The average non-inmate knows about the very special inner workings of prisons mainly from two sources: Hollywood films and the reports of more or less rehabilitated celebrities, i.e. people of the so-called public life, whose non-public time in prison after all gives them a certain wealth of anecdotes.
Uli Hoeneß, for example, who spent a few months in private in Landsberg am Lech prison for tax evasion, later described time that almost epic scene when he met the “Capo of the Russians” in the prison’s own basilica. He was refused communion, so Hoeneß broke his own host and left half to the man from the high-security wing. A message was sent to him the next day: from now on he is protected here, “greetings from the Russians”.
Hollywood doesn’t mind.
In contrast, the source situation is more complex in the case of what is probably the most famous German inmate at the moment. Boris Becker has now been in prison for exactly six months. On April 29, he was sentenced to two and a half years in London for concealing millions in assets from his insolvency administrators. And of course now people are wondering how he’s doing. Becker fascinated people when he was at the top, a German child prodigy, a winner type, a tennis god. She’s still interested in him now that he’s pretty far down.
Becker as a yoga trainer? His media lawyer says: Not true
There is no other way of explaining the abundance of “How Becker is doing in prison” stories in German and British tabloid media, although the source here is of course neither Hollywood nor the person who is no longer in public life himself picture-Zeitung refers to an informant from “Becker’s closest circle” when it writes that the ex-athlete is popular with his fellow inmates, has lost eight kilos, trains in the prison’s own gym and is the actual prison coach for fitness and psychology “a kind of assistant teacher”. He teaches about 45 fellow prisoners “in fitness, nutrition, crisis management and a special type of yoga and meditation” because, as an athlete, he is very familiar “with victories and defeats”.
Becker’s media lawyer Christian-Oliver Moser does not want to comment on this, he refers to a few short sentences that he recently dictated to the German Press Agency. First: “Our client, Boris Becker, is still doing well given the circumstances and he fits constructively into everyday prison life.” Second: Becker can make calls and communicate with the outside world at any time. Third, “Further details of his detention are protected privately.” And what the picture-Zeitung speculate, he still tells the SZ, “that he is somehow a yoga trainer”, he cannot confirm that at all.
Since mid-May, Boris Becker has lived in a cell in Huntercombe prison between London and Oxford, an institution with a low security level for around 480 convicted men from abroad – official sources have exceptionally proven this without a doubt. Before that, however, he had to serve a small part of his imprisonment in the notorious Wandsworth prison, the background noise of which an ex-inmate once described to the broadcaster RTL: “Screaming, grunting, barking, swearing, laughing, crying, arguing, fighting, howling”.
Rats, dirt and overcrowding: London’s Wandsworth Prison doesn’t have a good reputation.
(Photo: Sabrina Merolla/dpa)
If you believe the city maps, Wandsworth is said to be less than three kilometers as the crow flies from Becker’s former triumph place Wimbledon, but in truth it is somehow on the other side of the world for Wimbledon and its heroes. Becker should also have been happy when he was allowed to move to Huntercombe. His lawyer again: “Look at the websites of the two prisons. And if you look at the security levels, then you can see that there are qualitative differences.”
In any case, in Huntercombe, inmates actually have the option of using a gym, football or basketball should also be possible, but apparently not tennis. The inmates can not only train in English or math, but also in bricklaying, painting, cleaning and kitchen work.
The question remains how long Becker will have to stay there. The verdict said the second half of his sentence could likely be suspended, which could be after 15 months. It is also unclear whether Becker can then stay in London, where he has lived for around ten years and where his current partner, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, also lives. Any foreign national sentenced to prison for a criminal offense is eligible for deportation “at the earliest opportunity,” the UK Home Office said a few months ago.
How did Boris Becker fare up until then? He’ll probably tell it himself at some point when he’s a public figure again.