In almost all EU countries, Foreign National Prisoners (FNPs) are offered education to learn the language of the detention country, which enables them to communicate better with prison staff and fellow inmates.
In most countries, they are also allowed to use the educational programmes the prison provides. However, the FNPs are facing the problem that these programmes are offered in the language of the detention country. Participation is conditional on the FNP having a sufficient command of the respective language. Since many FNPs have no command of the language of the detention country, they are unable to participate.
To address this problem, Dutch people detained abroad has been offered remote education in the Dutch language by the Dutch Education behind Foreign Bars Foundation (Eabt) since 2004. With its educational programmes and working method, Eabt seeks to implement the recommendations of the Council of Europe in the best way possible. These recommendations concern education to prisoners in general and to FNPs in particular. Education (including language, arithmetic and social knowledge at all levels) and vocational training, necessarily restricted to the theoretical part. Education they can continue and complete after they have done their time. Education and vocational training for which the prisoners can attain qualifications that will be valid in the country they return to – the Netherlands.
Detention abroad, with a culture and rules foreign to the prisoner, in a foreign language area far from their home and family, and with few family visits (if at all), does more detrimental than the harm usually caused by ‘normal’ detention.
Containing detention damage as much as possible is what Eabt tries to accomplish in the first place with this education. Additionally, Eabt offers education and vocational training that provides the best chances of successful reintegration into Dutch society and the Dutch labour market. Right from the start of the studies, the educational material is the property of the student, who can take it along in the event of repatriation or transfer to another prison. In contrast, studies offered by prisons often do not provide this option.
On their return to the Netherlands, numerous students say that Eabt meets its aims. As evidenced by their letters and evaluations, prisoners say it was thanks to a study in their native language that they could make it through their – sometimes long – detention abroad. The written communication with the Eabt study coordinators plays an important part. Prisoners are motivated by the letters with uplifting support, full of understanding, that encourage them to keep up and complete their studies and that help them to be more confident of their future and reintegration. It has made them stronger, they say.
Eabt has several examples of successful students who, after their return from detention, have regained their place in the family, the neighbourhood and society, partly due to their studies. Students who have managed to find a job, which would have been far more difficult without the qualification obtained – a self-employed gardener, a healthcare worker, an information officer at a housing institution.
Eabt shows it really works: education in the Foreign National Prisoners’ own language helps!