Marc S. is 64 years old and lives alone in a converted flat in a garage in Braine-l’Alleud. His days are spent between his job as a ‘toilet unclogger’ in a high school, and meals with Sac-à-puces, his cat. A seemingly unremarkable daily routine. Yet, his nights are haunted by nightmares of fellow inmates who he saw kill themselves in prison. “Marcus”, as he’s known by, has spent more than 20 years of his life in different prisons (Lantin, Verviers, Andenne and Tournai). He was sentenced for car theft, handling stolen goods and breaking and entering. His criminal specialty, however, is helping prisoners escape.

His involvement in several jailbreaks caused him to spend time behind bars. After 16 years without relapsing, and with a stable job, it seems like Marcus could reintegrate into society. But he quickly reveals that he’s not autonomous yet. ”The first of each month, I receive my wage and by the second, I’m in the red.” From the life of a thief who drove a Mercedes during the beginnings of his criminal career to a life as an inmate where he had no income, Marc S. has never learnt to live on a low wage. ”In prison, they handle everything for us […] on top of that, I have the bailiffs who won’t let me save even a penny. I need to repay my debts.”
A daily ordeal. An ordeal that has imprisoned him in his past. An ordeal that, according to him, can only be solved in one way: ”I will spend the last of my days in prison, he confidently confirms.

Addicted to these nightly adventures, these “phone calls” at 2am, Marcus struggles to feel completely free of his prison past. In his eyes, prison is nothing more than a “human tragedy”. This is why, even today, it is impossible for him to refuse helping a fugitive. Even while imprisoned, he helped a man escape. The plan failed and he ended up spending time in solitary confinement. Nevertheless, he knows the risks. ”I can tell you that there are armed robbers who cry to not go into solitary confinement, who are ready to give up their mother and father to not go.” Despite this, Marcus makes it a fact that if he had to do it all over again, he would do it.

However, in terms of the preparation to reintegrate into society, he is unequivocal: ”There is only negativity in prison.” The reality of prison life as Marcus describes it seems far from the reintegration objectives that the Belgian legal framework aims for. It should be said that Marcus left prison in 2003. Yet, in 2005, Belgium passed the Dupont law which states that ”the execution of the custodial sentence is focused on repairing the wrongs inflicted on the victims by the crime, on rehabilitating the convicted person, and on preparing in a personalised manner, their reintegration into free society” (Article 9 § 2). Marcus did not have the opportunity to see this materialise. When he thinks back to his time behind bars, he describes the lack of privacy, the difficulty in sharing a small cell with three other people, time spent in solitary confinement [^solitary confinement] and violence between inmates. To this he adds the lack of a connection with the outside world. Having grown up in a children’s home, Marcus never had family with whom he could communicate with during his time in prison.
In no way has his experience in prison allowed him to become a better man once freed. The only positive aspect: while incarcerated, he was able to take advantage of the vocational training available. However, he was unable to finish any of the training due to being transferred between different Belgian prisons. ”Every time they had me change prison, I had to stop my course and restart a new one. In those twenty years, I haven’t finished a single one.”

He has never known anything other than confinement. He had a first taste of confinement during his troubled childhood spent in different children’s homes.

To such an extent that while speaking, he has to sometimes correct himself, saying “prison” instead of “home”¹. Nevertheless, the label of ex-prisoner wears off when he gets to work. In a high school near Ottignies, he is the jack of all trades, cleaning, repairing, unclogging but also…encouraging! He tries to give these young people what he did not have as a child. He observes the students and tries to show them their potential.

Like with this young person and his basketball, Marcus tries to encourage conversation between students. He insists on the importance of highlighting everyone’s abilities, before adding: ”It’s too late for me”.
Feeling resigned, Marcus cannot free himself of the mental prison that he has built all his life. His reintegration is constantly under scrutiny; a phone call can make him forget everything.

Psychological work is essential in successfully reintegrating. This work, be it consciously with a therapist or unconsciously (through sports, creative arts etc.), is vital in the process of a prisoner adapting to their future freedom.

Many of the ways of thinking that are necessary when in prison need to be deconstructed. These patterns take hold to allow you to survive the life conditions in prison. ”In prison, you have to show others that you won’t let yourself be pushed around”, states Ali, who after 17 years spent behind bars, today supervises young people from the Dispositif Relais, an organisation that helps with reintegration into society. The prison environment imposes its own rules, way of working and appropriate behaviour. Prisoners are on the defensive, scared and subject to a military-like schedule in prison. The longer the incarceration, the longer it is to yourself free.

Before prison, many have grown up in underprivileged areas, where crime seems to be the only way to get out. The concept of reintegration should be put into perspective.

Before incarceration, these young people do not necessarily feel in tune with societal norms. For example, this is the case for Marc S., who spent who childhood in a children’s home for young offenders. The last time he ran away led to his first crime, and then prison.

