A minister who works with prison inmates in Switzerland says he’s interested in learning how San Quentin deals with incarcerated men.
“It is important for young people who come to prison to have an education,” said Hans Strub on a recent visit to San Quentin. He said that for more than 20 years he has been director of continuing education inside and outside Swiss prisons.
Next June he plans to hold a ministers’ conference in San Francisco “to overcome violence and to promote peace-making.”
Strub reported the prison Swiss prison system is very different from California’s. Swizerland has 12 prisons that house 500 to 1,200 inmates, compared with more than 5,000 in San Quentin.
The Swiss recidivism rate is about five percent, compared to 70 to 80 percent in California. “It means that the rehabilitation idea is rather good and established…volunteers help inmates to re-integrate into society,” he said. Inmates are required to obtain a high school diploma.
“We have less crime,” he added. And there are many educational and vocational training programs in Swiss prisons, he said. “Inmates can learn a profession.”
There is no death penalty in Switzerland, with the exception of treason in wartime, he said. The maximum sentence is generally 25 years, he added, except for sex crimes against children, which can draw 40 years to life.