For many, Christmas is a time for festivities. We get together with our loved ones over a good meal, exchange gifts, tell stories and above all enjoy each other’s company. For others, however, this period can be synonymous with isolation.
This is particularly the case for those who find themselves behind bars. In Luxembourg, 760 people are set to spend this year’s festive season in prison cells, based on figures from September.
In prison, loneliness is the order of the day, and at Christmas it can be even more acute, explained Christian Richartz, project manager for the eran, eraus… an elo? association, which provides support to prisoners during and after their incarceration.
“I was talking to someone who is very interested in prisons, who said to me, ‘Imagine being locked in your bathroom for five years, with no internet, no major distractions […] You’re in nine square metres, all alone for a good part of the day, and it’s still pretty hard to live.’ And I think this loneliness is even more pronounced at Christmas than during the rest of the year,” Richartz said.
Maintaining a social link
But what about Christmas behind bars? “During the end-of-year period, additional visits are exceptionally authorised in prisons, particularly for relatives. Prisoners and their children can take part in arts and crafts activities or, in some establishments, receive their visitors in an alternative space – such as the worship room – instead of the usual visiting room,” a spokesperson for Luxembourg’s Prison Service explained.
Richartz stresses the importance of these visits in maintaining social links. But for those who are not fortunate enough to benefit from them, particularly those whose families live abroad or with whom contact has broken down, the isolation can be all the more burdensome.
At the Uerschterhaff Penitentiary Centre (CPU) and the Luxembourg Penitentiary Centre (CPL), prisoners are offered a special end-of-year visit.
On this occasion, prisoners are given an extra three hours to visit their loved ones, without this being deducted from their monthly quota. In addition, at the CPL, extra visits are granted to detainees who have no ties in Luxembourg and whose contact with their loved ones is exclusively by video call.
Inmates also have the opportunity to celebrate holidays together within the facilities, particularly through cooking workshops, during which inmates in the same block can prepare meals together.
A special Christmas menu
“At the Givenich Penitentiary (CPG, a semi-open establishment), prisoners may submit a request for extraordinary leave of absence for a maximum of two consecutive days. This request must be addressed to the Prison Sentence Enforcement Service of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. If inmates are unable to take Christmas leave, they will be able to receive visits from family and friends at the CPG,” the Prison Service spokesperson added.
A special Christmas menu is also planned. “And inmates have the opportunity to buy special items from the prison’s grocery shop, such as cheese platters, croquettes, pâté, rumsteak, Christmas logs, eggnog, panettone, stollen, etc,” the spokesperson said.
As far as workshops are concerned, those offered during this period are specially dedicated to the celebration of Christmas.
“At the Givenich prison and the Uerschterhaff prison, a mass is celebrated in the worship room especially for this period. At the CPU, this mass is accompanied by carols. At the CPG, the entire site is decorated for Christmas, with ornate Christmas trees and creations from the centre’s creative workshop,” the Prison Service spokesperson said.
For its part, the eran, eraus… an elo? association is finally seeing a project it has been working on for many years come to fruition: offering a gift pack to all the inmates at Schrassig prison.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and we finally had the means to do it this year. This parcel is really a humanitarian act. It’s about getting people back into society and giving them a second chance,” explained Richartz, adding that the parcel will contain pens, notepads and a few sweets.
The association said it is “very grateful” to the Prison Service for making the project possible. “Because they are normally very afraid of drugs or other substances getting into prison,” Richartz said.
As Christmas 2025 comes around, it’s a little bit of humanity that warms the heart, helps the prisoners to re-engage with society and encourages a path towards desistance, even if the inmates remain locked up within four walls.
(This article was originally published by Virgule. Machine translated using AI, with editing and adaptation by John Monaghan.)