Fernando Méndez: Prisons

I am struck by the conventionalism we have adopted to punish people by depriving them of their freedom. It would be interesting to know who invented it. When was the first time someone got up in the morning and said: Bad guys should be locked up? First there were caves, then dungeons and from there we went to sordid and cold prisons (those), ending today in penitentiary centers which, obviously, are not hotels, but have a high degree of humanity.

I have been to prison twice. Specifically, in Pereiro de Aguiar, in Ourense. Once, it was to do a report in the press and another time, for television. I spent four hours there, which seemed like forty days. And the Orense prison is one of the most compassionate from the point of view of the room: there are no bars on the windows but glass windows with a view of the mountain or the patio, where the walls painted by Quessada, Alexandro and Vidal Souto are located.

But whether in Pereiro or any other prison, the idea is to deprive you of your freedom. I say that whoever invented prisons could also have thought that the inmate would have to spend several hours a day with earplugs so as not to hear, or wear a mask so as not to see, or be prevented from eating meat during the time of his sentence. There would be thousands of ideas, depending on the severity of his pain: for example, no sex or no books, no games, no conversation, but no, the lack of freedom has triumphed.

What doesn’t change is the repetition of crimes. We don’t learn. Even though we know how much of a threesome it is, we still fall into temptation, and whether it’s for power or money, we always return home. And of course, later, prisons become saturated, resources become scarce and, as a result, savings are made on heating. The solution to not being cold is simple and easy: pull the blanket.