She started in the private sector, those who know her say she is a patient, calm, and reflective person. In her free time, she enjoys reading and spending time with her family and friends. She defines herself as a sensitive, emotional, and perceptive person.
From being an entrepreneur to doing therapy with horses in prison.
To understand why I became a prison officer, we have to go back quite some time. Being a financial director of a consulting firm, and due to life circumstances, I decided to make a turn and create my own company focused on the development of emotional intelligence and social skills. Although our main objective was to provide training to executive professionals, we gradually started reaching out to other groups, including individuals serving sentences in correctional facilities. The project included a theoretical part in the classroom and a practical part, where horses were brought to the center to interact with them.
Horses act as mirrors of our own energies, emotions, and moods, and react accordingly to what they perceive, which is why they are a very useful tool for working on self-awareness and self-control.
Part of that project consisted of a scheduled visit to an equine farm, not only for that ground-level interaction, but also to observe how they, social animals like us, interact within their social group.
The first time I went out, I had a lump in my throat.
That was my first contact with the prison world. When it was over, I felt somewhat discouraged and had a lump in my throat. I have to admit that I wasn’t accustomed to this world and discovered that there are realities and situations very different from what I had experienced until then. Then I reflected and realized that maybe everything I had done could have helped someone, and that’s when I started thinking that if that was the case, it was worth it. But I still didn’t think, let alone being a prison officer. My thing was the private sector.
“Many people think that prisoners live well, but they are unaware of what it is like to be deprived of freedom, both in terms of movement and the will to decide what you want to do at any given moment of the day.”
Graphology made me interested in prisons.
After the experience with horses, the next project came. Graphology is a tool that studies an individual’s personality through their handwriting. I studied graphology and forensic handwriting analysis as a hobby. Graphology focused on criminality wasn’t well-researched, which sparked my special interest, so I requested authorization from the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions to conduct a study, which was granted to me after two years. And that’s how I started a new journey in the penitentiary world. During my visits to the center, I would interview the inmates and invite them to write a free, handwritten composition and participate in a series of projective tests consisting of drawings. All this with the goal of getting to know not only aspects of their personality but also their emotional state.
We can all end up in prison.
While conducting this research, a prison officer contacted me, expressing interest in my work, and it was from then on that I considered preparing for the civil service exam, which I eventually passed.
Now being a civil servant, I have realized that the interaction with inmates is different from when I was a volunteer. They don’t open up as much. The uniform is imposing; it constitutes a very real barrier.
I don’t see inmates, I see people. You realize that we can all end up here. Anyone can make a mistake or err at some point.
Somewhere I read that all of us, at some point in our lives, should make three obligatory visits: a cemetery, a hospital, and a prison, to learn to appreciate life, health, and freedom.
Many people say that prisoners live well. And in a way, it may seem so, but they lack the essentials, not only the freedom of movement but also the freedom to decide what they want to do at any given moment of the day. Another thing that is criticized, due to lack of knowledge, are the facilities and activities, when in reality, they are essential for reeducation and reintegration, as well as making the stay in prison more bearable.
As a civil servant, I enjoy my work in many aspects, and I have a firm hope that the experience of being in a correctional facility will be beneficial and result in a positive and useful experience for all those who have to go through it, helping them find the right path for rehabilitation.
