I mean fights, rapes, sexual abuses.
Fear...
Fear is that feeling that makes us stronger.
Do you think we are ready to help them reintegrate?
No, not in Romania.
For the society... to be more receptive to those who get there
because not all of them arrive there being their fault.
He accomplished his detention period, the law forgave him
and freed him, so who am I to sentence him again?
In order to hope you must feel you are loved.
If you feel the lack of love everything resumes to a dark world,
problems, you try to be part of this deficitary environment.
You should think it isn't possible and that's it.
If you were educated to accept these things you can overtake them very easily.
LIFE IN PRISON
AN EXPERIMENT DOCUMENTARY MADE IN
RAHOVA PENITENTIARY IN JULY,2013
BY 12 PRISONERS
COORDINATOR: DANIELA APOSTOL - DOCUART
Vali, drugs traffic
I think it is in our human nature to make mistakes.
Some of us make small mistakes, others bigger ones,
and others irremediable mistakes.
I also think that we, the humans, are able to forgive,
to do more than simply judging or labeling people
according to our own opinion.
Sooner or later we all pay for our mistakes, you know the saying
"Greater the crime, higher the gallows."
I think it is important for us to be aware of our mistakes
so that we don't repeat them.
Let me tell you something.
The moment you are here
you get aware of your mistake and you try to change
your system of references completely.
You begin to appreciate simple things
and what seems to you commonplace in freedom.
Here a simple ice-cream can be a real joy, as well as
a simple juice can be a source of happiness.
Happiness, yes...
I am saying that because there are things you can't
afford every day or whenever you want.
I think that society plays its role too,
and a very important one in my opinion.
It is in fact the supreme judge.
The one who gives us the second chance.
It owns the greatest role in our re-education.
Visa, drugs traffic
By nature, the human being has instinctively at its base
some necessities that dominate find our life.
One of these necessities is freedom, any kind of freedom,
freedom of moving, of choosing, of expression.
Through all the things we do we express our inner self
and through a close analysis we can observe our personality.
If we see things as a whole, we, the society can be
an organical structure that expresses itself.
There are many good things that have been accomplished along the time,
but as long as at a global level there are people starving, there are wars,
we can come to some conclusions to indicate us the level we still find ourselves.
I speak about these things because prison is another expression of society
that reflects the level we are.
The contact with the juristic system helped me see in more detail the way it works.
At first I had only some general definitions.
For example I considered that the Prosecutor, by definition,
should be a man looking for the truth and who respects the law.
Unfortunately I realized that we, the prisoners, are some trophies
that will become statistics for the record of a Prosecutor.
Another detail that made me see better the way the juristic system functions
at least in our country, is the judgment hall.
At first I thought that the prosecutor has the same power as the attorney,
both having as a priority the searching for the truth.
If we analyze the building and the placement of the main objects in the judgment hall
we can understand many things.
I found it normally for the judge to be placed in the highest place,
but from the fact that the Prosecutor is placed on
a platform next to the judge and higher than the attorney
we can understand a lot about the way this system is built.
After an analysis and a well done reevaluation I think we can improve
all these and step to the next level.
Teo, murder
I love my family
Dad, I love you
Jerry, drugs traffic
My dears,
It is Wednesday...
You know that every Wednesday evening
we were going to the cinema.
They let us watch Titanic last night.
Of course I cried.
I dreamt you.
We were going to eat...
we were going to my mother to eat
and you were angry as I had forgotten to buy flowers.
I hope you are not angry.
I miss you so so much.
I love you.
With all my yearning,
Jerry, your bad boy
Gabi, robbery
Mihai, trading in one's influence
Nothing to lose, everything to gain.
We are born, we live our lives, we try to do something
and after that the inevitable comes.
I begin my speech this way
because I can tell many things, but I want to send each person a
message in order to understand that in life there is nothing to lose but
everything to gain.
Each of us will have to give an explanation one day.
To whom? We don't know.
Maybe that explanation will be given in front of the
supreme power that I name God.
I don't know whether we should thank
or argue, but with all these, in my opinion we should thank Him for
all His goodness, with all the good and the bad.
For me it is an exam, and at the same time a big test in life.
If we understand it as it is, one related
to another, we meet patience.
And then no matter how sad this life would be, it gets a priceless value.
Any cross to bear is a step to completeness.
From all the mistakes we make one of them can lead you to prison.
And then no matter which of us, we tried to find God
because He gave us the priceless advantage of human being:
the patience.
Mr. Suciu, breaking the customs rules
Crowd of people.
In an endless moving that follows the course
of life with its own desires and purpose.
It is the movement of the free society with
the roads of each person.
I was part of it once.
I was part of this indissoluble and ancestral self
made up of the knowledge and information that I had got
through a constant perseverance, will, patience and understanding.
