On Friday 14th of May, members of Quang Minh Buddhist Temple had organised a visit to Dame Phyllis Frost Centre – the largest women’s prison facility in Victoria – to celebrate with the Vietnamese women prisoners the special occasion of ‘Le Phat Dan’ or ‘Buddha Day’. Before I begin to describe my own experiences of visiting the Vietnamese women prisoners, I would first like to inform you of some useful background information on Vietnamese women in the prison system in Victoria.
According to the Statistical Profile of the Victorian Prison System report (2009), the number of women prisoners increased by 9.7% (from 257 to 282) between 30 June 2005 and 30 June 2009. What is alarming to the Vietnamese community is the fact that in Victoria, Vietnamese-born women represent the fastest-growing group within the women’s prisoner population. In fact, Vietnam-born women represent the highest proportion of prisoners born outside Australia. It has been found that the most common types of offences committed by Vietnamese women prisoners were related to drug trafficking. However, a closer inspection of Vietnamese women’s offending patterns revealed a deeper problem associated with gambling.Before my visit to the women’s prison, I thought I had a reasonable knowledge and understanding of Vietnamese women prisoners from my own reading of various reports and literature. However, as soon as I entered past the security gates that will imprison these women for months and years to come, I was confronted with a mix of emotions that no reading could ever prepare me for.
Upon entering the prison facility, we were all carrying large boxes of delicious vegan food that the lovely women of Quang Minh Buddhist Temple had prepared for our lunch with the Vietnamese women prisoners. As this was my first visit to any prison facility, my body was riddled with nerves and anxiety - anxiety of not knowing what to expect and how the day will unfold. As I anxiously held onto my box of food, I cautiously trailed behind the prison’s Vietnamese Liaison Officer, Mr Hoang Nguyen, who was leading us to the chapel where we would spend the day with the women. As I looked around the prison environment, I was surprised to see that there were no old, dark, dilapidated buildings in sight nor did the prison environment emanate a sense of claustrophobia or isolation. This was in stark contrast to the images I had conjured up in my own mind about prison facilities. The atmosphere was much more inviting than I thought it would be – I was even surprised to see women prisoners walking freely around the prison grounds, socialising with other prison inmates.
As we slowly turned a corner, making our way up to the prison chapel, we were met with a procession of Vietnamese women all uniformly dressed in blue tracksuit outfits. The women’s eyes were beaming with joy and excitement. Before I knew it, the box of food that I was clinging onto ever so tightly was being released from my arms. Most of the women prisoners were fussing around us; relieving us of any heavy load we were carrying and extended a helping hand where it was needed. As I entered the chapel, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. There was such a commotion going on. Many of the women prisoners had congregated around a table at the front of the chapel, carefully positioning flowers into a vase and fruits into a bowl. I soon realised that they were setting up the Buddhist alter. In this moment, I realised how important it was for these women to feel useful. I wasn’t the only one who noticed this as many of the women from Quang Minh Temple had stepped aside and allowed the women prisoners to take control of the preparations.
Once everyone settled down in the chapel, Venerable Thich Phuoc Thai commenced the day by leading the prayers to commemorate Buddha Day. Following the prayers, we continued the celebration with a lunch in the open courtyard that adjoined the chapel. I happily watched each of the women prisoners devour the buffet of assorted vegan food set before them. The excitement in the air was contagious – animated conversations filled with great laughter and joy. In observing this scene, one could easily pass the judgement that the emotional tone of women’s prison life was anything but bleak and sombre. While I, myself, cannot comment on how day-to-day prison life may be like for these women, I am sure that normal prison life would not elicit such feelings of joy that each of these women appeared to be experiencing on this special day. For example, I recall something as little as offering them the leftover food to take back to their rooms was met with such appreciation and joy. Our visit would have allowed these women to feel a sense of normality in their day-to-day prison life, a feeling of being connected to the outside world.
Following lunch, we proceeded back inside the chapel. The Vietnamese women prisoners had the opportunity to ask Venerable Thich Phuoc Thai questions that they wished to be answered. Many of these questions raised the issues of the difference between right and wrong.
I have to say, our final moments with the women were my most memorable moment of the day: the whole room broke into traditional Vietnamese songs. Looking around each of the women’s faces as they sang, I felt that they were truly living in the present and not weighed by the problems of their past or what may become in the future. Venerable Thich Phuoc Thai, in his final address to the Vietnamese women prisoners, strongly encouraged these women to not allow the actions of their past define who they are to become in the future. Upon leaving the prison facility, I hope two things for these women: first, I hope that they are able to acknowledge, and learn from their past offending behaviour and; secondly, I hope that there are effective programs and services that will support this group of women offenders to lead non-offending lives following their return to the community.
Roslyn Le is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University. Her thesis, 'Risky Business: Understanding Vietnamese-Australian Women Drug Couriers', is specifically concerned with understanding the social and economic environments surrounding Vietnamese-Australian women heroin offenders. She is also interested in exploring the motivations for getting involved in heroin smuggling. This thesis will deviate from much of the existing literature on ethnic minorities and drug trafficking by allowing convicted Vietnamese-Australian drug traffickers to speak for themselves, describing from their point of view the circumstances that evolve around their participation in the international heroin trade.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 15:13