The 24-year-old German, who has Moroccan roots, has been serving his sentence in the Remscheid correctional facility in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since May last year. Wearing white gloves and a mask over his mouth, Mohamed concentrates as he measures out the amber-colored honey from the big steel container and screws on the lid of a glass jar.
According to the German news agency, Mohamed has been taking part in a beekeeping program that the institution hopes will help it break new ground, by giving prisoners meaningful work with a therapeutic effect that can also help the environment in cooperation with 3 million “prison bees”.
State Justice Minister Peter Biesenbach says the program "sets a precedent beyond state borders."
While there are beekeeping courses at other prisons in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia uses a distinct approach: several institutions are involved in the project, and they cooperate with farm shops and farmers, who allow prisoners to care for the bees in their orchards.
The nurturing work of beekeeping is an odd fit with a men's prison, where many of the inmates prefer to distinguish themselves with their muscles and rude behavior. It was Juergen Kraemer, director of the prison's employment agency, who came up with the idea of beekeeping.
He has spent 40 years as a prison official and long pondered how prisoners could use their time inside more productively to prepare them for life afterwards. The 62-year-old director said: "Employment outside has changed. It's no longer easy to find a job as a carpenter or metal worker after prison."
Kraemer launched his beekeeping program in early 2016 and other prisons in the state have also joined. They currently work with 68 bee colonies with an annual population of between 3 and 4 million, producing around one ton of honey. The facilities share out the work, which includes making beehives, preparing wax plates, caring for the bees, harvesting the honey and regularly cleaning all the materials needed.
Mohamed is busy building honey presentation boxes from left over bits of wood and old palettes. "I used to be very aggressive with my family. That's over after the bees. You have to be very patient," says the 48-year-old, who was jailed in August after assaulting his ex-wife.
Kraemer smiles and says: "Those who work with bees have to follow the rules or they get punished immediately: one mistake, one sting and it hurts."
Kraemer is convinced about the benefits of his project: "It's an integration program for everybody: for refugees, for prisoners from Turkey, North Africa, Russia, the Middle East, who often don't speak much German, as well as many others who only have this one chance. Otherwise they would just make trouble and stay in their cells."
Only those in open prisons are allowed out of their cells to work in the orchards with the bees. The Bergische Bauernhof Conrads farm shop in nearby Leichlingen has allowed the prison in Remscheid to set up hives around its orchards and let the prisoners work there.
Thousands of bees fly around in the sun from bloom to bloom, diligently collecting pollen to take back to their hives.
"With bees you're connecting with nature. You slow down and get another picture of the world. Lots of people never get that. In prisons there are a lot of people who have deficiencies. They're used to confirming their self-worth through aggression," says Kraemer, as he looks out over the country idyll.
"Aggressive prisoners aren't allowed on the beekeeping program, which is very popular. There are people who can't be helped with therapy. They're locked up," he adds.
He hopes that many prisoners who take part in the program will later join beekeeping associations outside of the correctional facility.
Kraemer sees that inmates can continue to apply the things they have learned.
"It's something else apart from getting drunk and hanging around in bars. That doesn't mean it alone will stop them from committing further crimes," he concludes.
