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Marius Renner (Danish School of Media and Journalism)
Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
Award of Excellence
International Picture Story
International Picture Story
Like other young men Bangis has dreams for his future. But in the least developed country in the world the way from dream to reality is hard to pave. Bangis has comitted a crime and therefore he is prisoned in Agadez, Niger. But where prison often is a dead end, the criminal teenager has chosen a new path for his life by being part of a rehabilitation project in the Prison Civile d’Agadez. He is taught a craft with the aim of being independent upon release.
With the reality on the other side of the prison wall sometimes being rougher than the one they are facing inside the prison, it is paramount to find employment. The point of the rehabilitation project is to prevent migration by helping the juvenile delinquents to open their own shop in Agadez - a city in crisis with no rightful employment found.
Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
Untitled
Like other young men Bangis has dreams for his future. But in the least developed country in the world the way from dream to reality is hard to pave. Bangis has comitted a crime and therefore he is prisoned in Agadez, Niger. But where prison often is a dead end, the criminal teenager has chosen a new path for his life by being part of a rehabilitation project in the Prison Civile d’Agadez. He is taught a craft with the aim of being independent upon release.
With the reality on the other side of the prison wall sometimes being rougher than the one they are facing inside the prison, it is paramount to find employment. The point of the rehabilitation project is to prevent migration by helping the juvenile delinquents to open their own shop in Agadez - a city in crisis with no rightful employment found.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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The population of Agadez is 88.000. The crisis of Agadez is mainly caused by the EU-supported criminalisation of the migrant industry in 2016. Being placed in central Sahara, Agadez played a central role in the migration to Libia and further for all of the West African migrants. Most locals earned their living off migration in one way or another. Local authorities claim that with the criminalization of the migrant industry, the work of around 7.000 people was made illegal, and other crimes increased. The criminalisation primarily affected young men and some are now inmates in the local prison. Bangs is one of them.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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The boys form small groups of 4-5 persons who share their food and cigarrettes with each other. If one person from the group gets food from his family, he shares it with the others. Today Mubarak got rice and beans from his family when they visited him.
In the local prison of Agadez there are 405 inmates. 19 of those are minors at the age of 13-19 who live in their own separate area consisting of an outdoor area, toilet, water supply, a small sand spot dedicated as mosque and an indoor area of 30m2 working as a dormitory. They are here because of poverty: They have committed crimes, have been involved in the illegal migration industry or have ended up in bad company and done drug trafficking.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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The participants of the workshop chose their craft independently. 17-year-old Bangs chose the electrician craft. When he is released from prison he wants to work as mechanic. At some point he wants to open his own shop in his hometown and in the long run teach other local kids the craft and make them work for him.
The other workshops are bed and chair weaving, motorcycle mechanic, tailoring, woodworking and computering. Here some of the boys are vulunteering for french language classes.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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"Some of the minors think it is easier to manage inside the prison. In the city you can easily end up in trouble. Here you don't have to consider the issues you face outside. Usually it is people who do not have a family on the other side of the prison wall, who feel like this,” Bangis explains.
Upon release it is paramount that PSF can provide material for the different crafts. With no material, there is no work. And with no work the probability of falling back into crime is major. This is the biggest challenge for PSF, and the reason why some of the people who were released end up in prison again.
PSF have helped around 1800 people so far. They hope to spread their concept throughout whole Niger and maybe even further.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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"My parents do not know I am here. And they cannot know. When I think of them, it makes no sense to me that I am here," says Bangis
Bangs' parents thinks he went to Agadez to work and he haven't been in contact with them for a while.
Before ending up in prison Bangis himself considered to migrate to Libya for seasonal work. He had seen his friends return from Libya with a motorbike and money in their pockets.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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It usually pays a couple of cigarettes to wash the clothes of the adult inmates.
The rehabilitation project, which is facilitated by the local NGO Penseé Sains Frontieres, PSF, is trying to push the minors towards a new path in their lives. Currently only 5 out of 38 prisons in Niger have a rehabilitation project as part of their programme. Agadez is one of five.
“The city transformed after the criminalisation of the migrant industry. Agadez is a city of transition, no longer for migrants on their way north, but for poor migrants on their way home. Those who had to give up their journey. The city went from living off the migrants, for them to be a burden. The locals no longer benefit from the migration,” says Alexandre Bish, PHD and working in the area, being an expert in organised crime and migration.
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Story: Prison Is a Way out of Poverty
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Those who don’t get visits from their family don’t get any extra food. The prison serves one meal each day. Therefore some of the minors become too tired to participate in the workshops, because they have no energy and have to stay away to sleep. Today Bangis didn’t go to his workshop.
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