The mattress comes flying out the door, a clear sign that newcomer Mia Marie (31) is not welcome. A fellow prisoner has decided that this is the case she Who is the boss, no one should enter here!
After some diplomacy by prison officers, it became clear that it was not the inmates who decided who would live where. Mia Marie finds a spot upstairs on the other side of the room from the mattress tosser. The basement belongs to My Liz (41).
They are lucky to have only three guests in a room that sleeps four.
-I suffer from a little anxiety. At first it was scary to share the room with others and she got very angry. “So I was very happy when Mia came,” May told Liz.
Mia Marie (TV) became the friend My Liz needed to feel safe when she had to serve her sentence in Ravenbergite. They spend most of their days talking and hanging out.
Brian Cliff Olguin
I found the tone with the newcomer. The friendship developed quickly. Both Mia Marie and My Liz appreciate peace and quiet, preferably a little away from noisy crowds. There is a lot of laughing, screaming, and walking in doors.
Bitch disease
“Doubling the cells” in men’s prisons means doubling the cell capacity by placing two prisoners in each cell. In Ravenberget, doubling actually means tripling and quadrupling. Apart from the reception cells, which are private rooms, most cells are equipped with two bunk beds and four lockable lockers.
It is narrow, but for many years it was considered sufficient for an open prison for women. Cohabitation places great demands on the prisoner’s ability to adapt.
-There are many demanding and ungrateful people here. Some go around complaining about others and inventing things to change rooms. Lots of backbiting and scheming. So many women in one place don’t go, it’s too intense, says Mia Marie.
She looks out the window, where Gloma is floating quietly away there, among the tall pine trees.
Brian Cliff Olguin
Inmates enjoy a relatively large degree of freedom. The room doors are open and they can leave whenever they want. The challenge is the lack of privacy.
-The TV room is always crowded with people arguing about what to watch.
The only place you can be alone is the bathroom.
Without privacy
She, who was in the room first, likes it bright at night, with the reading light on and the curtains drawn. Mia Marie has to wear a sleeping mask. My Liz swings out her closet door to block out the light. It works in a way, as long as they don’t have to argue.
Brian Cliff Olguin
My Liz says the first time here was difficult. She had anxiety. After spending most of her time alone, she had to get used to living close to others. Nobody wants to be there.
-I really struggled with the noise. I was a nervous wreck, but the officers here are very good, they helped me.
They think it is better to sleep with their clothes on.
-With so many people around, you can’t lie down naked!
History: Previous residents have left many important messages.
Brian Cliff Olguin
As many as 70 to 80 percent of those who come to sentencing at Ravenbergheit have a drug problem, acting Senior Constable Katherine Anebe estimates. Many of them also suffer from mental illness.
-We have a lot of very heavy ballast. It can be very complicated, with psychological problems following violence, drug use, and violence against your children.
Katherine Annibe (TV) and Jill Espey spend a lot of time managing conflict.
Brian Cliff Olguin
The buildings, a former Home Guard camp, are not designed to handle such things. Not long ago, a prisoner who showed signs of mental illness was confined to solitary confinement.
When she asked to go out to smoke, they asked her to wait three minutes for someone to escort her outside. When they arrived, she had managed to make her way through the wall into the next room and out of the other cell.
She didn’t have time to wait. Next, they received two booster cells.
Preparations slow down as the prison approaches capacity and the infirmary fills up. They try to provide an enhanced sick room at all times. This is not always possible when residents cannot live together due to withdrawal, psychological or hygiene problems, or open wounds.
Conflict mediators
– The correctional service expected us to deal with this without additional money, notes Anebe.
Jill Espey, president of the local NFF, says conflicts and conflict management between girls take up a large part of the prison’s workday.
-There are conflicts almost all the time. A bit of a fight, here it’s mostly verbal. They’re in such different life situations that it takes a bit to get along 100 percent with whoever walks into the room together.
Down the hall, four members of the same family live: two sisters and their wives, all convicted of robbery in the same case. The worst thing is being here, away from the children at home in Romania, says Elena.
Brian Cliff Olguin
It may mean putting addicts in the same room, or people who speak a common language.
Muslims who have five prayer times, including eleven in the evening and three at night, may combine them together. But when the occupation reaches 40 prisoners, it becomes an impossible puzzle.
Unjustified difference
Men’s quadruple rooms were discontinued several years ago. What is the reason why Raffenbergheit, which makes up a large percentage of the seats are women, continues to be run this way?
Cells containing three or four people do not in themselves necessarily constitute an interference with the right to privacy in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
This is what Thomas Berg, senior advisor to the Norwegian Foundation for Human Rights, wrote in an email. But the principle of solitary confinement is clearly established in national law and practice, and in European prison rules.
Brian Cliff Olguin
– Since this is an issue of differential treatment between women and men, it also raises the question of whether there is discrimination. One cannot advocate spending less money on female prisoners because they are women. The question is whether the authorities have realistic reasons why some female prisoners spend time in four-person cells, while male prisoners do not, Berg says.
Financial resources can be considered a realistic justification, but according to Berg, they must always be weighed against the individual’s burden, state of health, and length of sentence.
good news
The Correctional Service rents the buildings from the municipality of Sarpsborg, and after dialogue with the municipality, the changes are being made, as promised by the Communications Director of the Correctional Services Directorate, Pál Espen Humber.
The municipal council is scheduled to adopt a new plan for the prison buildings in the fall of 2023. KDI asked an architect to design a new solution where old rooms are replaced with individual cells. They are also considering expanding the prison’s capacity by replacing one of the other older buildings.
Ravenberget has been a prison since 2006, before the Home Guard was stationed here.
Brian Cliff Olguin
So hope rose, but the patience of the staff at Ravneberget ran out.
-It’s very discriminatory. It is said that Norway is an equal country, but this is not true. Catherine Anebe says women’s perspective is always given less priority.
– People think that there are too few women in prison, so they are forgotten, Espey agrees.
Ravenberget has guests from all over the country, many of whom are currently from Trøndelag and northern Norway. The travel distance and subsequent costs mean that their relatives do not visit them. Increased use of screen chats aims to reduce the burden of zoning out to remote locations.
Despite all the objections in this article, Mia Marie and My Liz are satisfied with how the prison operates, the food is good and the prison officers are good, according to the two.
Mia Marie and My Liz
Brian Cliff Olguin
-But it would have been much easier here if we had more privacy. The best thing is to be able to have two in the room.
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