This is the vision of the world that many prisoners have had throughout their life up until prison. This gives them a feeling of guilt and inability to do anything other than be a criminal. This is why social workers or charitable organisations are needed in prisons.

William Sbrugnera is a psychologist that specialises in helping offenders. He works directly within prisons to listen to prisoners, and by extension, start psychological treatment. ”What we expect of a prisoner, is that they become independent. That’s the ideal scenario. Reintegration without independence will never work”, he states.

Between 1995 and 2015, first time offenders re-offended in 57% of cases. According to the psychologist, these figures are not so surprising. ”When offenders are released on parole, they feel obliged to meet the court’s desires. They are required to have a house, a job…but what they like doing? The courts don’t care.” After this observation, the psychologist tempers his words. ”Needing somewhere to live and having a job is a way for an ex-prisoner to avoid falling into poverty.”

William Sbrugnera puts forward three principles to an efficient reintegration: competence, connection and autonomy. In Marcus’ case, competence is partially fulfilled with his job. He is not, however, autonomous. Since his release from prison in 2003, loneliness is part of his daily life. Marcus has never been able to create connections outside of ex-prisoners.

”In prison, they do everything for us”, Marcus notes regrettably. Once free, he was unable to manage his responsibilities by himself. For many prisoners, freedom rhymes with solitude. Upon release, there isn’t always someone or somewhere to go waiting for them. In Marcus’ case, it was a charitable organisation that ended up helping him escape the vicious circle he found himself in.Transit is an organisation that provides this type of help. This crisis and emergency shelter looks after drug and/or alcohol users. A few years ago, the centre expanded its work to helping prisoners and ex-prisoners. This assistance is provided once during incarceration and then upon release from prison.

Raphaël Verschuren has been a social worker at Transit for 8 years. He regularly goes to Brussels’ prisons (Forest, St Gilles and Berkendael). The majority of people helped by Transit were imprisoned for minor crimes. Once they have managed to create a healthy environment on the outside (stable accommodation, help from family or friends), the judge frees them from parole.

”In general, we visit a prisoner once for an admission interview while they’re in prison. We check if they’re a drug user or an alcoholic, and if it is the case, we create a housing certificate that says that we will accept them upon release”, Raphaël explains.

After their release from prison, Transit’s work can really start. The ex-prisoner is hosted and helped in their path to reintegration. As Raphaël explains, often people who are in pre-trial detention leave prison empty-handed and are forced to stop the treatments they received in prison cold turkey. This sudden withdrawal pushes them to commit the same crimes that led them to being imprisoned the first time. Without help, a drug addict is condemned to repeat the same patterns each time they are released.

Once the process of reintegration has begun, former prisoners attend meetings with social workers. This begins a long-term endeavour. ”Often, they can’t look to the future because they’re stuck in the prison dynamic”, explains Raphaël. What he calls the “prison dynamic” is the rigidity of prison life. ”They are limited in where they go, their safety is of the upmost importance, they can’t make plans…not even for the next day. When they get here, they don’t know where to start. They’ve wanted freedom for months, but when they have it, they realise that it’s stressful to no longer have to answer to anybody”, adds the social worker.

At Dispositif Relais, another method is put into place for a different type of person. The charitable organisation was created in 2010 par the judge Anne Gruwez and Tahar El Hamdaoui, who now runs the organisation. They help young people from the ages of 18-25 who are reintegrating after a spell in prison.

Here, returning to society is done through sporting and cultural activities like climbing, horse therapy, theatre and other learning experiences like beekeeping and building trades. ”All of these activities have three functions: creating a connection with the young person, showing them their skills and teaching them to overcome danger”, explains Tahar, the organisation’s director.

Dispositif Relais’ functions echo the words of William Sbrugnera. Yet Tahar, the director, refuses to link the work done by the organisation to psychology. For him, this practice is not adapted to the type of people with whom he works.

Danger and adrenaline are the guiding concepts in the activities offered by Dispositif Relais. ”If the young person doesn’t behave with the horse, they’ll fall. It’s the same thing for sailing or climbing. This type of stress will encourage responsible behaviour and a type of autonomy”, adds Tahar. Thanks to these activities, the strong emotions felt by the young people are no longer associated with crime. This allows them to create new and concrete interests.

For Marcus, the strong emotions that he feels are still linked to the prison environment. Adrenaline is what he feels when he picks up the phone in the middle of the night.

For former prisoners, accepting the freedom that is given to them after a spell in prison is akin to a fighter’s journey. And if being sentenced to freedom was harder to live than being sentenced to being behind bars? Even if the courts demand a stable job and a roof above their heads, it is often in their heads that the fight to reintegrate plays out. Those involved in the prison system are trying to find solutions to these questions. Charitable organisations and psychologists hold similar opinions by focusing on the self-confidence development, independence and creating new connections. Despite this, they struggle to act in concert. In the end, it is the aim of reintegration that suffers.