Christoph Mägerli knows the importance of helping victims: he works with offenders as head of the carpentry workshop at the Arxhof center for young adults. The institution of the Northwest and Central Switzerland Prison Concordat offers a place for around 50 young men between the ages of 17 and 25 who have committed crimes. Through socio-educational and therapeutic measures as well as vocational training, young people are taught the ability to take responsibility for themselves, to share responsibility for others and to lead a crime-free life.

When Beat John, the managing director of Opferhilfe beider Basel, asked Christoph Mägerli if he would like to work with the apprentices to create kitchen furniture for the new location, he spontaneously agreed. The two know each other, as Beat John was head of vocational training and operations at Arxhof until summer 2022.

A challenging path

Dealing with their own offenses, risk-oriented behavior and victims is a challenging and rocky road for young offenders. Christoph Mägerli knows that. “Many perpetrators don’t consider that victims suffer and have to struggle with psychological consequences such as anxiety or insomnia.”

The task of decorating the kitchen of the victim support center gave the young men the opportunity to engage with victims. “We always think about the customer during the production of a carpenter’s work,” he says. “We discussed the victims a lot during the process of creating the kitchen furniture. And it became clear how important it was to the students to produce something beautiful and useful at the same time.”

Partisan and empathetic

During the assembly in Basel, the trainees then got talking to the victim support counselors. “That touched the young men. They felt that the counselors always took sides with the victims. And yet their empathy was palpable,” recalls Mägerli. The contact was rewarding for both sides.