Yellow Ribbon
Today experienced a first which not everyone had! I had a glimpse of prison life!! Had a rare opportunity to spend nearly an entire day because of work behind bars...and really, it is a lot of metal bars....I was expecting sneering middle age men with tattoos with KL faces(watched too much TV & movies..) and i was not expecting to find the inmates the total opposites..of cos in front of visitors, they have to put on their best behaviours lah..they were polite & just like anyone along the streets, and some, and quite a number of them are quite good-looking and suave looking ones!!!
They were an earnest bunch of pple, majority genuinely interested to find a job after their imprisonment..u can sense they are keen & receptive to employers who are willing to take them in. I really empathasied some with mid/long term sentences, lacking in workskills & out of touch with the society, how are they going to merge back smoothly?....can u imagine someone with were slammed with a 20 yrs imprisonment and about to be released soon..they might not know what a handphone really looks like, how roads are changed, what is vivocity? what's budget terminal..and they need the willpower not to revert back to the familiar old ways..
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posted by Ling @ 9:24 pm
2 Comments:
Hi, strangely I had a similar encounter today. Not any ex-prisoners but a beauty salon who wants to help 'ah lians' turn over a new leaf and find a job. a very simple aim but lots of hurdle. Jie Mei, you're in the right place. You'll enjoy your work!
I can still clearly remember my visit to the old changi prison almost 10 years ago while in uni. In my mind's eye, I can still see the inmates working industriously at the various "factories" and the stacks of writing paper that they've printed for use at the various polys... and even the containers that used to hold the marriage certs. Definitely no leering dirty old men... What touched me most was the samosa that they made, served on those little paper boats we used to fold as kids - all a symbol of their wish to return to society and be accepted by society. Job Re-creator, thanks for creating that second chance for them!
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