Romania - from Adina - Prison Initiatives.

Adina Rachieru is a student of “Petre Andrei” University of Iaşi and volunteer in the Penitentiary of Iaşi, Romania. She writes:
I am in the unenviable position of writing about myself and my activity. A good beginning would be to introduce myself. I am a 26-year old woman, a student at the Faculty of Social Work and Sociology of the largest private university from Eastern Romania, “Petre Andrei” University of Iaşi.

Unfortunately Romania deals with big problems as regards the social reintegration of persons who were deprived from freedom. This made me think when I started to work as a volunteer in the Penitentiary of Iaşi, precisely because I thought I would not be able to interact with people in detention

I developed a project with the prisoners with the purpose of developing parental skills and I participated in a social meeting organized on the Orthodox Easter, and gave gifts to the over 50 persons deprived of freedom in the women’s section. The joy on their faces was the most beautiful gift I ever received. In those moments my belief that I had made a good choice in working with persons deprived from freedom was confirmed.

After completing the project in the women’s section, I started to carry out a series of activities with men deprived from freedom, in semi-open system (punishes between 1 and 5 years) and closed system (punishes between 5 and 15 years). That was the first time I saw concerns that I did not think I would see in a place as inhospitable as the penitentiary. With the help of teachers dedicated to their profession, the prisoners create true artistic wonders, in graphics, painting, music and drama. Seeing all these, I decided it would be wonderful if the wide public could see them. Thus for the anniversary of the university I attend, I decided to organize an exhibition with a few of the prisoners’ works. It all culminated with a workshop on the topic “Modalities of social reintegration through art”, in which students, professors, artists, probation officers participated and were impressed by the exhibited woks. Hence I initiated a series of events meant to change the attitude and mentality regarding persons deprived of freedom.

A week ago I completed successfully an exhibition organized in the community, where over 30 works created by a person in custody of the Penitentiary in Iaşi were exhibited.

I hope that these efforts I made together with the teachers in the penitentiary, can change gradually the way in which the persons recently released from a detention institution are seen by the local community and to lead to the creation of social reintegration opportunities.