Participation in a Judges' Conference
María Jimena Monsalve, National Judge of Penal Enforcement for the city of Buenos Aires and president of the Asociación Argentina de la Justicia de Ejecución Penal, participated on July 9th at the Batán prison — more precisely in the Liberté territory belonging to the self-managed worker cooperative of the same name (run entirely by incarcerated people) — in a conference of judges held under the title "Garantías de Independencia".
Statements by the Judge
The judge was approached by the Liberté press team and had the following to say:
I'm very happy to have spent such a wonderful day, to have seen everything Liberté has achieved — we only recently emerged from our little boxes and got to see each other in person — and above all to realize that an alternative exists, a different way of living even within the context of confinement, even within the context of a prison. Liberté is a great example of that.
I would tell all judges and justice system practitioners that Liberté is an experience that deserves to be lived firsthand — you have to come and see how it's possible, for example, to have a store where you can shop, to fully self-manage all the activities that take place in this space.
It is a space managed exclusively by incarcerated people, and it works — with a whole range of elements that make a real difference, elements that should never, under any circumstances, be excluded or forbidden in our prisons and our systems. It's about understanding how important it is to be able to, for example, have an ice cream, have a soda, sit down with a fellow person and talk, learn to take responsibility, have a self-management system through which they properly invoice and sell products — the workshops, the garden project, the beekeeping project — they are all genuinely hopeful examples of self-management. That is what is most incredible.
Challenges Facing the Prison System
I think the hardest challenge right now — and especially in the Servicio Penitenciario of the province of Buenos Aires — is finding ways to counter the serious problem of overcrowding and the conditions in which a person has to serve a sentence.
The Importance of Self-Governance and Dignity
And the truth is that all of this emerged from self-governance and from the decision of all these people — this extraordinary team of people working to be better, to live better, to feel dignified, to be able to welcome their children with a pizza — all things that do no harm whatsoever.
It is unthinkable that this should not be included. It is not trivial — it is life itself, with its small activated moments, the ones you have to hold on to in order to get through how hard the deprivation of liberty is. Anyone who thinks this is a banality is simply wrong.
Source: Prensa Liberté
