Sawsan was 24 when her life hit #rockbottom. A mother of two and a loving wife, she thought she had it all. Until one day she lost her husband, children and freedom to detention. She is serving her sentence in the Baabda prison with 108 women, each with a story capable of breaking the prison’s #silent walls.

UNDP rehabilitated the Prison’s kitchen and its indoor social space to ensure #dignified detention standards for Sawsan & her fellow inmates.

Story:

Sawsan was only 24 when her life hit rock bottom. A mother of two and a loving wife, she thought she had it all. Yet in one day she lost her husband, children and freedom to detention. Today she serves her sentence in Lebanon’s Baabda prison which hosts more than 100 women, each with a story capable of breaking the prison’s silent walls. “It’s been two years now, two years away from my children and away from my life as I once knew it. Today I’m not sure I recognize who I am anymore,” She tells us. Sawsan’s life lost its beautiful features, after serving her time in a prison of five rooms, which she shares with people she “never thought she would even socialize with.” Shyly, she tells us what brought her here in the first place. “I made big mistakes that I regret every minute of the day! I never thought it would get here. When I borrowed money from some man at a high interest rate, everything seemed fine. Yet I hit a wall when the interest started to increase, and I couldn’t stop writing checks for money I don’t have.”

The Baabda prison is too small to bear the number of prisoners it hosts. It is a modest center that was once part of a public hospital. The prison struggles to match international standards for detention and to offer dignified living standards required to protect the rights of detainees. UNDP, with funding from the Netherlands and in partnership with the ISF General Directorate in Lebanon, are doing all it takes to protect prisoners’ basic rights. The kitchen’s prison has been rehabilitated together with an indoor social space to keep the prisoners warm and entertained during winter.

“There was no kitchen in the prison prior to our intervention, prisoners used to cook on the floor,” explains the Chief Technical Advisor of UNDP’s Enhancing Community Security & Access to Justice. “We aim at protecting the rights of these prisoners, by ensuring their basic needs are met. Prisoners’ dignity must be safeguarded, no matter what they have done.”

Despite finishing her sentence of 1.5 years, Sawsan has been in the Baabda prison for 5 extra months. “I don’t know why I’m still here, I just want to get out! I miss my two little girls and I dream of the day I reunite with them,” She explains. “The rehabilitation works gave us here a spark of hope; yet if you ask me, at the end of day it’s still a prison! If those walls could speak, you’d understand what I mean.”

Church of the Highlands founding and senior pastor Chris Hodges, left, and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley look at a wall that shows the different campuses of the church which span the state of Alabama, before a meeting at the Birmingham campus on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Gov. Bentley and Hodges met with Jeff Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, other corrections officials and members of the Church of the Highlands ministry team to discuss the church's innovative ministry that takes their Sunday Service and Small Groups experience directly to correctional facilities, helping those incarcerated grow in faith. (Governor's Office, Jamie Martin)

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The band gets ready to play at the launch of the SET FM Radio Station and the Recording Studio at Tower St. The band, like the radio station staff, is comprised entirely of inmates involved in the Students Expressing Truth program.

Faces have been blurred for confidentiality

UNDP is conducting rehabilitation works in the #Prisons of Baabda and Roumeih to enhance the living standards of prisoners. This year the work in Baabda was concluded, with the prison’s Kitchen and Open Social space renovated to better serve detainees.

22-year-old Rouba tells us about what the #rehabilitation works mean to the prisoners of Baabda, while explaining what brought her there in the first place.

“I don’t personally cook, but I’m sure for the others who do, the kitchen is life changing, for their lives is reduced to this place!”

“What brought me here is my drug addiction,” explains 22 year old Rouba. “I tried getting help as I resorted to various organizations, yet nothing worked. I wanted to end the suffering, I thought if I turned myself in this nightmare would end.”

Being so young at age and candid, Rouba thought by going to prison, her desire for drugs would be curbed. Now she is being prosecuted for drug dealing, despite swearing that she has nothing to do with that. Her current home is the BAABDA prison for women, which she shares with others detainees with similar stories. Despite being organized, the prison is small for the 108 detainees it shelters. When we met with Rouba, she was playing cards with her friend, who is also convicted of drug dealing. The room they sat in is the prisons ’outdoor social space.’ With concrete walls all over and iron made windows, it does not look like an outdoor space. On the walls, beautiful drawings reflect the little hope these prisoners still hold on to. The ‘outdoor social space’ would be too small even for a crowd of 50. In Baabda Prison, it is the only room where Rouba and 107 inmates feel a grain of the freedom they have lost. Facing this room, lies a newly rehabilitated Kitchen and an indoor social room. “These looked like anything but a kitchen and a social room before. Now they do,” explains Nahla, also a convict in Baabda.

UNDP, under the framework of its “Enhancing Community Security & Access to Justice in Lebanese Host Communities” is working on improving the life of prisoners in Lebanon. Recently, the BAABDA Prison’s kitchen and indoor social space were rehabilitated with funds from the Netherlands, to ensure prisoners have a place to cook and socialize, especially during winter.

Many of the prisons’ inmates gathered in the outdoor room during our field visit, somewhere singing and some playing cards while others were chatting gathered in groups. This is when we spotted 36 year old Hussna from Bangladesh sitting in the corner with tears in her eyes. Her friend explained to us that she is one of the newest prisoners here, and she does not speak Arabic. “No one knows anything about Husna. We only know that she fears her family thinks she is dead,” Her friend explains. “They haven’t heard from her since she arrived in Lebanon, and now that she is detained, perhaps she might be right! Many of us here suffer from these issues, and we have no one to represent us or support us to get out of here.”

To help people like Husna, UNDP plans on supporting free legal aid for the Poor in Lebanon. We will be working with the Ministry of Justice and the Bar Associations to enhance access to justice for all, especially those in pre-trail detention.

Teams of ex-felons seeking to start businesses in New York City compete in Defy Venture's first Mocktail competition. The teams created and prepared nonalcoholic cocktails (mock cocktails) that they then sold to guests. The drinks were as colorful as they were refreshing, especially in the midst of a historic heatwave.

As participants in the MBA-style Defy program, they learn business, accounting, and sales skills that can lead to successful ventures and careers.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley delivers his annual State of the State Address to a joint session of the Alabama Legislature, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. He discussed his $800 million prison construction plan, which will alleviate overcrowding and understaffing in Alabama's prisons. Expanding the state's already lauded prekindergarten program with $20 million, would allow another 160 prekindergarten classes to open. Gov. Bentley also plans to create a study commission to look at the feasibility of removing the state sales tax on food. (Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Ron Wright)

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley meets with members of the Alabama Legislative Women's Caucus including Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, at the state Capitol in Montgomery, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. They discussed Gov. Bentley's Great State 2019 plan, including transforming the Alabama Prison System. Col. Jeff Dunn, Commissioner of the state Department of Corrections, Dr. Wendy Williams, Deputy Commissioner, Women's Services and Jeff Williams, Deputy Commissioner for Governmental Relations and Community Corrections joined Gov. Bentley and the Women's Caucus to discuss the prison system. (Governor's Office, Jamie Martin)