Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Photo by: Igor Čoko

Author: NEOSTART (Social Inclusion Blog)

The bars of the prison cell give view only to the bars on the wall across the way, and between them, what the convicts call “the circle”. The place most of them can go every day for a two-hour walk, in a circle.

A circle is also what most of them feel like when they exit the prison, trying to return to the community they left some time ago, to serve out their sentence. In prison, the end of the sentence cannot come soon enough, yet once they are free, they often wish to return to jail. The last drop is often found between the uncertainty, the hopeless situations they find themselves in, and the obstacles set before them by society due to their sentence, returning them to a road most of us, comfortably laid back in our everyday lives, never thought to take.

Most convicts suffer from some form of addiction, in itself representing a vicious circle they return to quickly, without adequate support and treatment. (…) When they do join a treatment program, after a few months you can recognize in them all that you see in those nearest to you. (…) A large number of them, when given the option of adequate treatment instead of being locked up, start to develop the capacities they always had, without the desire to return to committing crimes.

This, however, involves help and support far wider than can be given by doctors, psychiatrists or psychologists. The help of the entire community is required, with understanding and a hand to hold on to at every step, like a child learning to walk. The work is not easy, made additionally difficult by the unwillingness of society to help someone they believe is guilty for their own problems. Whether an addiction is a disease people chose themselves, and thus an issue of insolence, as many would like to believe, or an issue of predisposition, family situation and the system, the state and society may not turn their head from it. (…)

The text in its entirety can be found on the Social Inclusion Blog.