Why I visit prisoners in Bang Kwang

                                                                                    Gale Bailey

I have lived and worked in Bangkok for the past 9 years, the first 6 of which I was in paid employment but since then I have been even busier with unpaid ‘work’.  I am a member of the British Women’s Group and was coerced (together with other BWG women) into visiting prisoners by a regular member who was leaving Bangkok.  She wanted to know that some of her ‘friends’ on the inside of Bang Kwang would continue to receive moral support after her departure.  Surprisingly after the first time meeting with some of the British prisoners, us raw recruits were ‘hooked’ despite the fact that we thought that prison visiting would be a ‘take it or leave it’ event.

It is strange and we have spoken quite a few times that we feel very close to the ‘boys’ despite never having been in physical contact with them as we can only speak via telephones, separated by glass, a metre gap and 2 sets of bars!  However we have built up friendships that we feel will continue whatever or wherever we are in the world.  After all we are also mothers and ‘There but the grace of God’ etc.  We can certainly empathise with their families who have also become friends.

The phenomenon that our friends are incarcerated on drug related charges whilst we are all so ‘anti-drugs’ provides much food for thought and despite many discussions on the matter, we cannot explain why we continue to visit regularly.  We look upon ‘our boys’ as human beings and do not sit in judgement nor discuss their cases in depth; after all they have plenty of time to ponder the reason for their imprisonment!

The letters we have received from the boys are quite wonderful and often emotional expressing thanks for visiting them.  We all feel we have benefited by becoming more tolerant and less judgemental in our lives when dealing with others plus it is very rewarding to be greeted by lovely smiles knowing that they appreciate the time and effort that goes into travelling to Bang Kwang.