Justice - Calendar and sweets for prisoners in Bremen
All prisoners in Bremen Prison receive a Christmas bag with tea, coffee, sweets and a pocket calendar. The gifts were made possible by donations, as the Protestant prison chaplain, Pastor Christian Fischer, explained. Private individuals and institutions donated a total of more than 8,000 euros for the campaign. "That's a significant increase on previous years," said Fischer in an interview with the German Press Agency.
The donations were used to buy chocolate, speculoos and gingerbread for all 570 men, women and juveniles imprisoned in the Bremen-Oslebshausen prison. Fischer and the Catholic prison chaplain, Deacon Richard Goritzka, hand over the Christmas bags. They organized the campaign.
Some bags were given away in mid-December, the others will be handed over in the days leading up to Christmas. "It's one of the best campaigns I have in prison," said Fischer. Many prisoners are surprised and very grateful. He has already received kisses and hugs from inmates out of joy over a bag. Christmas is a difficult time for many prisoners. The gift is a message: "There are people who are thinking of you."
According to the prison chaplain, the pocket calendar is very popular with the inmates. "The longer you're there, the harder it is to keep track of time. You lose a bit of a sense of time at some point," explained Fischer. He pointed out that the prisoners also use the calendar to make notes.
The Christmas campaign has been running for around 20 years. It started out small, but then the number of donors increased. In the beginning, the prison chaplains asked for packed bags worth ten euros each. Some people wrote friendly letters or put pictures in the bags that children had drawn. However, the effort involved in checking the bags to ensure that nothing forbidden enters the prison was high. For this reason, the pastoral workers have been asking for donations since 2020 so that the bags can be packed centrally and securely. Personal greeting cards are still something special for prisoners, as Fischer said. Some will also be distributed to prisoners this year.
Appeal for donations for the prisoners
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Source: www.stern.de
