10 Years in Jail – or in the Cave
Thomas Meyer-Falk | 04.03.2007 23:03 | Analysis
10 Years in Jail – or in the Cave
LOOK! HUMAN BEINGS LIVING IN AN UNDERGROUND DEN, WITH A MOUTH OPEN TOWARDS THE LIGHT, REACHING THE ENTIRE DEN; THEY HAVE BEEN HERE SINCE CHILDHOOD AND HAVE THEIR LEGS AND NECKS CHAINED SO THAT THEY CANNOT MOVE...
Retrospective - October 1996, around 5:30am in the morning, a cool autumn day slowly awakened itself... Two, maybe three, dozen hooded shapes run almost silently into Savings' Bank. One holds a video camera as one of the men yells: „on your knees, on your knees!“ - and before I can count to three I am lying on the ground, my hands and feet twisted, a doctor bending over me. He asks
„Are you alright? Is anything wrong with you?“ and I still think he must have a sense of humor, but he's probably only doing his job. Thus, a 14 hour hostage-taking situation in a bank ends, which instead of leading to providing funds for a variety of political projects is followed by a lengthy prison sentence.
...SO THAT THEY CANNOT MOVE, AND CAN ONLY SEE BEFORE THEM, BEING PREVENTED BY THE CHAINS FROM TURNING THEIR HEADS. ABOVE AND BEHIND THEM A FIRE IS BLAZING AT A DISTANCE...
After 10 years detention, which I have spent mostly in isolation I want to put together a balance sheet:
The Punishment
The whole meaning purpose of punishment in civil society is, if one follows an established comment in the criminal code, to prevent criminal offences, be it by the punished or not yet amerciable individuals. Beyond that punishment should be a retaliation for the injustice committed. The penal law sees the purpose of the penal system in rehabilitation as well as the protection of the gen public; i.e the convict should become capable to live a socially responsible life free of crime. The execution of sentences law again sees the tasks of the execution of sentences apart from the protection of the public in the Resozialisierung, i.e. the prisoner is to become able to lead in the future within social responsibility a life without criminal offences.
Courts in Heilbronn and Karlsruhe condemned me in several trials to 16 years 9 months and 3 weeks imprisonment - to be served until 2013. Since I might present a danger for society at large preventive detention has been arranged afterwards. This is to be executed beginning with 2013 and will continue according to the will of the law. Preventive detention (Sicherungsverwahrung - SV) is to be executed in a prison as well and can continue for life, for as long as the experts and the court believe it is right for the one in confinement. At the current time there are no women placed in preventive detention, no more danger there.
For the bank hold-up I received 11 years 6 months, followed by a preventive detention of unknown length since various politicians from the SPD (Social Democractic Party), CDU (Christian Democratic Union), CSU (Christian Social Union), as well as legal officials felt insluted by my letters.
Can someone understand that I am not willing to serve these 17 years and potential lifelong preventive detention without opposition? Punishment in civil society is an instrument of discipline - and it is part of the legal class! Naturally I believe in a life with social responsibility, as it is called in the penal code, but my idea of a society differs fundamentally from the prevalent capitalistic society.
...THEY SEE ONLY THEIR SHADOWS, OR THE SHADOWS OF ONE ANOTHER, WHICH THE FIRE THROWS ON THE WALL OF THE CAVE. HOW CAN THEY SEE ANYTHING BUT THE SHADOWS IF THEY ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO MOVE THEIR HEADS?...
The Prison
Prisoners which pose a danger to the order and security of the institution may be he held in solitary confinement (ie 24 hours a day alone) according to the law. From 1996 to 1998 I sat in isolation in Stammheim and since then in bruchsal (with two interruptions: 1998 in Straubing and again in 2002 in Stammheim). Since May 2006 I can meet 6-7 other „dangerous“ prisoners in the prison yard for an hour. A lot of reading and writing – day in, day out, year after year. This is how I spend the time...
AND IF THEY WERE ABLE TO SPEAK TO ONE ANOTHER WOULD THEY NOT BELIEVE THAT THE VOICES THEY HEARD WERE FROM THE SHADOWS WHICH THEY SAW?
Still in prison
There is B who regularly receives antipsychotic medications, T who at 1,82m weighs only 60kg. (see also
http://www.de.indymedia.org/2006/08/156000.shtml), or OE who pulls himself away from the TV for an hour in the yard in order to collect the cigarette butts from the ground so he can have something to smoke. We are quite a „dangerous“ handful of prisoners.
I won't say anything about the, at times more at times less subtle, humiliations, harassments, „special“ incidents, whoever wants to read more examples from everyday prison life can check my webpage ( http://www.freedom-for-thomas.de).
Prisoners, who are determined to fight for their liberty are quickly considered as dangerous to the prison system, because such a system survives due to the silent agreement between inmates and officials, according to which the former must first accept the cirucmstances of their imprisonment.
Those who does not stick to this agreement and are not willing to stare at the walls all the time and to see the shadows of freedom as compensation for reality will, almost without fail, end up in solitary confinement, for the sole reason of preventing such prisoners from - allegedly - inciting their fellow prisoners.
