(中文版於下方)

Discussions about social justice can go on and on. However, the most concrete and specific manifestation of social justice can be seen in the ways in which assorted policies and institutions affect an individual and change his or her life. On day four, the Peace Fellowship extended a special invitation to a formerly incarcerated young person, who shared his experience with the Fellows.

Exercise of body and mind in prison

Rizzy Pennelli, aged 27, is a native Hongkonger born to Chinese and Italian parents. Taken into custody in connection with the Ho Chung explosives case, he spent 20 months between 2015–2017 in the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre. After a short release on bail, he was ultimately sentenced to imprisonment. His total period of incarceration lasted three years and ten months.

Rizzy was initially shocked to learn he would be in detention for two years prior to trial. "Despite the presumption of innocence, conditions at the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre were worse than prison. There’s nothing to do, and the food was consistently awful. The most difficult part was having communication with the outside world cut off — anyone who came to visit had to queue for two hours, and then had just fifteen minutes to talk to you through a pane of glass. We also weren’t allowed to make phone calls, so it’s hard to keep up with friends. It made detainees feel very isolated.” The authorities organised religious groups to provide various activities and permitted inmates to attend religious study classes, which gave him the opportunity to get to know other people, but there were few approved social activities.

While in prison, Rizzy began working out. It was at this point he decided to become a professional personal trainer in the future. After his release, his aim became raising awareness about incarcerated persons. With support from the Hong Kong Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, he started a business offering physical fitness programmes for rehabilitated persons . Participants practise calisthenics (exercise using no equipment) in neighbourhood parks in Lai Chi Kok, Tseung Kwan O and other areas.

Looking back on three-plus years of incarceration, when every day was a repeat of the one before, Rizzy recalls the daily goals he set for himself. These goals could concern the minutiae, such as how to eat a bit better when given no choices, or reading all the newspapers and looking up twenty new words each day, or forcing himself to write to a friend every week. Finally, he settled on exercise, both to get his thin, injured body back into shape and to relieve the depression caused by the long wait.

Please see us as regular people

Rizzy took note of the room for improvement and progress in Hong Kong’s correctional system — offering incarcerated persons more proactive assistance in arranging activities, for example, and assigning dedicated social workers to check on individual needs, as in prisons in some foreign countries. "Everyone has a social worker to check up on them because, in those countries, they feel that imprisonment isn’t just about one person who has broken the law but also circumstances created by society such as single parenthood or economic pressure. Society wasn’t able to give them support, and they ended up taking that step. . . The culture in some foreign countries is to believe that an incarcerated person will rejoin society someday. Why not expend resources for helping to rehabilitate them, instead of expending them on bigger prisons and on management?"

“In prison, there are two main activity spaces. One is the cell where we sleep. The other is an activity room or workshop, something like that. But in foreign countries, some prisons are more like dormitories where prisoners can cook and move around freely - this preserves their human dignity and lets them re-establish normal lives, to help their reintegration into society in the future.”

A Fellow asks if Rizzy has become more cautious about rebuilding relationships after his release from prison. And has he lost faith in Hong Kong's judicial system? Rizzy feels his ordeal has given him a greater appreciation of human nature. As he sees it, everyone has a story. Speaking as a formerly incarcerated person, Rizzy hopes others see them as "regular people". For him, that’s enough.

“Being in prison is like coming out of the closet, to be shared only with people you trust.”

In the aftermath of Hong Kong’s mass protests, many young people have been incarcerated, so Rizzy's experience is not unique. In the safe space created by the Peace Fellowship, Rizzy is more at ease sharing in-depth his experiences and feelings. He is also deeply moved by the concern "strangers" (the Fellows) have for both him and his friend Elizabeth, who accompanies him. She too had been incarcerated and bares her soul, sharing for the first time ever long-suppressed emotions: "Many young people sent to prison because of the social movement don’t feel they have done anything wrong, so it’s difficult for them to find psychological equilibrium — in prison, their rights are taken away, but to get them back, they have to cosy up to the correctional officers and get on their good side." The thought that she had to stand with law enforcement just to preserve her basic human rights and to toe the line to gain their trust left Elizabeth unable to eat for several days after her release. She remains physically and mentally exhausted and is not able to let go to this day. Especially at a time when law enforcement’s power is surging, "these young people really need to work on building mental strength, or there will be huge consequences."

Rizzy admits that his experiences changed him: "I started to change after being in prison for a while. I was only 21 years old when I was first detained. I was more impulsive. Later I learned to compromise and knew how to get things across to the other side." The struggle between survival and human dignity was a kind of constant torment, but now he looks back on his three-plus years of incarceration, having gone through anger and gratitude, and acknowledges the positive value of his experience: "I used to feel lost. Although I studied aeronautical engineering in university, I didn’t like it. I didn’t know which direction I should take.”. Rizzy chose to face matters head-on, despite his sense of helplessness during prison days. "At that instant when nothing can be done, all you can do is to face it with courage."

For society to treat incarcerated persons with equality and tolerance, be more transparent in discussions and discover things each other have in common would of course be closer to the ideal. But when faced with an unchosen or even absurd reality, what keeps a person free is probably preservation of self-will. Rizzy’s will during incarceration was to "safeguard his mental state even in a harsh environment." Perhaps this was the only way to grow hope.

