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Women behind bars...

By Hemamala Wickramage

They are social outcasts. Some will never see the outside world again. Convicted and put behind bars for being on the wrong side of the law, they lead extremely unfortunate lives in Welikada Prison's female ward.

Their only ray of hope however is the newly appointed Commissioner General of Prisons Rumi Marzook.

He has made this place of misery and sadness, darkened with these women's terrible experiences, a sanctuary. They now have access to vocational training such as cookery, dress making and typing classes. "There is also the chance for them to learn English which would be useful to them when they leave the place one day," says Marzook.

He has also taken the initiative to introduce a bit of colour to their colourless  lives. "They now have access to Bharatha Natyam classes as well as enjoying musical shows once in a while," said Commissioner General Marzook. One of his first priorities  as the  new Commissioner General has been the computerisation of data at the female ward.

"We are doing as much as we can to make the conditions here better for them. This involves inner healing as well," he says. In collaboration with Sarvodaya, the Welikada Prison is  to have a mediation programme for inmates as well as officers. "Everyone here can join in. There is no religious barrier. I believe meditation would form an important part of their rehabilitation process," said Marzook.

"The place is not what it used to be. Earlier on there was no one to pay attention to the woes of female prisoners," says Head Jailor, Female Ward, Kumari Ratnaweera.

"Both inmates and officers lives' here have undergone major improvements as a result of initiatives taken by our present Commissioner General," said the Jailor on duty, Kanthi Pasquel.

The new upgrading which includes the landscaping of the prison gardens, has also looked into the basic needs of the inmates. "The food we earlier had was not edible at all.  Rice tasted like water while there were no spices or anything in the curries. But now there is an officer appointed exclusively to look after  food serving in the jail," said one inmate. The quality of food will be regularly reviewed says the Head Jailor. The shower and toilet facilities too have been improved with the tiling of floors and walls.

A dark world

As we take a walk around the female ward listening to their stories we get a glimpse of the results of poverty, hardship and social injustices that plague our world. Their stories overwhelm you. It's hard to imagine there is so much suffering and sadness amongst us. After the visit to the Welikada Prison's female ward one can understand the terrible suffering that women go through in the outside world which at the end leave them criminals.

Their stories bore testimony to the fact that 99% of all 'criminals' were the result of social injustice. True to the saying that "criminals are not born: they are made" - most inmates were people who had taken the path of violence or stepped onto the wrong side of the law as a last resort to escape from all kinds of social woes  - poverty, hardship, society's indifference to abuse and other forms of harassment. Take for example Madhushani (name changed) serving time for stabbing a man who kept harassing her since she was 13 years old. A slim, fair girl  with attractive features, she was once a nursing student. Her hands that would have cared for the sick had she been allowed to become a nurse now cling to cold iron bars. At 18 Madhushani has only shattered dreams and a bleak future awaiting her.  A man allegedly having links with the underworld kept stalking her demanding a sexual relationship. The perpetrator is older than her father Madhushani told us. At the end her  family sold their family home and moved to a far away place but to no avail. As a last resort she got the man to come and meet her and stabbed him with a knife leaving her in remand prison till the case is taken up for hearing.

Another inmate, 50 year old Sriyani (name changed), is one of eight women who serve life sentences for murder. A small made woman with a pleasant disposition, she has a remarkable talent for poetry - the kind that is created on the spot - hitiwana kavi. In between her poems she shares events of her 'past.' Listening to this soft spoken, mild mannered woman, it is impossible to imagine that she has in deed been convicted for a cold-blooded murder. A mother of three children - two daughters and one son - she says is in for killing her husband's mistress. "My son was going to do it he said. He is a young man whose life I didn't want ruined. I went and did it before him so that he wouldn't have to end up in jail," says Sriyani. Toiling for years overseas as a housemaid she returned home only to find her husband with another woman. "I fully regret what I did. But at the time I didn't have any other option," she said.

Tales of woe

Manoja (name changed), 25, from Rajanganaya in Anuradhapura with two small children is serving time for not being able to pay the bail money. Her abusive husband - the man who raped her 11-year old niece - was killed by an unknown gang and the police she said claimed it is Manoja who killed him. "Against all my family's wishes I'm the one who bailed him out when he was found to have raped my niece. But the police say I killed him," puzzled at the absurdity of the police' action she tells us, tears streaming down her face. "There's only my old mother left to look after my children. They don't have money to come see me. In fact they don't even have money to eat. The rice they serve here I can't eat when I remember my children. They don't even have the three meals I get in jail," she breaks down in between words.

There is 25 years old Charitha Pushpakanthi, (name changed) remanded for lack of money to pay bail. She was married to her childhood sweetheart who later turned out to be an abusive husband. "He after a violent rage one day came at me with a container of acid. I pushed him and ran off. The acid fell on him and he died," she says. Her two children too are with her mother and they don't have a way of continuing their schooling as there is no father or mother to look after them.

"Children under five years of age are allowed to be brought in to be with the mothers," says Jailor, Ratnaweera but for that you need a magistrate's order she says.

Then there is Shirani (name changed), 25, in for passport fraud. "The job agency owner had got my visa for an overseas job on a fraudulent passport and I was caught while he walked free," she says.

Kumudu and Chitra (names changed) both 30 years old are in for possession and dealing in drugs. One started the habit through friends while the other through her husband.

Of all these women Ratnaweera says "It is the choices they have made that has brought them where they are now. But we must never forget that it is the environment and circumstances that provide the person with the choices," says Ratnaweera.

For women who cannot afford bail, their children go hungry and drop out of schools because of no parents in their lives. The Prisons Commissioner's Wife, Florine Marzook has brought in a new ray of hope. In collaboration with well-wishers and NGOs she has helped pay the fines of some desperate women so that they can go back to their children.

"We cannot expect the government to do everything. They are doing the best they can. But those who could afford, if they can bring in school books, pens, pencils and clothes to be given to the children of these women I believe it to be a great meritorious act," said Head Jailor, Ratnaweera as we were leaving.

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