Da lontano non assomiglia neanche troppo ad un carcere, o almeno all’immagine che noi occidentali abbiamo di una prigione. Il muro di recinzione della struttura detentiva di Debre Markos non is very high and guard towers will be a couple, not more. The door in the morning is almost always open and there is a bustle of people who never seems to stop. No barbed wire or thick wire mesh with spikes to block possible escape, not even an excessive deployment of vigilantes with guns. Indeed, most of the guards does not bring guns, or keep well hidden. Just check some of the turrets of the great military rifles, old models, but showy.
Inside the wall, waiting to be discovered between cabins, passageways, doors, open spaces, sheds, fences and straw sheet there is a world you do not expect, with people who live and work piled up in an area that is great but in reality it is not. The prison currently has more than 1400 prisoners, of which only 46 women, but the structure is not designed to accommodate so many. Among them are also mentally ill. It appears, inter alia, that before there were even more, but to pick up votes at election time the Government would free several prisoners. The environments in which they sleep and where they work are overcrowded, filled to the ceiling and not a manner of speaking. On the ground there is no room for furniture and personal belongings or work, everything is hanging in the air. Unfortunately for the prisoners can not even envisage a transfer to other prison facilities: the situation is better here than elsewhere. When you are before the eyes of that mass of people in confined spaces, however, you can not help wondering how they manage to be the most crowded prisons. How could people survive? There, then, in the afternoon the situation even worse: the 10 'Cush', the 16 'English time', the entrance to the prison is closed permanently, and with it also the internal structures. Life in prison is stopped, the prisoners if they have to stay locked in their dorms, herded in an airless space, packed like sardines. Having peeked
how people live outside the prison can not really say that the situation of inmates is totally unbearable and diversa da quella della gente comune. O meglio, per il nostro modo di pensare, di vivere e le norme che siamo abituati a rispettare lo è di sicuro. Ma molti, fuori dalla prigione, vivono in verità in condizioni simili, pessime e precarie, ma parecchio simili.
A controllar quella folla di detenuti ci sono 110 poliziotti, di cui 60 guardie effettive e 50 impiegati negli uffici. Di tutto il personale della prigione 16 sono donne, 6 vigilanti. Il lavoro delle forze dell’ordine è organizzato in turni di un’intera giornata: un giorno lavorano e uno si riposano. A quanto pare non sembrano esserci grandi problemi di ordine, qualche lite si accende ogni tanto ma viene facilmente sedata e, a quanto riferiscono le guardie, non ci sono neanche joints. Someone which has the tried but could not. Explanations of some, perhaps. In fact, few outside the jail who are interested in news about issues that reality for a lot more tense relations between the convicts, even heated quarrels caused mainly by a shortage of living space. The absence of evasion, however, is confirmed also by those not working in the prison: the prisoners in there at the end of the meal are provided, which outside is not so predictable, and maybe even if you end up fleeing killed in revenge due to some episodes past or the same facts for which they were convicted.
The prison is divided into sections: there is a section on women, smaller, and the larger for men. (...) Mosif looks very young but already has two children, as many of the girls in Ethiopia are often forced to marry early and give birth to children immediately. Yelkal Museye, six years old, lives with his mother in prison, while Almaz, eight, is out with his grandmother. Mosif would like them both with her, but the rules of the detention facility provide that only children are no more than four years at the time of the mother can be admitted and, upon conviction, the second son was too big to stay with her. The fact is held in the prison came to Debre Markos two years ago and should remain for another ten. The sentence that bears heavily on the shoulders is to murder has been found guilty of her husband, put in place with the complicity of the brothers, the thirty Yeshwase, sentenced to five years, and eighteen Melsaw, and in years it must serve eight. All three are in prison in Debre Markos.
The story of how the facts are a bit 'confused. Between her and her husband were frequent quarrels and tensions. What he says, he made use of traditional medicines, but is unable to explain how these may have influenced the story. He does not speak of beatings or anything like that, except for the day of the divorce. At first, accuses him of it out of the house; subito dopo, però, ammette che la decisione di separarsi era stata presa di comune accordo, i problemi sarebbero sorti dopo, quando il marito non ha voluto dare alla donna quello che le spettava. Mosif viene da una famiglia benestante ed evidentemente ciò che lui le doveva non era poco. Queste mancanze da parte del marito avrebbero scatenato l’ira dei fratelli, che per vendicarla l’avrebbero ammazzato. La famiglia dello sposo ha accusato anche Mosif di aver partecipato all’omicidio e addirittura di aver istigato i fratelli. La corte ha dato loro ragione. Secondo la versione delle guardie, però, sono stati i fratelli a commettere l’assassinio. Le soldatesse ricordano inoltre che quando Mosif è arrivata in carcere aveva una grossa wound in his side, probably caused by a knife.
In prison he studied the girl, has just passed the sixth grade of primary school. At the same time work and send money home, even if the family, being rich, we will send items and clothes. Speaking of life in prison, Mosif does not complain, some also would like another child with her but knows that it is very difficult to get permission. However, it is satisfied that the small Yelkal can go to school for the children of female prisoners and is also satisfied with the relationship with the other inmates with whom, he says, live in peace and without misunderstandings.
Camilla Corradini
Volunteer - Ethiopia
Volunteer - Ethiopia
