Addendum to June 11 – International Day of Solidarity for Marius Mason and all anarchist long-term prisoners. Due to the mail, the post came a bit later, but shall be published here anyway.
Millions of people sit in the jails and dungeons of the rulers of this earth. Countless people are on death row. Others sit for days, for weeks or for months. Still others for decades. Only a few weeks ago it was announced from Baden-Württemberg that Hans-Georg will finally be released. It was January 20, 1962, when the Berlin prison gates closed behind him – he has been in custody since that day. Since 1962! He had shot two people after a robbery.
Long-term imprisonment, in a way, resembles the death penalty. But in a perfidious way, with the death penalty, the state is more honest, it wants to kill the deliquents openly. With decades of incarceration, however, death is often the realistic prospect of escaping the walls. And along the way, body and soul wither.
In Europe, in addition to life imprisonment, there is also the instrument of preventive detention. According to the official interpretation, this is where people sit behind bars as a purely preventive measure. In other words, to prevent possible acts in the future. Based on forecasts that are not much better or more reliable than the weather forecast for the next month. For a long time, the departments of “security detention” have been called death houses. In them, people seem more likely to die than to be released.
Even if the material conditions of detention allow for physical survival, life is still mentally and physically grueling. Those who have contact with the outside world can cushion this somewhat with the help of friends. Others, however, lose their minds over the long period of being locked away. They dry up into seemingly soulless mummies. Run against the concrete walls! Hurt themselves! Hurt others! Swallow the products of the pharmaceutical industry generously distributed by the prison doctors or supply themselves with drugs on the black market.
Long-term prisons are among the darkest, most sinister places in society. This is where the alleged evil is banished, incarcerated, eradicated. But a glance at any newspaper is enough! Evil has not disappeared, it has not been banished. The idea that locking up hundreds of thousands of people for decades would improve the world one iota is an illusion. And an idea that the societies and their rulers need, already as a threatening backdrop for coming uprisings:
“Look – we will not kill you immediately, we will throw you into the darkest holes. There you will vegetate until your natural end of life!”
This is what the International Day of Long-Term Prisoners on June 11 wants to draw special attention to. The day gives individuals a face. A name. It brings people into the public eye. It gives strength. It sends a message of courage and determination. The day proves that there are people who care about the fate of those who have been locked away for a long time. Who want to fight for a change!
Together with those who are locked up!
Side by side: For a society without prisons!
Thomas Meyer-Falk
in prison since October 12, 1996
You can write to Thomas and follow news on his blog:
Thomas Meyer Falk
JVA (SV-Abtlg.)
Hermann-Herder-Str. 8
79104 Freiburg