Christmas love in jail with daddy

FRANCE: The convict cradled his seven-month-old baby against his chest and gently kissed his tiny head, keeping a loving eye on his toddler playing nearby with friends on his first Christmas visit to jail.

It was a moment of tenderness in a grim place, as the squat red brick and concrete Nanterre prison complex outside Paris hosted its first ever Christmas party for its hardened inmates.

“Normally, we get 45 minutes in the visiting room, but today we’ve got two hours and there’s a bit of atmosphere, other dads with their kids, it’s all good,” said Philippe, sitting with the baby in the prison common room.

Paper tablecloths in Christmas colours, plastic cups and plates, cakes, sweets and a tree bedecked with streamers the three dozen inmates and their offspring seemed a little overwhelmed at first by the festive atmosphere.

Nevertheless, the smaller toddlers were soon running about the floor, playing, laughing with Edith the party clown and excitedly tearing open the wrapping paper on their Christmas gifts.

“We need music! And disco lights!” squealed nine-year-old Mona. The older children, the 11 and 12-year-olds, took longer to relax. They wore serious expressions and stuck close by their fathers before gingerly trying out a few shots and passes with their brand new footballs.

“Me, I’m a thug, but him, he’s getting marks of 19 out of 20 at school,” said Marco, watching with fierce pride as his son played with the others.

“It’s hard for our families, harder for them than us.

But we screwed up, we have to live with that,” added Hicham, a tough-looking hardcase struggling with giant hands to string a row of pearls into a bracelet for his daughter. Paris, Thursday, AFP