US, GA, June 2012. Men’s dormitory in Calhoun County Jail in Morgan, Georgia.
Uganda, March 2013. Mutukula Prison Farm is a low-security facility.
Jan: Good question. Firstly, I asked myself oh, where can I take nice photographs? This would probably have left me with a nice photo book but where is the relevance? What would it mean? It was always my wish that my work played a role in the public debate.
Remarkably, by far the easiest to access turned out to be Uganda, I think due to probably the liberal ideas of the Commissioner of Prisons there who is a very open and transparent person.
Uganda, Feb. 2013. Biology lessons by a prisoner on death row (recognizable by his white clothes) at Kirinya Main Prison in Jinja.
The others were kind of a nightmare. France took me about two years to get access to the prisons. The US took me a little less than two years, and with Columbia the first round in medium and low-security prisons was doable. But when it came to the next trip, to take photos of the high-security prison, they cheated me. After a lot of hassle writing applications they gave me access to four maximum security prisons, but once I was there they stopped me from photographing anything but the nonsensical English lessons that took place in rooms that nobody was even in and in a workshop where they were doing some nice woodwork. It was still terribly dirty and overcrowded, but there were areas where if I just looked through my camera lens, I was surrounded by guards that physically stopped me from photographing. As well, in Columbia, generally judges didn’t want to be photographed because it was risky for them.
Colombia, Aug. 2011. Establecimiento Carcelario de Reclusion Especial in Sabana Larga has an official capacity of 50 inmates, it houses over 100.
What really struck me was that the atmosphere was by far the most relaxed in Uganda. Out of all of them, the atmosphere there was probably the best. Ugandan prisons though, they’re still not like hostels. They’re overcrowded, there’s a lot of poverty but at least generally, they seem to be treated well.I would say France, materially speaking, was the best of all four. They can have a lot of things in their cell, they can cook for themselves too. I would say incarceration in France is tolerable, speaking in relative terms. Those two systems struck me as relatively humane.
France, Oct. 2013. Cells in the Maison d’arrêt de Bois-d’Arcy. This facility was opened in 1980.
Well, I’d say that the prisons in the US were institutionalised punishment, despite the fact they were under the Department of Corrections. I think first and foremost, US jails are designed to be punishment.
US, GA, Nov. 2012. Meeting of the committee of “lifers” – men with a life sentence – in Georgia State Prison.
I did interact with them in Uganda. The photograph of the man sunbathing in between the nicely coloured walls in France, he was a mafia boss from Corsica. We talked for maybe half an hour or so. In Columbia, I was mostly prevented from talking to people. Same with the US.
France, April 2013. Centre Penitentiaire de Lille-Annoeullin prison. In the back of the courtyard lies J.M., member of the Corsican gang “Sea Breeze”. He had already spent 14 years in prison before being sentenced to 15 years for murder in 2007. In 2013, he was sentenced to another four years plus €100,000 for extortion of nightclubs, from his cell.
I didn’t necessarily set out to prove that one was better than another, that was not my starting point. Clearly, in the end, I have preferences.The correctional services and the way we handle crime seems to play a big role in the politics of many countries, and even more so than a few decades ago due to the rise of populist parties and this idea that how we punish people will determine how we bring down the crime rate. In the book, I present comparisons of crime and murder rates in several parts of Europe, which have gone down enormously. The world is a much safer place if you look at murder rates over the years. The world is safer than it ever was, maybe with the exception of the 1950s and 1960s and I think many people are not aware of that. I hope that the book will be a contribution to the public debate about how we handle crime. I think comparing different systems, situations and cultures is always a very good way of getting perspective.
Uganda, May 2010. Kakira Police Station arc .
I have strong doubts about the use of the prison system in general. I know that in some cases it’s necessary to isolate people from society. Some people just aren’t fit to participate in society, but I think that’s a minority of the incarcerated people. I think a lot of them are people who have bad luck, who never had a chance, who may have mental problems, who belong to the lowest class, and race plays a role. I think this focus on punishment, is not the best of ideas. I think correcting them and giving them opportunities to live a life that contributes to society is a much better idea, and that may well have to do with my own background. In Holland, incarceration rates are so low that we’re actually renting out prisons to Norway and Belgium.Interview by Laura Woods. All photos by Jan Banning
France, Oct. 2013. Cells in the Maison d’arrêt de Bois-d’Arcy. Of the 770 inmates, about 215 are on remand