“Why should prison be the only place where there is no mixing?” asks Ambra, an inmate at Spain’s Teixeiro prison, before training soccer with men.
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The only woman on the prison grounds, Ambra, who prefers not to give her last name, is on par with the 21 players around her. “Drop the ball!” shouts the 25-year-old Albanian woman, a soccer fan, to one of her teammates, who pushes into her just as much as she is pushed to grab the ball.
Teixeiro prison, located not far from La Coruña in Galicia (northwest), is one of the few in Europe to have fully mixed quarters. A bet aimed at promoting coexistence between men and women with a view to their reintegration.
In the Nelson Mandela district, where the AFP was able to enter, 20 women and 35 men share daily activities, training, group therapy and work together. Their cells are in the same corridor.
All volunteers, these prisoners are selected based on their behavior. People convicted of sexual violence are excluded.
“Prepare for a life of freedom”
In the canteen, Cristina, another inmate met by AFP, cooks with women and men who then all eat together, while Helga shares the weight room with men.
Spain, a country considered a benchmark for women’s rights in Europe, has been experimenting with prison diversity for around twenty years.
And for two years, the left-wing government of Pedro Sánchez has been encouraging the prison administration to “develop” such mixed modules.
In total, almost 925 men and 202 women currently live together in 20 mixed neighborhoods across the country. A proportion of prisoners that is, however, still very small compared to a prison population of around 47,000 people.
“It makes no sense to prepare for a life of freedom with only half the population,” emphasizes Nadia Arias, deputy director of Teixeiro prison, who observes a “normalization of coexistence between men and women” in the mixed modules.
The aim, in her opinion, is also to ensure “that women deprived of their liberty have access to the same services in much smaller numbers” as men, “to make them more visible in prison”, “to meet their needs recognize”.
Ricardo, a repeat offender in solitary confinement, was offered by the prison administration to take part in the mixed Nelson Mandela module, for which he acted as a speaker.
“At first I was a bit hesitant because I had spent a lot of time in prison with men,” admits the 47-year-old prisoner, who “never” thought he would one day experience a mixed prison life.
“Not for everyone”
In all-male neighborhoods, “a bad look can start a fight, the drawing of a knife” and “respect is earned by defending your belongings,” he says, explaining that diversity is his opinion according to not “not for everyone”. in prison.
An observation shared by Ambra that women living in a mixed module, for their part, need to know how to “create a barrier” with men in order to be “respected”.
While “machist behavior is reproduced both in and out of prison,” Teixeiro Prison even offers workshops on “deconstructing masculinity,” according to Ana Suarez, integration consultant at the Erguete Foundation who works at the facility.
Prison officials say they have not reported a “serious incident” in the mixed neighborhoods where there is “strong demand” for entry.
Elsewhere in Europe, diversity in prisons remains very limited.
For example, in France, where it has been authorized since 2009, it is limited to activities without mixing accommodation areas.
According to the French Ministry of Justice, whose aim is to offer more activities for women to promote their professional reintegration, 43 of the 54 prison facilities with a women’s section have at least one mixed activity.
“It seems to me that it is very good to live together between men and women, because that is what life is like outside,” assures Ambra in the courtyard of the Teixeiro prison, surrounded by male inmates.