Crime is not confined to any one race, culture, age or gender. Just across the road from my concrete home is a slightly smaller version of the prison I am in, but it houses something most male inmates miss- ladies.
There are around 300 ladies at any given time. The ladies prison has separate sections for awaiting trial, maximum and minimum sentenced inmates. There is also a section for mothers and their infants; whom they can keep until they are 3 years old.
The 2 prisons are only separated by 2 walls and a few fences. To me, it wouldn’t make a difference if the 2 were separated by light years but for some the ladies provide the motivation one needs in a place like this.
There is almost no possibility of meeting the ladies in person. The only time that there is limited possibility of meeting is when the ladies visit our hospital, as I understand their hospital is very basic.
Communication with the ladies is possible. Sending and receiving of letters is not only legal but efficient. This medium is the most popular. In their letters both male and female inmates will write about their friends who are also looking for ‘love;’ in this way the communication circle always grows.
Due to English being my first language, many inmates come to me to edit their letters or sometimes even write it for them. The letters are one of the rare mediums through which inmates truly express their feelings and by which they let down the guard we unconsciously keep on full alert.
Perhaps it is due to my conservative upbringing and Islamic background that I am constantly amazed at the brazenness and directness of the correspondence. After just a couple of letters, ‘love’ is expressed in the most endearing ways and promises of a blissful life together are elaborately detailed. I put it down to just another form of escapism.
For a brief period, I wrote to a lady who was doing a very short sentence for fraud. From what she conveyed, it seems that the way female prisons are portrayed in movies is pretty much the way it is in reality. Fighting, rape and contraband is far more common as compared to a male prison; especially considering the vast disparity in numbers. My communication ended the day she wanted to “take the relationship further.”
Another means of communicating is through “facebook.” Not the Facebook you know! The top floors of the prison buildings are enclosed by concrete walls which are lined with small holes (about 10 by 10 cm). One such wall faces directly at an identical wall of the female prison, about 150m away. Inmates on either side get the attention of their ‘partners’ by waving a sock in a specific way through the holes. Once they receive a reply signal they each wear a sock on one hand. The socked hand is visually clear from their vantage points. They communicate and often have sessions lasting for hours during which they spell out each word by signalling out the word letter by letter.
I have sat and watched and but too slow to make out the words but am told by the users that they love their means of communication. Each ‘couple’ also have unique ways of saying ‘”I love you,” and other short sayings; they even have ways of blowing kisses!
Cell-phones are also present in the ladies prison so some are able to be in touch through more conventional methods.
Whilst these means are effective; nothings compares to being face to face, looking into each other’s eyes and whispering sweet I love you’s. This is a difficult proposition but not impossible.
At the hospital there are male inmates who work as cleaners and assistants to the nurses or doctors. They make money by sneaking males into the hospital toilets when the ladies come for treatment.
Unfortunately for them, they are unable to be with the ladies. They can only hold hands and chat through the toilet windows which overlook a courtyard which works as the waiting room.
There is one male inmate who works in the reception area and he has access to pretty much anywhere in the prison without any escort. This is the only guy who I know of that actually gets more than a handshake. Rumour has it that he is in fact a gigolo who ensures some of the women get a lot more than medical treatment. It could possibly be true as the inmate he replaced recently got Aids.
In the recent past, more intimate opportunities were possible from what I heard albeit restricted by a fence. When male and female inmates took the dustbins out to the dumping area, they were engaging in sexual intercourse through the wired fence. Recent visitors to the prison have noted that new fences are being installed, with significantly smaller gaps.
Whilst I don’t feel that many, if any, of these relationships are based on true love, it is evident that love truly knows no bounds.
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