As of: February 27, 2024, 5:45 p.m
By: Anna Katharina Kuesters
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Sitting in a cell all day or looking after animals like cats?
In some prisons, inmates have a choice.
A cat among prison inmates.
That sounds strange at first, but that's exactly the case in the Nuremberg prison.
The cat Harlequin has been living there all year round for some time and socializes with the prisoners.
Originally she was only supposed to hunt the mice in the prison nursery, but now she is an integral part of the prison.
And Harlequin is not an isolated case, as cats in prison are more common in both the USA and Germany.
And they have a very special effect on the inmates.
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Cats help with resocialization
In America, the effect of cats on people is not only well known, they are also actively used in prisons.
In some prisons, inmates are now allowed to do so.
According to Zooroyal,
people who no longer have any prospect of a life in freedom
benefit from the animals there .
Sometimes they are allowed to live with the cat in their cell so that they do not become lonely and have to take on daily responsibilities despite their circumstances.
Because caring for the cats is of course part of the inmates' everyday life.
Anyone who does not treat the animals decently is no longer allowed to have contact with them.
Sweep away manure, clean stables and feed animals
Anyone who takes care of a cat takes responsibility.
© DjJuvan/Imago
Whether cats, dogs, pigs or goats, inmates and animals meet again and again in Germany.
Der Spiegel
tells of an example in the Bremen prison
.
It is now common practice there for inmates to be able to look after animals instead of sitting in a cell.
There are a lot of them there: chickens, pot-bellied pigs, goats and cats live together in a petting zoo on the prison grounds.
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The inmates' job is to feed the animals, clean the stable and sweep away the dirt.
It is not uncommon for a relationship to develop with the animals that gives the inmates strength and self-confidence.
It also allows them to escape for a while from their small cell, in which they have to sit all day if they do not have a job or training in prison.
Of course, the whole thing also has its limits: Anyone who shows violence towards the animals is no longer allowed to help.
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The Bremen JVA is not the only example in Germany where animals and prison inmates form a team.
Bayerischer Rundfunk
reports
on a cat in the Nuremberg prison that now lives in prison all year round.
The presence of the cat named Harlequin calms many of the inmates and takes away some of their tension, said prison director Thomas Vogt to
Bayerischer Rundfunk
.
Ebrach is also in Bavaria.
Dogs are used in a prison there and inmates go for walks with them on a regular basis.
For prisoners in open prison, there is also the opportunity, for example, to work on an hourly basis in the prison's agricultural business.
The inmates take on simple auxiliary work that still helps people return to a regular, structured everyday life.
An escape would be possible at any time while working in the fields or with the grazing animals, but the trust shown in the prisoners is also an integral part of the reintegration measure using animals.