Jens Soering spent more than half his life in prison in the USA. In 2019 he was released on parole. In a book he describes his arrival in Germany and plans for the future.
Frankfurt / Main – Jens Soering still has the numbers in his head: He spent 33 years, 6 months and 25 days in prison, most of them in the USA. There the 55-year-old was sentenced to twice life imprisonment for the murder of the parents of his girlfriend at the time.
He was released on parole in November 2019, and was deported to Germany in December. The television pictures showed a man with old-fashioned glasses and a white tracksuit walking through Frankfurt Airport amid great media interest and applause from his supporters.
On this Monday, Soering’s book “Return to Life” will be published about the first year in freedom: the first breakfast with friends, the first cell phone call, the first excursion into nature, the first bike ride, the first visit to the doctor. Soering contrasts all of this with the decades behind prison walls.
In an interview with the German Press Agency, Söring reports that he is currently looking for an apartment in Hamburg. He is in the process of building a professional existence as an expert and speaker on the subject of resilience, the ability to survive difficult life situations. “This is something I keep getting asked, ‘How did you do it?’, ‘How did you survive this?’, ‘Why weren’t you broken?’ He thought about what he could pass on from his experience.
The 55-year-old is the son of a German diplomat and only spent a few years in Germany as a child. After arriving in Frankfurt, he flew on to Hamburg in 2019 to initially stay with a host family.
Soering initially confessed to the 1985 murders, but later revoked the confession. He still maintains his innocence to this day. Again and again he had unsuccessfully applied for his release or transfer to Germany. He has not been pardoned. He is never allowed to enter the USA again.
The question of whether Soering is innocent or not is polarizing. The 55-year-old has numerous, also prominent advocates. Others do not doubt his guilt, including former US criminal defense attorney Andrew Hammel, who has published several newspaper articles on the matter.
In retrospect, he regrets the confession that brought him to prison, says Soering. With the statement he wanted to help his girlfriend at the time; both were caught after escaping together in London, and she was later convicted of accessory to murder.
Detention was a “permanent danger zone”, external control, not an approach to privacy, says Soering’s book. The accounts were particularly bad after eleven months in a so-called Supermax prison, where prisoners live under particularly strict conditions. Soering describes panic attacks. The circle of supporters who stood up for him kept him afloat – acquaintances, friends and lawyers with whom he spoke on the phone.
Soering’s life was determined by others for decades, says Bernd Maelicke, an expert in penal systems and rehabilitation, about the difficulties of released prisoners. The 55-year-old did not have a degree and must now learn to lead a self-determined life – in successful professional, social and family relationships.
While in Germany the goal of the penitentiary system is rehabilitation, in the USA it is locking up and deterrence: “The subculture of fellow prisoners prevails, violence, drugs, rape, extortion dominate.” Soering has been released on parole, but has no probation officer who advises and coaches him.
Soering reports that many friends advised him to change his name in order to anonymously start a new life in Germany. He did not want this: “If I had done that, then these 33 years would have simply been a hole in my biography, they would simply be a pure loss.” Instead, he wanted to use the experience to help others. “I hope I get this opportunity from society, from the people out here.”
In the meantime, he hardly thinks back at all about his imprisonment, says Soering. For him, however, freedom is not yet a matter of course. Every day he enjoys it anew, especially now that the corona restrictions have been relaxed and he can get around more.
Jens Soering, Return to Life: My First Year Freedom After 33 Years Imprisonment, C. Bertelsmann, 304 pages, 20 euros, ISBN 978-3-570-10434-7 dpa
