Jail isn't cool - a youth crime deterrent project in Germany

By Stephanie Lettgen Dec 15, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Hamburg - Five teenage boys are standing in front of the gate of Fuhlsbuettel Prison in Hamburg joking with each other.

They are all known to the police and are regarded as being in danger of sliding deeper into Hamburg's criminal underworld. A project has brought them here in a bid to deter them from committing crimes in future.

The five boys are aged between 15 and 18 and are spending one day at the prison which is colloquially known as Santa Fu.

The worst punishment the boys have seen are community service hours but today they have volunteered to see a prison from the inside. It will give them an idea of what it's like to be separated from friends and family for years at a time.

'This is your opportunity to straighten the path ahead of you out,' says Sadat, one of the project's workers. The 36-year-old is just one of the convicted killers the boys will meet in Santa Fu.

The way into the prison is through a large, heavy door and along high walls topped with barbed wire. As they walk the boys grow quieter.

Sadat grew up under similar circumstances to the boys and he knows their language and lifestyle. He has spent many years behind bars and right now he's living in an open prison.

Sadat knows every detail of prison life and he tells the boys about the unannounced urine tests in the night, the drugs ban, the food, the lack of privacy and the constant clatter of cell doors.

Sadat says television has created a completely false image of what life in a prison is like.

'Prison is not cool,' he says. Along with his fellow project workers Sadat wants to prevent the boys from going completely off the rails.

'We're not teachers who serve herbal tea. We will show you the reality,' he says as he opens two cell doors. 'You're going to be locked up now.' Then he sends the boys one by one into a cell where the door is shut for a short time.

The lock on the doors make a loud noise as they are slid closed and for a few minutes 18-year-old Tarek is alone.

Through a small window in the door Tarek can be seen from the outside as he stands in the corner of the narrow cell beside a bed.

As he's released he takes a deep breath and smiles to the others. Vahag, a 17-year-old, walks out of his cell with a serious look on his face. His friend Ahmed says 'You feel so helpless in there.'

Santa Fu became known throughout Germany because of a series of escapes and a riot by the prisoners. It has spent many years trying to shake off its image. In 1996 three inmates founded the project.

The boys meet and talk with several prisoners over the course of the day. They include Richard who has spent 33 years in jail - more than half his life - and Rolf who got involved with the Red Light scene after a difficult childhood and was sentenced to life in prison.

The project wants to show the boys that none of the men look as if they have done anything terribly wrong. They all began with small crimes that gradually became bigger and more serious.

'I hope I can save lots of kids by deterring them from crime,' says Richard in explanation as to why he's taking part in the project. At the end of the day the boys get to try prison food before they are sent back into the free world.

'I don't want to have to come here again,' says Ahmed.

'I've definitely learned that it's not worth my while landing in prison because someone insulted me or I got into a fight,' adds Vahag. 'You lose everything you have.'

Then the boys start joking again - relieved to be able to go back to a normal life.