Mum has to go to prison

Anita Tamino* looks at her right wrist. In a week's time, she will finally be able to take off the unwelcome device that looks like a fitness watch. The 46-year-old from Valais is serving the last part of her sentence in house arrest at her home in Lucerne - with the help of electronic monitoring.

Thanks to this new method used in the penal system, the mother of Samira*, 16, and Leon*, 10, can finally live with her children again. «I messed up,» admits Anita Tamino, who wants to tell her story anonymously. «Unfortunately, I once got involved in a crooked deal because of money problems. But why is the state also penalising my children? They are innocent!»

My son was placed with a foster family against his will, although he would much rather have gone to his godfather.

Anita Tamino

Her ordeal with the Swiss justice system has already lasted twelve years. «That's far too long,» she says angrily. From her arrest in July 2011 until today, the entire criminal proceedings have hung over her family like a sword of Damocles. The worst moment? When her son Leon was placed with a foster family during Anita Tamino's time in prison. Against his will. «Children have rights too. But in the Swiss penal system, these are trampled underfoot,» says Tamino. (Read the interview with prison director Patrik Manzoni on the subject here: «The penal system still pays far too little attention to the needs of children»).

But first things first.

Arrest in front of the children

On the afternoon of 29 July 2011, the police stormed into the Tamino family home armed and with a police dog. Samira, who was five years old at the time, was playing with two children of a friend who were visiting. During the arrest, all the children have to wait in a separate room.

«They forbade me to talk to my daughter. She was still so small and didn't understand any of this,» says Anita Tamino. Later, Samira is picked up by her father, who lives separately from her mother. The other girls were taken by their grandfather.

A holiday home with barbed wire?

Anita Tamino is remanded in custody at a place unknown to her. All contact is forbidden for the first two weeks due to the risk of blackout. What concerns Tamino the most: «I didn't know where my daughter lived and how she was doing.»

Because many of the inmates spend nights banging on the doors and shouting, Tamino asks to be transferred to Lucerne. This is granted to her. She finds the carers here very nice and helpful. She calls in a lawyer to find out how her daughter is doing. However, another two weeks pass before she can hold her child in her arms again.

The visit lasts an hour. «It was very emotional for me. Afterwards, I was just crying,» says Anita Tamino. In the sparse visiting room with a small window and a separate toilet, there is just an orange couch. «Nothing else. No children's books or anything to colour in,» says Tamino. Samira spent the whole time running back and forth between the couch and the toilet.

Although she was still very small at the time, Samira remembers it well: «I kept asking for mum. When I was finally allowed to see her, the time went by far too quickly. It seemed like five minutes.» The kindergarten child is distraught. She can't understand why her mum is suddenly living somewhere else. «Dad told me that you were on holiday. I then asked him: But why is there barbed wire here?» Samira recalls today.

During the four months in custody, mother and daughter are allowed to see each other twice for an hour and twice for 15 minutes. Telephone calls are not permitted.

Almost seven years until the judgement

After Anita Tamino is released from prison, a difficult time full of uncertainty follows. Because she is unable to pay the rent, she is given notice to quit her flat. She receives no support from social services or other organisations. «At times, I couldn't even buy Samira the shoes or clothes she needed,» she says.

Little by little, Tamino gets back on her feet. The trained computer scientist finds a new job and a new love. In 2013, she gives birth to her second child, Leon.

It takes three and a half years for the public prosecutor to file the statement of claim. This is followed by a further three years of tough negotiations up to the Federal Supreme Court. Tamino appeals several times. In December 2017, the judgement was finally handed down: a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence. «We hate Christmas now. The bad news often came just before,» she says.

With the help of a new lawyer, Anita Tamino makes one last attempt and submits a petition for a pardon." Her arguments? She had a good job, the children needed her, Samira was weak due to back surgery and her son had recently lost his father. «I sent in a thick dossier. Apparently nobody was interested. The application was rejected,» she says, still visibly disappointed today.

When it comes to my children, I have a stubborn head. I didn't want to let them down.

Anita Tamino

Serve the prison sentence within two weeks

Six months earlier, the mother of two had a conversation with the prison authorities. They gave her a year to accommodate her children for the duration of her prison sentence. «But after I applied for a reprieve, the authorities wanted me to start my sentence within two weeks. That was in February 2019,» she says.

Anita Tamino has not yet given up and, together with her lawyer, is insisting on the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN in 1989. «I didn't know anything about it and got fully involved in the issue.» She lodges two complaints. «I'm a fighter and when it comes to my children, I have a stubborn head. I didn't want to let them down. I really tried everything.»

At the end of August 2020, Tamino receives the final decision on the start of her sentence. Once again, she is due to start her sentence within two weeks. «What kind of deadline is that? That's not even enough time to give notice,» she says indignantly.

On her own initiative, Anita Tamino is able to place her daughter Samira in a boarding school, where she can stay until she starts her apprenticeship. However, there is still no solution for Leon, who is seven years old at the time. Mother and son want him to go to his godmother, Anita Tamino's sister, in Valais. She would like to take her nephew to live with her. «The Kesb Valais welcomed this. However, the Kesb in Lucerne was against it and was able to assert itself. Leon was placed with complete strangers. That frustrates me to this day,» says Tamino.

