Bangkok Hilton

Yesterday Lucy and Eleanor and I went to the Bangkok's Bang Kwang maximum-security prison, aka the "Bangkok Hilton." I had heard that you were able to visit prisoners and thought that if there were any American's in there, it might be nice for them to see a friendly face from home.

In order to visit a prisoner, you must have a specific prisoner that you want to visit. I had called the American embassy and was told that there is only one American prisoner who accepts visitors and she is in the woman's prison, which is a separate location from Bang Kwang. Since there were three of us and only one of her, and more English speaking prisoners at the men's prison, we thought that it would be better for us to go to Bang Kwang together and for me to go to visit the American on my own. All of us felt a bit sick with nerviousness and admitted that we did not really want to go, but felt that we owed it to them to go.

We took a boat from the peir near CCS to Nonthaburi, the northernmost stop on the Chao Praya. The prison is a short walk from the pier and reveals itself as a prison by the two guard towers towering over grounds surrounded by a white wall topped with barbed wire.

We walked to the registration office and asked to see the prisoners whose names we had gotten from a fellow traveller who have visited the week before. We had to provide a copy of our passports and the name of the prisoner we wanted to see. After we registered, we had to have the books we brought from the prisoners, inspected by the guards; leave our bags in a locker (they were adamant that we not have any money) and walked through the large metal doors to the "visitors area."

On the other side of the door, there is a long corrodor to the visitors office on the other side. On either side of the corrodor are halls of visitors booths (with seats and phones separated by glass). In the center, giving it a much more pleasant feel than you would expect from this notorious prison, are long rows of flowering bushes stretching from one end of the corrodor to the other, on either side of a center walkway. We walked to the visitors office, presented our identification and were asked to wait in Room number 2.

Room number two, was just one of the adjoining rows of desks and phones that stretched the length of the corrodor. Each desk had a phone that connected to the booth on the other side of the glass. The visitors sat on one side and the prisoners sat on identical desks on the other side, with not just a peice of glass, but an entire walkway as well as the glass, between. We were all feeling extremely nervious and talked about what we could possibly say that wouldn't sound cruel or horribly ignornat. I don't remember being so nervous in quite a long time.

After about ten mintues, an older man with a big, busy over grown beard walked up on the other side of the glass. He saw all of us there and picked up two phones, putting one to each ear. He's comical demeanor immediately put us at ease and Lucy and I each picked up a phone. He asked if we were all here to see Gary Jones and we said that we had asked to see him, but were told that he already had a visitor. He said that he did, but that he'd love to talk to us. He said that he was from Austrailia, but had been living in England. He asked where I was from and when I said, "Atlanta", he said, "oh ,so you know Peachtree Street." Apparently he had lived in Buckhead for a time.

Before coming to Thailand, Lucy and Eleanor had seen a documentary on the prison and were quite distressed over it. Eleanor said that she recognized Gary as one of the main guys that they had interviewed and that he was in for personal heroine possession. She said that even from the documentary it seemed that he wasn't all that upset with his imprisonment. Our brief interaction with him seemed to show that as well. It appears that the name 'Gary Jones' is well known throughout the backpacker community and he gets lots of visitors. He had an address book filled with names and addresses and asked me to promise to write. Even though Gary's story is likely much worse than it appears on the surface, he demeanor put us at ease and maybe made the mood a little lighter than it should have been.

The two prisoners that Eleanor and I asked to visit were unable to come up, so there was only one young man to speak to the three of us. His name is Julian and he is from South Africa. Lucy spoke to him for the majority of the time, so all of this information is second hand. Apparently he was travelling in Thailand with his Thai girlfriend for 10 months. At one point, they went to stay with some friends of hers for a week or so and during that time they police raided the house and found drugs. The entire household, Julian and his girlfriend included, were taken to prison. This was three and a half years ago. Julian's girlfriend has since given birth to their child who is being raised by his parents in England, who he has yet to see. He has been fighting a court battle of false imprisonment since his arrest, but does not know what the outcome of his case will be. He said he just has to keep fighting. He didn't talk much about the conditions of the prison, but said that they have improved greatly since his initial imprisonment, something he attributes to the media attention brought to the conditions. He also told us that while the foreign prisoners have their leg irons removed after a month and a half, the Thai prisoners have to wear them for the length of their sentences.

We were only able to visit for about half an hour. Lucy spoke to him first and then I told Eleanor that she should talk to him since I had talked to Gary for a minute and because I planned to come back as well. As they were calling the prisoners back to their cell, Eleanor went to hang up and Julian motioned that he wanted to talk to me. He said that he was so happy that we'd come because he rarely gets any visitors and was just about to brush he teeth when he heard his name called and wondered what it could possibly be. He thanked us for coming and I told him that I would try to come again before I left Bangkok. He was only about 24 years old.

When we left the prison, I walked up to a food stall to buy a drink, I thought about how easy it was just then, for us to walk out of the prison, across the street and buy a cold bottle of water - something Julian hasn't been able to do for three and a half years.