Brian K., probably the best-known prisoner in Switzerland, has spent many years of his life behind bars, and the 26-year-old has even been in solitary confinement for three years. His lawyers say it is torture. Now the UN have intervened.
from
Isabel Pfaff, Bern
The most famous prisoner in Switzerland has short dark hair, a full beard and shoulders as broad as a wardrobe. Brian K. has achieved national fame in the course of his 26 years to date – first as a juvenile offender, then as one whose rehabilitation costs the state too much money, and finally as a recalcitrant permanent prisoner. For a long time the public only knew his face with a black bar over his eyes. But at the end of 2020, Swiss television was allowed to see the young man interview. He’s sitting there in a tight blue T-shirt behind a pane of glass, handcuffed. And says this one sentence that has shaped the discussion ever since: “Solitary confinement is much more effective than hitting someone. It eats you up from the inside.”