‘Adrian’ (Canadian/Dutch)
Adrian is the first person I met at Bang Kwang and inspired me, with his enthusiasm to continue to return to visit more inmates. Adrian receives some backpacking Canadian and Dutch visitors occasionally, and smiles his big grin when someone new arrives to meet him.
“It is survivable here. It’s just such a colossal waste of time. The biggest thing is the massive time wasted in my life. Each minute of each day drags interminably, with absolutely nothing to fill it.”
Finding solace in his meditation practice, he says he has developed a routine of going to sleep at 6pm, waking at midnight to use the few quiet hours of early morning for reflection, meditation and yoga. This is the only time he finds to carve a moment and a body-sized space alone to reflect quietly in the over-crowded prison.
“They think I’m crazy here, he says, but I am always smiling, joking, making the best of it here.”
The first three years at Bang Kwang Adrian says he spent consumed by bitterness, anger and depression. But at the advice of a friend who counselled finding a strategy to cope, he started doing daily meditation and yoga. Adrian is studying psychology and Buddhism with help from the same friend who sends him books, crediting the latter for making him a more compassionate and grateful person. His Buddhist practice helps him choose joy in each moment, and Adrian finds meditation has offered him tremendous self-learning and reflection.
The current conservative Canadian government lends Adrian a paltry sum to help him buy food in prison but have provided little else.
UPDATE: With the help of the Ducth government, Adrian has been transferred to Holland, as of April, 2011. Way to Go, Adrian!
‘Felix’ (Russian)
Felix, age 40, is a Russian citizen born in the Ukraine, incarcerated since the age of 30. Determined to make the most of his 40-year sentence, Felix has turned his time in Bang Kwang into an opportunity to study English, which he has learned from other foreign inmates, and to draw. With no artistic inclination before his incarceration, Felix has been drawing and sketching what he sees inside the prison. His only family, an aging mother and grandmother, are not able to visit him.
Felix creates artwork he hopes to sell to support himself inside Bang Kwang. The only prisoner I visit who says he cannot find enough hours in every day, he reads and studies English voraciously, draws and sketches for hours each day, and works out daily, using a rigourous military regime he learned in the Ukraine and his exceptional mental discipline. With pencil, pen and paper donated by the Luna-Rose Prisoner Support Society, Felix is determined to try to make the most of his lengthy sentence by working on improving his artwork and never giving up hope for a chance to go home to his country and family. His subject matter, skill and style are quite astounding.
Felix’s artwork was exhibited at a Prison Art Exhibition at ArtSpring Gallery on August, 2010 on Salt Spring Island, BC and in Vancouver, BC in October 2011 to great acclaim. His work can be purchased on this site and all funds from the sale of his sketches will be deposited directly to his prison account to help Felix purchase necessities for his survival.
‘Tin Mar’ (Burmese)
Tin Mar, like thousands of other Burmese in Thai prisons, came to Thailand to escape poverty and severe repression by the military junta in his native Myanmar (Burma). Tin Mar found work alongside the tens of thousands of Burmese migrant workers who hope to support their families by working illegally in border factories in Thailand’s highly exploitative garment industry. Tin Mar’s employers gave him pills to make him work harder, faster and stay awake for days at a time. After his employers refused to pay him his previous three months’ wages, Tin Mar desperately agreed to carry methamphetamine pills across the border from Burma into Thailand. He says he had no idea of the harsh penalties in Thailand, as there are no penalties in his native Burma for transport or possession of methamphetamines. At the border, his friend shot and killed by Thai border guards, and he was taken into custody. Now 41, he has served fourteen years of a forty-year sentence.
Due to the poverty in Burma, he has had no contact with his sister since his incarceration and does not know whether his family is even aware of his situation. Tin Mar must work for other inmates inside the prison in order to survive. When Tin Mar entered Bang Kwang, he could not read or write his native Burmese language, but has since learned to read and write Burmese, Thai and English fluently from the other foreign inmates.
Tin Mar is one of thousands of Nepali, Laotian, Burmese and ethnic minority hilltribe inmates in Thailand’s prisons who, are as economic refugees, are frequently exploited and used in the sex trade or illegal drug trade. Most will never return to their families or home countries. Most cannot speak English and therefore cannot receive letters or support from English-speaking visitors to the prison. Tin Mar is an exception who has learned English from the other foreign inmates. He now corresponds with several pen-pals from other countries, which keep him hopeful of a life outside Bangkwang.
NB: Due to the particularly harsh treatment of Burmese and other poorer prisoners inside Bang Kwang, Tin Mar’s name has been changed to protect his identity.