Sport in prison – the Christian Association of Young People (YMCA) Wolfsburg has been committed to social support for prisoners for almost five decades, and travels with members and guests to correctional facilities (JVA). The last visit of this kind was almost a year ago to the day. Corona also makes this social commitment impossible at the moment. “That’s a shame,” said Manfred Wille from the YMCA. “We fear that there won’t be much going on this year.”
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This work began with participation in a volleyball tournament of the YMCA Hanover regional association. “The then provincial warden Helmut Neuber had invited us and we went there with six young people from the Nordstadt-St-Marien parish,” remember Willes brother Hans-Jürgen and Ferdinand Uecker from the board, who were already there at the time. The YMCAs traveled to Hameln several times a year, and in return young inmates also came to Wolfsburg. Henning Bock, former sports teacher in the youth institution: “The visits to the volleyball and soccer tournaments in Westhagen were always a highlight for our inmates. I have fond memories of the good hospitality. It was positive for us supervisors that none of the inmates ran away on the trips … “
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In the nineties, the Christian social athletes expanded their contacts with the Wolfenbüttel prison. “For the prisoners, the visits were and are always a welcome change from everyday prison life. And the YMCAs always came reliably, which is not a matter of course, ”praised Rudi Stein, who was the JVA sports officer at the time. The visitors play table tennis, football or volleyball with the prisoners. “The sporting success is in the background during the visits,” said JVA director Dieter Münzebrock. “Much more important is the communicative exchange between the athletes. Above all, serious exchanges can take place in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere. ”In recent years, there have been game afternoons in the remand prison in Braunschweig – and the JVA sports badge, which is probably unique of its kind. “These contacts with external visitors are of great importance for the detainees. They can be an incentive to rethink future behavior in cooperation with the penal system, ”states Dietmar-Gero Meyer from the JVA Sports Service. The sports service also includes Oliver Grau, Mario Loba and Andreas Rehr, with whom we work trustfully.
Groups, clubs, churches, schools and individuals can also take part in sports visits to the prison system. For example table tennis players from TSV Ehmen. Gerhard Otte and Günter Donath from TSV: “We consider the visits to be very important because we learn what it looks like in a prison. And reintegration only works if the private environment is right. “
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“The visits are usually planned several months in advance,” reports Mareile Pieper from the management team. The athletes must be at least 16 years old, have their identity papers with them and hand in their cell phones at the entrance. “We prepare the visits carefully before and after. Sometimes we take juveniles who have committed criminal offenses with us. It is important to us that the victims see the situation “says Michael Meixner of the YMCA World Service Group.
The YMCAs have often been awarded for social sports activities in prison – for example with the sports medal of the state of Lower Saxony or the “Stars of Sports” award from the German Olympic Sports Confederation. “A great appreciation,” says Valeri Seifried from the volleyball department. Wille himself received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2012 from the hands of the then Federal President Joachim Gauck. The campaigns are funded by the city’s youth development organization, the Wolfsburg-Wittingen church district, the federal program “Integration through Sport” of the state sports association and private donors. Michael Kühn from the management team is grateful for the support.
As soon as the pandemic permits, the next Wolfsburg prison visits will be planned. Wille hopes that in the meantime the interest in this commitment will not wane: “It is important to us that it is seen how necessary preventive work is, how necessary meaningful offers are for young and older people. You really shouldn’t skimp on that. Because it is also a good victim protection. “
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