The Abolition of Prison by Lesage de La Haye Jacques;Branson Scott;

Author:Lesage de La Haye, Jacques;Branson, Scott;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AK Press
Published: 2021-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

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1. Jacquard, Un Monde sans prisons, 211.

2. Briggs, In Place of Prisons, 108.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid., 59.

5. Ibid., 124.

6. Ibid., 10.

Chapter Seven: Recent and Current Alternatives to Incarceration

In the 1980s, a daring lawyer, named Duccio Scatolero, took up the baton. Seriously concerned about the young people incarcerated in the juvenile wing in the Turin prison, he figured out a solution that would make an effective intervention. We met in 1985 in Évry. He believed that one of the best ways to make change was to mobilize the people. He presented a film that had a very clear message. In it, we saw townspeople interviewed about delinquents. Their remarks were distressing, but commonplace: “They are deadbeats. We have to put them in prison. We can’t let such dangerous people be free.”

Scatolero then had the interviewees visit prison and spoke to them afterwards. Their position was completely transformed: “It’s dreadful! That could be our children. They are kept inactive. That’s not how they’ll be let back out. Prison is not the answer.” The lawyer took the opportunity to ask them, “But what else could we do?” The answer came quickly: “We need training workshops so that they learn trades.” The following months were devoted to the development of various trainings inside prison: cooking, baking, butchery, mechanics . . . The organization responsible for the trainings had around two thousand members. Many were craftspeople, merchants, and residents from the town. They were highly active and determined to work together to transform the condition of these young incarcerated people.

In the prison at this time, sentences remained rather short. Like in France, the average wasn’t more than five months. The trainees were almost all released at the end of their sentence before they’d finished their training. Two options arose: either the craftspeople hired the youth in their own businesses and, thus, they could complete their trainings; or they would end up back inside—which had been the common result—and so those who re-offended could resume their training where they left off and thereby bring it to a successful completion.

The resolution was funny, to say the least. At the end of five years, Scatolero met with the director of the juvenile wing, which had at first incarcerated a hundred people. Now, only eight remained. The director exclaimed to the lawyer: “Mr. Scatolero, you’ve stolen my prison!”

At the end of the 1980s, a team of teachers from Child and Youth Services established a farm, Laplanche, in a small village, Champoly, between Puy-en-Velay and Saint-Étienne. Juveniles went there instead of going to prison. At first, they renovated the premises as a group, then started growing crops and then raising farm animals. The youth came voluntarily to Champoly. They agreed to undertake agricultural work. By and large, they had been sentenced from six months to two years.

But the activities didn’t stop with farm work. The teachers invited groups and organizations from Saint-Étienne to come meet with the residents. They organized cultural trips to the town. The idea behind

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