AND NOW LOOK AGAIN AND SEE WHAT WILL NATURALLY FOLLOW IF THE PRISONERS ARE RELEASED AND DISABUSED OF THEIR ERROR. AT FIRST, WHEN ANY OF THEM IS LIBERATED AND COMPELLED TO SUDDENLY STAND UP AND TURN HIS NECK AROUND AND WALK AND LOOK TOWARDS THE LIGHT, HE WILL SUFFER SHARP PAINS; THE GLARE WILL DISTRESS HIM, AND HE WILL BE UNABLE TO SEE THE REALITIES OF WHICH, IN HIS FORMER STATE, HE HAD SEEN THE SHADOWS OF.
The Imprisonment
Unfortunately there are too many prisoners, which after many years of detention are no longer able to function once freed and fail at completing even the simplest everyday tasks. I'm reminded of Z, we were in neighbouring cells in 2002 in Stammheim and could only communicate from window to window. He'd spent half his life behind walls (home, juvenile detention, prison), and after a few days of freedom – he had served his sentence to full term – had been detained once again. He told me about how he'd gone for a walk in the city and a couple had asked him to photograph them. The digital camera which they'd put in his hands overwhelmed him completely. He didn't know what this tool was meant for. Obviously only a trivilaity and definitely neither an explanation nor an attempt to excuse his fast relapse, yet a piece of the puzzle.
The price of freeing oneself from the chains while still in detention can be high in particular cases, but the worldwide prison fight, as in Spain or North/South America are testimony to the fact that the longing for freedom cannot be extinguished.
I myself am going to be denied the freedom of movement over an unspecified amount of time,
I have never accepted that and I will never accept that.
Even ten years of solitary confinement have not destroy my convictions one iota. The confiment is not as essential, as long as I am able to experience solidarity from the outside. Sometimes I have been infuriated by reproaches from the outside. Occasionally over the course of the years I have been accused of playing a martyr and been advised to cooperate with the judiciar in order to alleviate my cirucmstances.
At moments like those I need patience.
Those who might ask themselves what is with the literary fragments. These are quotes from Plato's Cave Allegory (The Republic, book 7, 514-520). Through this symbolic language prisoners are also referred to.
Liberty is not something which is given – it is something which one must take for oneself!
Thomas Meyer-Falk, c/o JVA - Z. 3117, Schönbornstr. 32, D-76646 Bruchsal, Germany
homepage: http://www.freedom-for-thomas.de
LOOK! HUMAN BEINGS LIVING IN AN UNDERGROUND DEN, WITH A MOUTH OPEN TOWARDS THE LIGHT, REACHING THE ENTIRE DEN; THEY HAVE BEEN HERE SINCE CHILDHOOD AND HAVE THEIR LEGS AND NECKS CHAINED SO THAT THEY CANNOT MOVE...
Retrospective - October 1996, around 5:30am in the morning, a cool autumn day slowly awakened itself... Two, maybe three, dozen hooded shapes run almost silently into Savings' Bank. One holds a video camera as one of the men yells: „on your knees, on your knees!“ - and before I can count to three I am lying on the ground, my hands and feet twisted, a doctor bending over me. He asks
„Are you alright? Is anything wrong with you?“ and I still think he must have a sense of humor, but he's probably only doing his job. Thus, a 14 hour hostage-taking situation in a bank ends, which instead of leading to providing funds for a variety of political projects is followed by a lengthy prison sentence.
...SO THAT THEY CANNOT MOVE, AND CAN ONLY SEE BEFORE THEM, BEING PREVENTED BY THE CHAINS FROM TURNING THEIR HEADS. ABOVE AND BEHIND THEM A FIRE IS BLAZING AT A DISTANCE...
After 10 years detention, which I have spent mostly in isolation I want to put together a balance sheet:
The Punishment
The whole meaning purpose of punishment in civil society is, if one follows an established comment in the criminal code, to prevent criminal offences, be it by the punished or not yet amerciable individuals. Beyond that punishment should be a retaliation for the injustice committed. The penal law sees the purpose of the penal system in rehabilitation as well as the protection of the gen public; i.e the convict should become capable to live a socially responsible life free of crime. The execution of sentences law again sees the tasks of the execution of sentences apart from the protection of the public in the Resozialisierung, i.e. the prisoner is to become able to lead in the future within social responsibility a life without criminal offences.
Courts in Heilbronn and Karlsruhe condemned me in several trials to 16 years 9 months and 3 weeks imprisonment - to be served until 2013. Since I might present a danger for society at large preventive detention has been arranged afterwards. This is to be executed beginning with 2013 and will continue according to the will of the law. Preventive detention (Sicherungsverwahrung - SV) is to be executed in a prison as well and can continue for life, for as long as the experts and the court believe it is right for the one in confinement. At the current time there are no women placed in preventive detention, no more danger there.
