So after a few weeks and a lot of phone calls and emails, I finally got back into the prison to do my final interviews.
A sign in a plantation gives you an idea how serious they are about punishment!
One of the most striking parts of this project has been the contrast here between some of the amazingly progressive policies that put the U.S. prison system to shame and some of the policies that seem to me truly inhumane. I think Americans often have a preconceived notion that we are ALWAYS more progressive than the “developing” world.
The Petronas tours in the KL City Center are seen as an example of all the modern industry in Malaysia and all of their economic progress
Sitting in the methadone dispensing room, which is also used for research, I am thrilled with the very idea! Real methadone treatment in the prison, something the United States isn’t willing to even touch. No one wants to “give drugs to drug addicts.” Malaysia is putting our prison policy to shame.
This in stark contrast with the “thwap” of the cane in the background about 10 feet away. Each time I hear the sound my stomach drops a little further and I am thankful that I didn’t have time to eat too much breakfast. Out the door of the research room I see a station set up for someone to wash the wounds inflicted from the caning. The men jump around the lawn trying to recover from the pain with skin hanging off their back. I know somewhere nearby there are about 250 inmates waiting to be hung for drug trafficking.
As usual it never comes out black and white. On one hand you have to be impressed with the prison’s dedication and openness to harm reduction, supporting this research, even letting me be here asking these questions. But I can’t help wondering how these draconian punishments fit in. How can we expect to change things when the prison is clearly just as interested in violent penalization as it is in harm reduction?
On the way into the country... on the visa application