Prison uses maternal love to reform inmates
Female prisoners are being rehabilitated via classes that emphasize mother-daughter relationships. Zhou Wenting reports from Shanghai.
ary”, who has been a prisoner at Shanghai Women’s Prison for 10 years, is looking forward to the big event of her year — a visit from her mother, who will travel from the Philippines within the next few weeks to spend 40 precious minutes with her.
The 36-year-old, who preferred not to disclose her real name, was given a suspended death sentence in 2008 after being stopped with a consignment of heroin by the customs in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
Her defense was that she had been offered a lucrative assignment, but insisted that she didn’t know what was in the bag she was asked to carry.
She said her feelings are very different from when she and her mother last met at the prison, just after she was jailed.
“I misunderstood my mother’s love for me, and I blamed my failings on her absence during my childhood and adolescence when she was working away from home,” said Mary, who is due to be released in 2031 after several reductions of her sentence.
Change of attitude
Her change of attitude is largely due to classes about maternal love offered by the prison, she said. The classes focus on helping the prisoners express gratitude to their mothers, and become responsible mothers themselves.
“I was deeply touched when the mothers of 30 inmates were invited to the prison to hug their daughters last year. I couldn’t help missing my mom then, and I became determined to mend our relationship,” recalled Mary, who began calling her mother regularly and then proposed a visit.
According to Chen Jianhua, governor of Shanghai Women’s Prison, almost every women’s prison in the country uses the concept of maternal love as a way to educate and reform inmates, but in the past five years it has been employed in many different forms at her prison, which houses women from 18 countries in addition to Chinese nationals.
“Although they speak different languages and have diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, maternal love is a shared thing,” she said.
“Even if someone is not a mother, she has a mother. Even if she has never felt a mother’s affection, she must be thirsty for it. We hope motherhood will work as a force to encourage the prisoners to always be upstanding and responsible, and, for some, to break the cycle of family tragedy.”
The prison, which opened in 1996, provides inmates with pamphlets in Chinese and English that contain poems depicting maternal love. The prisoners read the books in class and are asked to recite some of the poems. They also read novels and watch movies with the theme of motherdaughter bonding.
Annual highlight
An annual highlight is when the mothers of 30 selected inmates visit the prison on or around March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day with their daughters. The visits have been a feature of the prisoners’ lives since 2014, although three mothers were invited in 2013 as a pilot.
“A simple hug can solve many problems for mothers and daughters who have had poor relationships and found it hard to apologize on the phone,” said Huang Yin, director of educational affairs at the prison.
“Some inmates said, ‘My mother didn’t come, but I felt like she was here. I really wanted to hug her.’”
The mother of an inmate surnamed Liu was one of the three invited to the prison in 2013.
Until they were reunited that day, Liu believed that her mother was keeping a distance between them, especially as she asked Liu to send letters to her grandparents’ house rather than the family home.
The 33-year-old, who was convicted of fraud, believed her family was ashamed of her, and was not aware that her mother had been invited to visit the prison on the special day.
“As I stood on the stage reading an essay I had written about the poor relationship between us, my mother walked onto the stage and hugged me. That broke the ice in our relationship,” she said.
Liu said they didn’t talk much that day, but she began to share details of her life in prison with her mother in letters.
“Some fellow inmates, who will be in prison for another one or two decades, repeatedly urged me to be nice to my parents when I leave jail,” said Liu, who is scheduled to be released in about two years.
“It’s as though they think they will partly be able to realize their dreams of spending good times with their own parents through me.”
During the celebrations around International Women’s Day, inmates who have won plaudits for good behavior have their dearest wish granted, such as wearing their own clothes to have a photo taken with their mother, or having dinner together with no one else around.
“For some inmates serving long sentences, a photo with their mother is especially meaningful. Some mothers are too old to wait for the day their daughter will be released from prison,” Huang said.
The activities have inspired some prisoners to write letters of apology to their parents and their children.
“To many inmates, their child is their hope, something to hold onto and live for. Without that, some would abandon themselves to despair,” Huang said.
Artistic approach
In addition to mothers’ visits, prisoners are encouraged to act in plays and musicals, and devise dances based on the theme of maternal love.
The warders feel the performances will inspire the inmates to improve their relationships with their families and live positive lives.
“Foreigners are usually more outgoing and are generally good at singing and dancing, so the foreign inmates really enjoy taking part,” said Li Na, a warder who works in the section where many foreign prisoners are held.
In October, an original musical called The Sound of Love premiered at the prison in front of an audience of inmates and officials from the Shanghai Prison Administration and the Shanghai Women’s Federation.
The show was performed by inmates and warders, with the involvement of professional directors and composers.
English course helps prepare convicts for outside world
Huang said the storyline is based on the inmates’ own experiences.
It focuses on a young woman who refuses to listen to her mother’s advice. She commits credit card fraud to pay off an overdraft, and then misappropriates funds from her employer to repay the money. Eventually, she injures several people in a fight when she attempts to grab the evidence and conceal her crime. While serving a prison sentence, the protagonist decides to try to reconcile with her mother after realizing how much her mother loves her, and becomes determined to live a good life.
Huang said every inmate, irrespective of whether they were a performer or a member of the audience, could find a reflection of herself in the musical performance.
Fresh emotions
Mary, whose father abandoned the family when she was young, said the musical helped her to understand the depth of her mother’s love.
She said she used to hate her mother because she often worked away from home, and as the oldest of six children, Mary shouldered the burden of providing for her siblings.
“In the musical, I witnessed the mother’s boundless love for her daughter. I gradually came to believe that my mother loves me in the same way, but maybe she never has expressed it in an open way to me,” she said.
“Now, I hope to have a close relationship with my mother, and to be a good mother if I have a child someday.”