There are often conflicts among prisoners and it’s my job to keep things under control. Recently there was a conflict between the senior prisoner in his cell and a guy who was always causing problems. This was just after I finished the training (a PEACE BRIDGES graduate) and I decided to address the problem differently than I always had before. I met with each of two guys separately to understand his side of the story and then brought them together to talk about how to avoid such conflicts in the future.
I was amazed that they were honestly able to solve their conflict in this peaceful way. Up until that point, I was the one to take the decision and offer the punishment. You ask me what I would have done in a situation like this before the Peace Bridges training. The answer is simple: I would have simply sided with the one I liked best. Always. And now I realize that this is not fair and it’s not right so I won’t do this anymore. Now I want justice and I wasn’t so interested in this before- I just wanted order.
-Male prison official, trained by C2 participant
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