Aggravated prison sentence in times of Corona

On 1 December 2020, Anita Tamino starts her prison sentence in the Grosshof in Kriens. She is not allowed any visitors for the first three weeks. Not even from her children. After that, the children are allowed to visit their mother for an hour every week. Only behind a screen due to the coronavirus pandemic.

She applies to be able to see and, above all, hug her children in the family room. «I would have gladly accepted the subsequent quarantine obligation,» she says. But then, in mid-February 2021, Tamino was unexpectedly transferred to Hindelbank BE, the only detention centre in Switzerland for women. Everything is different again.

After not seeing her children for four long months, Anita Tamino is able to go out for the first time in May for five hours, including the train journey. But only within the cantonal border. «A good friend then came to Bern with the children, where we spent just under three hours together.»

From then on, she is allowed to go out once a month for five hours and take 32 hours of holiday. She is also allowed to spend her holidays outside the canton in Lucerne or Valais. She only visits her daughter twice during her one-and-a-half-year detention in Hindelbank. «The conditions were very strict because of the pandemic. In addition, the security service was very unfriendly with the children and Samira didn't feel comfortable there,» she says.

Dispute over expensive telephone booth

Anita Tamino is allowed to talk to her children on the phone for ten minutes a day. From an internal telephone booth. «There were regular arguments among the women about phone times. Everyone wanted to talk to their children or friends in the evening. During the day, most of them were at school or at work.» Whenever possible, she took on additional telephone time from other inmates.

«Making phone calls in prison is expensive. It cost me 200 francs a month. I wouldn't have managed without my father, who covered these costs. But many of the mothers in prison didn't have that kind of support,» she says.

When my daughter needed me, they wouldn't let her talk to me on the phone.

Anita Tamino

However, Samira and Leon are only allowed to call their mum once a week from outside the prison for ten minutes at a time. «Samira was very unwell at times and she tried to contact me several times. But they wouldn't let my daughter through to me. I only found out about it afterwards. Things like that really get you down. A mother wants to be there for her child!»

On 29 April 2022, Tamino is transferred to the new external residential group in Hindelbank, where she once again has her own mobile phone and can make calls to her children at any time. She lives there with three other women in a shared flat and can finally return to work. Her boss moves her office to Bern especially for this. «My boss is amazing. He really is. I don't know what I would have done without him,» she says full of gratitude.

The children are allowed to stay overnight with their mum in the external residential group twice. «It was so good for us. Why wasn't that possible earlier and more often?» she wonders.

«I had no one to cuddle up to»

While his mother is imprisoned, Leon is placed with a foster family in the canton of Lucerne for almost eight months. It was a bleak time that he doesn't like to talk about. «I only had a cuddly unicorn and missed my mum and sister very much. There was no one to cuddle with,» says Leon. He turns his head away and stares at the floor. His sentences are halting.

The foster parents were polite, but in a cold way. There were also strange rules, such as a daily room hour. «I would just sit on my bed.» He once made a hotel for ladybirds with one of the two foster daughters. He doesn't have many other memories of this time.

The stay with his godfather in Valais, which was finally approved, was a completely different story. «There were other children to play with, my grandparents lived just round the corner and there were goats and sheep. Once I was even allowed to give milk to a lamb,» he says enthusiastically.

The advantages of house arrest

On 13 October 2022, Anita Tamino is able to move to house arrest after almost two years in prison thanks to electronic monitoring. She moves into a new flat on the outskirts of Lucerne with her children. The flashing device connected to the electronic handcuff stands in a corner.

In order to be able to do her job, she is allowed to leave the house for twelve hours on weekdays, including the journey to work. «That works well. If I'm late because of a traffic jam, for example, I can simply call. Then the alarm doesn't go off.»

House arrest is a very good solution for families. «I live with my children again. I can be there for them. Wash for them, cook for them, do my work. Why wasn't that possible from the start?»

Tamino thinks house arrest is punishment enough. «Sure, after being locked up, it feels like paradise at first. But the punishment can be felt and seen. You're not just free.» There are also many financial advantages: «Placing the children with someone else costs the state a lot of money. I also earn a lot more when I do my job than I would working in prison, which has nothing to do with my skills. E-monitoring should definitely be expanded,» she says.

Off to Italy

Were the children ever angry with their mum? «No, never at their mum,» Samira answers for both of them. «She always fought for us like a lioness.» If she did, then she was angry with the state and its representatives in the prison system. «I wish that we children were listened to more and that we had more of a say.»

She learnt a lot from her mother, including two important life lessons: «Firstly, if you mess up, own up to it and take responsibility for it. Secondly, never give up!»

Anita Tamino looks at her handcuff again. On 17 July 2023, she will be rid of the device for good. Then, for the first time in four years, she will be able to cross the Swiss border on holiday with her children. To Italy, to the sea. «We're really looking forward to it!»

From that day on, she will be on probation until January 2025. The end of a long period of suffering, which for Samira lasted almost and for Leon her entire childhood, is finally in sight.

*Names known to the editors