Behind Bars

Before one is accepted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya (sounds pompous, I know), one has to go through 9 months of pupillage in any law firm. We call this the period of chambering. One of the compulsory things you gotta do while chambering, is to be part of the Legal Aid program .

You could choose either to work for NGO's such as AWAM, the Pink Triangle etc. Or give general legal advice at the Legal Aid Centre. Or offer to represent needy people in court. Or offer to represent persons who are in prison.

I chose the last one. I chose to go to jail Some of my friends found that to be an odd choice. Jail visits only take place during the weekend so what I was essentially doing, was to sacrifice a weekend of rest in the company of my loved ones... to spend it in prison.

But I was curious. So off I went to prison.

The first time I hopped on the Legal Aid Centre bus that takes us to Sungai Buloh... I was very apprehensive and nervous. I mean, the word 'prison' never has a positive connotation... But my curiousity surpassed any nervousness and I spent the long bus ride thinking about what I should expect.

We arrived in Sungai Buloh prison and the guards checked our Identity Cards. (Yeah... Lots of people want to sneak INTO prison) We were then led to a room where we had to lock up all our valuables like mobille phones, wallets etc. We were given passes and then we were led into the prison walls...

Surprisingly, the whole placed seem pretty cheery. If you ignore the barbed wires, the 12 feet brick walls and the armed guards in their towerhouses lah.. But yeah, there was a lovely garden, a fish pond and rows of leafy trees that provided shade.

My first glimpse of an 'inmate' was when I saw a group of them working at the vegetable garden. 'Tanam kangkung'. They were toiling away at the soil until they saw us. Then they all stopped what they were doing and stood there, staring at us as we filed pass. Eerie..

The guards and our supervisor had warned us beforehand. Girls should be extra cautious on what we wear and how we behave because "Some of these men have not seen a woman for a very, very long time". Eerie..

Anyway, we stepped into the last gate which clanged shut behind us. And locked... thrice. We found ourselves in a dungeon-like place. Dim-light, cement floor, gray walls... and to our left was a big room with bars from the ceiling to the floor.

And in the room were our 'clients'.

We were then segregated into 'counsel rooms'... two wannabe-lawyers to each room. We sat there, arranging our papers and pens and whatnots when a burly guard came into the room with two scrawny men who were handcuffed to each other. The guard cuffed the men to the table and left the room.

I experienced a cacophony of emotions. Nervousness, excitement, fear and sympathy. These men didn't look like much of a threat. But yet... here they were... in prison.

From that moment on, it was pure work. Interview the men to get their personal details and the details of their arrest. Coax them into telling us the honest-truth of their alleged crime. It was absolutely out-of-this-world... I was definitely exposed to a world totally outside of my normal little cocoon of life...

Some of the inmates were barely adults. There were little fellows, half my size (in height and in width...) who looked like they were still playing with Ninja Turtles. There were old fellows, REALLY old fellows with gray-hair and wrinkled faces. There were mean ones too... Ones who glared at you as if you personally arrested them and they'd like to snap your neck in two. And there were really 'gatal' ones too.. the ones the guards warned us about.

I was faced with a myriad of cases from all sorts of faces. The innocent little boy who said he missed his cat was accused of stabbing a man to death. The sweet, white-haired old man who looked like anyone's favourite uncle was accused of molesting his grandson. The yuppie-looking engineer was accused of drug-trafficking (and was facing a death sentence).

It was a humbling and humanizing experience.

Prison is not pretty (du-uh.. I know). When you're in it, even before you are convicted (for example, while you're under remand), you are treated like you're guilty. Guards treat everyone the same in there. A convict has to pee in full view of the masses, so does a person 'under remand'. A convict is yelled at by the guards and have his knees thumped with a baton, so does the man 'under remand'.

Criminals don't all come from poor, destitute backgrounds. Not all come from abusive or neglectful families. Some of them aren't even 'criminals' per se... but were caught doing something decidedly 'illegal'. What the heck does that mean?

Well... like the 17 year old boy who had sexual relations with his 15 year old girlfriend. They've been dating since forever but the moment he broke up with her, she cries rape. And it WAS rape... statutory rape. Sex with anyone below 16 is rape, with or without her consent.

And like the UM Medic student who was arrested for being in the same room as his buddies, the drug addicts. The law is clear, any owner or occupier of any premises who permits such premises to be used for the purpose of the administration of any dangerous drug to a human being shall be guilty of an offence against the Dangerous Drugs Act. Though the wannabe-doctor was not involved in the whole thing, nor did he test positive for drugs, because he was the registered renter... he got hauled in too.

There are countless of ways where the law can get you. And once you're in the system.... You'll bear the taint for life. If not on paper, then in your soul.

Heck... even I didn't come out without the experience leaving an imprint on me... It made me very very thankful for my freedom and very very grateful for the life that I have. It also made me a bit of nag with my brothers...

You may one day be free from the prison bars... but the shadows of it will always be imprinted on your soul.