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A couple of weeks ago, we published the story of the restorative justice model in Costa Rica, which tries to prevent vulnerable women from going to jail after committing minor crimes. I sent the report to Berta Robles*'s son, as I promised him when I met and interviewed her in the Vilma Curling women's prison. She could not benefit from this alternative to prison because she had committed a previous crime: bringing drugs into a prison. She's been in it for four years and still has another two to go.
Robles was never able to participate in the speaking circles that give rise to collective reparation agreements, because he had a criminal record. It is one of the conditions to be part of this alternative and anti-punitivist justice system. After spending four years in prostitution, Robles wanted to get out of there. A colleague told him that putting drugs in jail was an “easy” way to earn triple the money per transaction. The debts of this Nicaraguan migrant and the dependence of her five children were a compelling reason for her to say yes. “That decision changed my entire life,” she repeated over and over again.
After reading the report, her son told me that they missed her very much, especially her little sister. “She has already changed a lot and she is ready to return to us and move forward,” she concluded. I reread what she said several times and understood the admiration that came from her words and how much she valued her mother's process. But I couldn't help but wonder if she wasn't already ready to be with her family before committing the transgression. If it wasn't precisely the need to support her five children alone, without papers and without a support network, that forced her to prostitute herself and then put drugs in jail.
After almost two hours of interviewing Berta, I had the same feeling in my body: I was very shocked by her self-critical speech. At no time did she recognize herself as her victim, nor did she talk about how she became pregnant at the age of 15 due to lack of sexual education, nor about how she endured the abuse from her husband due to her economic dependence. She also did not reproach all the times she asked for help and the father of her children, nor the family, nor the State was not there. For her, the responsibility was hers alone. “I shouldn't have done it”, “there is always another way”… Society usually points them out with the same severity.
“What else could you have done in your situation?” I asked. She shook her head and replied, “I don't know, but this is what separated me from my children. I did it wrong”. I haven't gotten out of my head for weeks what he told us and how much the culture of punishment and meritocracy has permeated us. And how easy it is to resort to the argument of: “There are more people who also had it difficult and did not commit any crime.” Especially for those of us who have had it really easy.
In a coffee, Coletta Youngers, senior advisor at the American human rights NGO WOLA, told me how she herself worked for years thinking that the solution to crime was to imprison people. “She's crazy, it doesn't work. Only when you see case by case who enters prison do you realize that the context of vulnerability of these women tends to be very similar. “We are witnessing the criminalization of poverty,” she explained.
But society is far from consensus. To defend the gender perspective, it is necessary to wear armor and be willing to counterargue. There is always a but'. If it is not the criticism of what is considered goodist or soft, is the usual question: And why does this have to benefit only women? The wonderful thing about feminist organizations and human rights defenders is that they are also great data analysts. And the x-ray of imprisoned women is what it is. It depends on the country, but between 50% and 70% of women imprisoned in Latin America are imprisoned for micro-trafficking crimes; a percentage up to 30 percentage points higher than in the case of men deprived of liberty.
Furthermore, as Youngers explains, they are the ones who tend to receive more disproportionate sentences for similar crimes than men. “When a woman steps out of her role, being a mother, being a caregiver, society punishes her much more harshly than it punishes them,” she says. In Berta's case, we are talking about six years in prison for putting 20 grams of marijuana in a prison. In Costa Rica, illegitimate possession of minors for adoption or forcing a minor to perform sexual acts have the same penalty.
Patriarchy and the fight against drugs have tripled the rate of incarcerated women since 2000 in Latin America, until there are around 95,000 women behind bars. The question is practically rhetorical: Has the incarceration of some 70,000 women for micro-trafficking crimes reduced drug trafficking? For their children, however, the impact has been brutal. “We have moved forward, but we miss her too much,” explains Pedro, Berta's son. “I couldn't study much because we had to raise my sister. My brothers and I have taken turns taking care of her. Many family have separated from us because they tell my mother that she didn't think about us. “No one knows the full context.” And context is essential to do justice. Restorative or alternatives to prison are a huge opportunity for the State to look at these women for the first time, because they should not only be out of prison, but they should never have entered prison.
These are our recommended articles of the week:
A progressive judge grants a precautionary measure to a mother of two in the 20th week of pregnancy and in a State that has an almost total prohibition on the interruption of pregnancy.
The member of the Supreme Court advocates changing the law that establishes that a woman must ask her husband's permission if she wants to sell a house she inherited or require his signature to request a loan.
Putin approves an amnesty for non-recidivist prisoners, with non-violent crimes or minor children as a measure to promote birth rates
They refuse to hide and, armed with courage, the victims of attacks with corrosive liquids stand up against impunity and lack of attention in Mexico. They resist social and labor discrimination, to live in the back room of hidden figures.
Only her personal fight against the prevailing norm of her time allowed her to be a pioneer in fields such as the exact sciences, algebra or physics.
The conductor directs the monumental 'Turandot' at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Experts warn of the risks that these interactions perpetuate sexist and controlling behaviors
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