When arriving to our last lecture of the second week, we had no idea that our lecturer was a prisoner who had committed a homicide few years ago. Looking our schedule we only knew the topic was "treatment of prisoners".
He pretty much looks like regular guy.
Who is he?
Our lecturer introduced himself as Veli-Matti Lehikoinen, currently in his late 50's, a prisoner who had committed a homicide under the influence of alcohol and was therefore convicted to 5 years of jail.
"Quite an introduction you don't say?"
But don't worry, the situation was perfectly safe. He was even researched for two months in an asylum and the only diagnose he got was an unstable personality disorder which sounds scarier than it is; it's not even a permanent diagnose like schizophrenia would be. He has gotten away from closed cells and spends the rest of his conviction in an open prison for a good behavior.
But as for what he had done, he is sincerely regretting it and is taking full responsibility of his crime, without excuses.
Source
His location is being tracked with a similar collar.
He has been given special permissions earlier too, to give lectures and he has already been in the civil service center as a visiting lecturer a year ago. On his ankle he has a collar and he's always carrying a tracking device that is sending data about his location 24/7. If he gets ten meters away from it a message is sent and the police will come and pick him up (if they perceive the message; once he forgot the tracking device into a bus, and it would've gone without a notice if he would've not called about the accident by himself).
He has also written about his experiences in a website called "Portti vapauteen" (engl. "Gate to freedom") which provides services for prisoners and their relatives with an intention to lessen the risk of new crimes being committed. Unfortunately most of the website, and Veli-Matti's writing in it, is in Finnish but here's the one thing he has written completely in English: Ethnic person behaviour guide: How to survive in Finnish prison.
In this article I won't go into every detail about prison life as Veli-Matti wished when I asked if I could take a picture of him. So, I don't describe everything as explicitly as he did.
Life in prison
In the first half of the lecture Veli-Matti told us about the life in closed section and the struggles he went through knowing nothing about the practices in jail at first. He was willing to tell us everything we wanted to know and he even encouraged us to interrupt him whenever and ask him whatever we wanted.
He described the social norms and how difficult it was to adjust to them trying to avoid confrontation that could've escalated with a one wrong greet or comment. Being a social person, Veli-Matti needed to adjust not to be conceived improperly; some people looked him awry just for greeting them on the dish line.
The prison world really can be as harsh as it's stereotypically presented on TV (this of course can vary radically jail by jail and country to country) the most harsh of prisons being the Helsinki prison: The prison world doesn't care what you were in your "previous life" and the laws of jungle apply. Hierarchy was strict with a caste system with people responsible for certain crimes being higher, more respected than others.
How he survived
The second half was spent with more hopeful in sights: how he managed to survive in the prisons' stressful and hostile environment. An important strategy he used was to keep his temper under control in a case of hostile confrontation, conforming to the other party of another prisoner of guard - a very mindful way of navigating, and wise, I would say.
Some extraordinary people helped him in the harsh world of prison, many of whose characteristics he has used in his partly imaginary writings in the "Gate to freedom" -website.
The most exceptional of a character was probably the "crazy gardener", in Kerava prison - a prisoner treatment official, a supervisor who Veli-Matti came across after applying for a transportation, to get educated as a gardener. He was kind of an adventitious case; sometime he could unleash his long hair and pretend to be a heavy metal guitarist, or just like that he could be on his fours pretending to be a bull with the prisoner being a matador.
"Prisoners are my therapy"
He was also truly a wild man on top of his character as he had guided many hikes in the nature with prisoners and talked about his cabin home he had built himself.
The prison in Kerava is an open prison where prisoners can have jobs and educate themselves. They are also being supported, informed and committed to getting rid of their potential drug addictions and rehabilitated to get back to society as functioning members.
The prison in my home city: Kerava, where Veli-Matti spent part of his conviction. The red building used to be a closed section until it was shut down because of fire hazards and the area was changed into an open prison. The field on the front is cultivated by the prisoners.
Source
This is not Veli-Matti's play but from prisoners in Kylmäkoski.
One of the greatest sources on Veli-Matti's survival was theater which he ended up scripting and playing main roles in his own plays. He even did a play with his acting group in front of other prisoners. One can only imagine how tough it was in an environment ruled by hate and anger, where being vulnerable is taken as a sign of weakness, to be attacked on.
The experience was very intense for him, and the acting in its entirety was a therapeutic experience where he dealt with complicated emotions. And as I understood it was one of the reasons he has been able to get to a point of today where he sees light at the end of the tunnel; a reason to life for. Regardless some of his connections being cut down, even with his own family.
SourceThe lecture was already two months ago on my education period of the civil service, and parts of this were also written early after it. But giving the time was a good thing for the lecture was very thought provoking and after letting it mature in my head, I thought now was a good time to release this...
...and soon my next article in which I get a bit philosophical and dive further into the world of criminology.
Previous posts you might want to check out if you're not familiar with what is the civil service about:
My Civil Service #2 - First week in the education center - The worst is already behind
My Civil Service #3 - The civil service center in the middle of a peaceful countryside
My Civil Service #4 - Mindfully increasing my life saving skills
My Civil Service #8 - My service was found precious right in the beginning