For the bank hold-up I received 11 years 6 months, followed by a preventive detention of unknown length since various politicians from the SPD (Social Democractic Party), CDU (Christian Democratic Union), CSU (Christian Social Union), as well as legal officials felt insluted by my letters.
Can someone understand that I am not willing to serve these 17 years and potential lifelong preventive detention without opposition? Punishment in civil society is an instrument of discipline - and it is part of the legal class! Naturally I believe in a life with social responsibility, as it is called in the penal code, but my idea of a society differs fundamentally from the prevalent capitalistic society.
...THEY SEE ONLY THEIR SHADOWS, OR THE SHADOWS OF ONE ANOTHER, WHICH THE FIRE THROWS ON THE WALL OF THE CAVE. HOW CAN THEY SEE ANYTHING BUT THE SHADOWS IF THEY ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO MOVE THEIR HEADS?...
The Prison
Prisoners which pose a danger to the order and security of the institution may be he held in solitary confinement (ie 24 hours a day alone) according to the law. From 1996 to 1998 I sat in isolation in Stammheim and since then in bruchsal (with two interruptions: 1998 in Straubing and again in 2002 in Stammheim). Since May 2006 I can meet 6-7 other „dangerous“ prisoners in the prison yard for an hour. A lot of reading and writing – day in, day out, year after year. This is how I spend the time...
AND IF THEY WERE ABLE TO SPEAK TO ONE ANOTHER WOULD THEY NOT BELIEVE THAT THE VOICES THEY HEARD WERE FROM THE SHADOWS WHICH THEY SAW?
Still in prison
There is B who regularly receives antipsychotic medications, T who at 1,82m weighs only 60kg. (see also
http://www.de.indymedia.org/2006/08/156000.shtml), or OE who pulls himself away from the TV for an hour in the yard in order to collect the cigarette butts from the ground so he can have something to smoke. We are quite a „dangerous“ handful of prisoners. I won't say anything about the, at times more at times less subtle, humiliations, harassments, „special“ incidents, whoever wants to read more examples from everyday prison life can check my webpage (
http://www.freedom-for-thomas.de). Prisoners, who are determined to fight for their liberty are quickly considered as dangerous to the prison system, because such a system survives due to the silent agreement between inmates and officials, according to which the former must first accept the cirucmstances of their imprisonment.
Those who does not stick to this agreement and are not willing to stare at the walls all the time and to see the shadows of freedom as compensation for reality will, almost without fail, end up in solitary confinement, for the sole reason of preventing such prisoners from - allegedly - inciting their fellow prisoners.
AND NOW LOOK AGAIN AND SEE WHAT WILL NATURALLY FOLLOW IF THE PRISONERS ARE RELEASED AND DISABUSED OF THEIR ERROR. AT FIRST, WHEN ANY OF THEM IS LIBERATED AND COMPELLED TO SUDDENLY STAND UP AND TURN HIS NECK AROUND AND WALK AND LOOK TOWARDS THE LIGHT, HE WILL SUFFER SHARP PAINS; THE GLARE WILL DISTRESS HIM, AND HE WILL BE UNABLE TO SEE THE REALITIES OF WHICH, IN HIS FORMER STATE, HE HAD SEEN THE SHADOWS OF.
The Imprisonment
Unfortunately there are too many prisoners, which after many years of detention are no longer able to function once freed and fail at completing even the simplest everyday tasks. I'm reminded of Z, we were in neighbouring cells in 2002 in Stammheim and could only communicate from window to window. He'd spent half his life behind walls (home, juvenile detention, prison), and after a few days of freedom – he had served his sentence to full term – had been detained once again. He told me about how he'd gone for a walk in the city and a couple had asked him to photograph them. The digital camera which they'd put in his hands overwhelmed him completely. He didn't know what this tool was meant for. Obviously only a trivilaity and definitely neither an explanation nor an attempt to excuse his fast relapse, yet a piece of the puzzle.
The price of freeing oneself from the chains while still in detention can be high in particular cases, but the worldwide prison fight, as in Spain or North/South America are testimony to the fact that the longing for freedom cannot be extinguished.
I myself am going to be denied the freedom of movement over an unspecified amount of time,
I have never accepted that and I will never accept that.
Even ten years of solitary confinement have not destroy my convictions one iota. The confiment is not as essential, as long as I am able to experience solidarity from the outside. Sometimes I have been infuriated by reproaches from the outside. Occasionally over the course of the years I have been accused of playing a martyr and been advised to cooperate with the judiciar in order to alleviate my cirucmstances.
At moments like those I need patience.
Those who might ask themselves what is with the literary fragments. These are quotes from Plato's Cave Allegory (The Republic, book 7, 514-520). Through this symbolic language prisoners are also referred to.
Liberty is not something which is given – it is something which one must take for oneself!
Thomas Meyer-Falk, c/o JVA - Z. 3117, Schönbornstr. 32, D-76646 Bruchsal, Germany
homepage:
http://www.freedom-for-thomas.de
Thomas Meyer-Falk
Homepage:
http://www.freedom-for-thomas.de/thomas/index2.shtml