希望在於意志

有關社會公義的討論，可以無限延伸。然而最具體確切的體現，可見諸於各種形式的政策制度如何影響及改變著一個人的生命。Peace Fellowship第四天特意邀來曾經在囚的年輕人作親身分享。

在囚中鍛練身與心

彭艾烈（Rizzy Pennelli），27歲，香港出生中意混血兒，於2015-2017年間因為蠔涌爆炸品案被還柙於茘枝角收押所二十個月；短時間保釋後，最終被判入獄，前後加起來在囚長達三年十個月。

對於未審判便先要還柙兩年，Rizzy最初十分震驚。「雖說是無罪假定，但茘枝角收押所的環境比監獄還要差，日日無所事事，伙食也長期不好，最難捱的是與外界斷絕音信——前來探望的人要排隊兩個小時，才可以隔著玻璃談十五分鐘，又無法打電話，很難和朋友維繫，令還柙人士感覺很孤立。」處方雖有安排宗教團體提供不同活動，讓在囚人士上宗教班，他也因而有機會認識到其他人，但獲處方認可的社交活動卻為數不多。

獄中，Rizzy開始健身鍛鍊，並萌生日後成為專業私人健身教練。出獄後，他抱著讓公眾更加認識在囚人士為目標，並得到善導會支持創業，為更生人士開辦健身課程，在茘枝角、將軍澳口等社區公園以徒手健身（不以器械輔助）。

回望那些身在囹圄的日子，每天都重複過活，Rizzy當時每天都要自己設下一些目標，哪怕是微小的事情，諸如在無選擇之下怎樣可以吃得健康一點，或者閱畢所有報紙，每天查二十個生字，又或迫自己每周寫信給朋友。最後他選擇了健身，令原來瘦削又滿身傷患的身體得以重建，因為長久等待而低落的情緒也得以舒緩。

請視我們為普通人

Rizzy也認識到，香港懲教制度中能夠改善和進步的空間，例如更加積極幫助在囚人士安排活動，甚至乎像外國某些地方一般，安排專屬社工跟進個別需要，「每個人都有社工跟進，因為他們覺得一個人坐監不止是個人犯法，亦是社會製造出的環境，可能是單親，或者經濟壓力，社會未能支援才會走到那一步。」「外國的文明在於，認為一個人即使坐監，最終都要重投社會，為什麼不花資源幫助他們更生？而不是將資源只放在加大監獄和管理之上。」

「在獄中，囚犯的活動空間主要有兩個，一是睡覺的監倉，另外便是活動室/工場等。但外國有些監獄儼如宿舍，可以讓囚犯煮食或者自由活動，避免傷害人的尊嚴，也讓人重整正常生活，方便將來融入社會。」

有Fellow問及，出獄後要重建人際關係，會否變得更加小心謹慎？又會否對香港司法制度失去信任？Rizzy自覺經歷過那麼壞的情況後，反而令他更重視人的本質。在他眼中，每個人都有故事，作為曾經在囚的人，Rizzy 希望外界將他們視作「普通人」，便已足夠。

「坐監如出櫃，只能對信任的人分享。」

香港經歷了大規模的社會運動之後，更多年輕人先後入獄，Rizzy的經驗絕非僅有。在Peace Fellowship所締造的安全空間內，Rizzy更放心地深入分享自己的經驗和感受； 而同樣被「陌生人」（Fellows）的關懷深深打動的，還有和他一同前來也有過還柙經歷的友人 Elizabeth，後者更打開心扉，首次將抑壓多時的情緒身心壓力與人分享： 「不少因社會運動而入獄的年輕人並不感覺自己犯了錯，於是很難獲得心理上平衡——他們在獄中應有的權利被剝削，但要重獲這些權利，只能被迫討好或巴結懲教人員。」想到自己要和執法一方站在同一條線才可以維持基本人權，甚至要在對方面前表現乖巧，爭取信任，令Elizabeth 獲釋後數天也食不下嚥，身心交瘁，至今未能釋懷。尤其在執法權力愈發膨漲的當下，「這些年輕人實在有需要進行心理建設工作，否則後果會很大。」

Rizzy承認：「坐牢久了，自己也會開始改變。我最初被扣留時只有21歲，比較衝動，後來學會妥協，知道如何向對方爭取。」在生存條件和人性尊嚴之間的掙扎，永遠都是一種煎熬，但這一刻，Rizzy回望這三年多的牢獄生涯，經歷了憤怒同時也有感恩，並找到正面的價值：「從前自己感受迷失，雖然在大學唸航天技術工程，但並不喜歡，也不知道自己該往哪個方向走。」在感覺到無助的坐監日子中，他選擇積極去面對，「在什麼都做不了的那一刻，你唯一可以做的，就是勇敢面對。」

如果社會能夠以以平等和包容的目光去看待在囚人士，更透明去討論，發掘彼此共同的部分，當然更理想，但若面對別無選擇甚至荒謬的現實時，仍然自由的，大概就是保持自己的意志。「即使在惡劣的環境中仍然保持自己的心理狀態」，是Rizzy在囚中的意志，也唯有如此，才能生出希望。