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Uruguay South America
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Interview

Uruguay: rebuilding life after prison

They founded a cooperative to mitigate housing and employment challenges. These cooperatives are one of the measures put in place to give low-income residents access to lodging through financial support from the State.

Self-management, solidarity and participatory democracy are the central values of this model, which is based on the participation of members in the construction of collective housing and on collective ownership of landed properties.

Members are divided into two groups: prisoners and ex-prisoners. We met one of the founding members, who is still in prison, and we asked him three questions.

For the first time we began to do some collective thinking.

Prison Insider. Who is behind the creation of this resident cooperative project and why was it important to establish one within Unit 6 of Punta de Rieles?

This project is the fruit of a discussion between four comrades, during which we brought to light the difficulties ex-prisoners face in trying to secure housing and jobs after being released. During these discussions, for the first time we began to do some collective, critical and political thinking. Among the questions raised, we could not solve the puzzle of life after prison: “When will we get out of here? Who will take us in? Where will we live?” One of the comrades, who is close to cooperative movements, proposed that we get together to deal with these issues. We then discovered the core values of the collective movement: collective housing, mutual help and direct democracy.

You need to understand the importance of this project to us. Far from being a mere cooperative, it is the product of awareness among individuals deprived of freedom, united together by one goal: to change our reality.

PI. How did the project come about and how did you manage to take part in it?

In April 2017, we contacted members of the FUCVAM, which is the federation of cooperatives for residents by mutual aid, so that they could teach us how to get organised and be independent. In all, 35 prisoners attended the workshops. However, there was one challenge: we had no land on which to build our cooperative. At the end of the year, after a comrade was released from jail, he became a strong activist at the FUCVAM.

During that same period, we met members of another cooperative who already had a plot of land. Their social base was much smaller than ours—only five households—so we decided to merge.

We organise events. For instance, we are organising one next month here in the prison, like we did last year. We then pay a membership fee and set up tombola games to raise funds before we begin the work.

PI. What motivated you to form this cooperative, and do you think the experience will be renewed?

It is not a question of motivation but necessity: we need a roof over our heads. If you have nowhere to go after your release, and if you have no work or family, what do you do? You may be freed from jail, yet you remain marginalised. The truth is, we do not know if the experience will be renewed, but we intend to return to the prison after our release to help other comrades get organised, to hold workshops and to share our experience with them.

Interviewed by Juliette Chilowitz

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