On Local Matters this week we focus on a group of people that is isolated and often forgotten. We talk about prisoners. Yesterday, we had Christian Richartz at the microphone. He is the president of the association Eran, eraus an elo. The Asbl helps people who get out of prison to find their place in society again. Tomorrow, we will discuss the controversy that accompanies today’s opening of the new facility for detainees before their trial that opens in Schrassig today.
And today, we check out our own Ara studios. For 32 years, every Friday evening, Jeannot Schmitz is in the studio with his prison show Iwwert d Maueren, over the walls. In his show, people who are in prison call in, send a hi and a kiss to their family and friends outside or they send their comfort to their friends in the other block who are waiting for their trial. Jeannot plays their song suggestions, often songs that have a personal meaning only understandable for the loved one outside who they dedicate the song to. Jeannot opens a window for the detainees who often have little contact to the outside world. No smartphones, no internet access, limited timeslots for visitors. This is a need, he says. And that’s why he has been on air for 32 years now. He wants to make the prisoners visible, not the criminal offenders, but the humans that everyone seems to forget once they get behind the walls.
That’s what the idea behind Radio Ara was all about: give a voice to those who are not heard. Jeannot started the show in the late 80s when the predecessor of Radio Ara went on air as a pirate station, broadcasted illegally. The detainees in Schrassig didn’t have a telephone available and used to send letters to Jeannot. Their correspondence was searched though and as the broadcast was illegal, their letters were seized before they could reach Jeannot. They found a loophole, sent the letters to parliament members whose correspondence wasn’t searched and who passed them on to Jeannot Schmitz. Today, the detainees can call in without any obstacles. They reserve a timeslot at the telephone, and name the person they want to call.
After 32 years, Jeannot knows those who call regularly. For him, there is only little that sparks his emotions. But sometimes, people have been calling for three years, get out of prison then for a year or two, and start calling again – back behind bars. Or sometimes, there are whole families – father and brother, son and uncle, who came individually. For Jeannot, these families are symptoms of all that goes wrong in our society.
Photo: Pexels/Nikita Nikitin