I had accomplishments and hopes.
I let myself led by the general stream
on its main direction but because all others,
the most beautiful creation of nature,
the human being with his weaknesses and vulnerability
of his singularity, I accepted that reality of the unexpected,
of the truth that it is possible to be some deviations on the way
emphasized by dark areas, but full of mystery, attractive, but at the same time
invisible to the others.
That bad moment created by the lack of attention made me change the main course
and with an ease I'll never understand, to go to an unknown direction that
created that sudden cut from the course of civilization.
I followed it and my new way was marked by other leading signs.
First indication,” ONE WAY”,
made me understand there is no way back.
This is the course of my life.
I was frightened but faithful at the same time
that everything could be passed ok,
that we were people in a civilized community, not in the woods.
My job created me more critical circumstances that I passed over.
Why wouldn't be the same this time?
The only difference, not pleasant at all but very pregnant,
was “TIME”.
I saw then another sign.
“LONG WAY / LONG TIME”.
It is clear, it's a long way. Where and when will it be over? I asked myself.
It didn't take too long and the next mark appeared with the inscription on it
“10 YEARS”.
Look, I am on a civilized way though, the marks are in English.
Why do I wonder? We are in EU with the afferent rights.
We mustn't get lost especially on a way like this.
And look, another traffic mark.
“LITTLE TOWN PARKING”.
So I am in a little town.
What world is this and to whom does it belong?
I expected something else and look what I found.
And then I saw another mark from the distance indicating
“HOTEL”
Written on a vertical line.
But when I got closer I saw the explanation of the initials
“HERE ONLY TICKETS ENTRANCE LIBERTY”
And then I realized that the tickets are personalized
for a well determined period in this community and, of course,
valid for a compulsory area.
Here you begin counting down and not to get bored you change arithmetic with
reading, painting, the recreate activities, sports, art and
especially let's not forget meditation, including the religious one.
I can say it's a nice and peaceful life,
in fact it is the way you make it, the way you organize it and
it depends on your self education.
Everything depends on the individual.
You must think before you want in order to see everything good,
to be convinced you will reach the end of this parallel civilization
with its one way road that you have to go through whether you want or not.
The habitude is the second nature.
Am I not a homo sapiens too,
no matter whether I am in or out of the prison?
So I have to admit the presence of a horizon that comes closer and closer
when I will be able to make the coming back jump in the continuous stream of the society.
Cozieanu, theft
Marian, drug traffic
Rehabilitation? Hm...for me rehabilitation means we have to learn
to appreciate all the moments in life.
From the smallest things to the great accomplishments.
I learnt to appreciate any kind of activity here.
I don't know..starting with watering the flowers
when I am allowed to, to the moment I go to visits, excited
that for the next hour I will be able to see my girlfriend and
I will be free to express my love for her even through the security window.
I’m not talking about the visits to lunch when I am rewarded for the activities
I was involved in.
The first visit to lunch? Hm…
The first visit to lunch was on my birthday.
It was the greatest anniversary of my life.
If I was distressed when I was free that everything had to be perfect,
that my friends had to be content
I felt extraordinary here.
It was cool.
I don't know how to say it in words...
I felt it was my first anniversary ever,
even though I was in prison.
For those that are outside...
Enjoy and take advantage of each moment because...
This is what freedom means!
Octavian, murder
I am a murderer.
I will die in gritting of teeth
and there is no one to have mercy upon me if I die.
And how it is possible for someone to have mercy
when I can't find mercy for me within myself?
But why am I afraid of?
It's only me.
Is there any killer in here?
No! Oh, yes.
It's me!
Should I run from myself?
But why? For all the good I did to myself?
Oh, no!
For so many crimes I did.
You fool, speak nice about yourself!
You fool, do not flatter yourself!
In my mind so many voices
are telling me a story
and each story tells me that murder
the most awful murder...
Give me another horse!
Bind me my wounds!
Jesus, have I dreamt?
It is simple and obvious.
Each of us is here because he broke the rules of the
society we live in, isn't it?
It is good that here you have something you never miss,
time.
So you have time for introspection.
And to put the finger on the wound,
to see which are those wrong choices that you made in life
and brought you here.
Of course, for each of us the psychic impact that the detention brings is different.
There are though a few common things.
The crush, the lack of privacy and the most important thing,
the relation with the dear ones is disturbed.
And I want to be very clear.
Although they are not guilty at all for our mistakes,
most of the times they suffer more than us.
What seemed to me the most difficult?
Keeping connection to reality. That connection
that after a quite long period
tends to fade out.
I think that besides punishment, that chance
of a real social integration should exist.
And I think that the time of violent education is not actual anymore.
And here the self-awareness intervenes
as I said before, you have to be aware of what you did
and the society.
Because we, in the end, we all are the society.