Christmas Prison Ministry

I want to share a day of a special Christmas program at a local prison. Not long before Christmas, and through aj.Chulee, we teamed up with the International Prison Chaplaincy Association to provide a Christmas service for inmates at the Chiang Mai Central Prison for men. We had quite a big group for quite a large production: interactive singing and dancing, caroling, preaching, praying and a dramatic performance (yes, all this, we only had a couple of hours to do it!). It was quite an undertaking. This was the first time I'd been a men's prison, and first time to do prison ministry with such a large group.

For a group of our size, entering layer upon and layer of steel bars involved a fair bit or waiting, confusion, commotion, and guards shouting instructions two feet next to us through hand-held megaphones.

We watched as new prisoners were transported to the prison, like cattle, in the cadged backs of pick-up trucks, like this one below. Part of the delay was waiting for them to get through. When we were finally two layers of bars inside we noticed they had brought in two frightened teenage prisoners who were squatting in the temporary containment cell next to the walkway we had to pass through.

The prison is one contained cage after another, separated by steel, fences, or barbed-wire. Most prisoners are separated by whether they are sentenced or not. Most of the men are in for drugs, many Burmese immigrants, and many are very young men, teenagers even. We were only allowed to see those awaiting sentence - which can take years. Upon entering, we found ourselves in an open but fenced-in hall. Next to the hall was the one open courtyard where prisoners were loafing, playing, making cement in pipe tubes, and washing laundry. They didn't expect to see us, nor could they join in, but those that noticed looked on eagerly. We arrived to find hundreds of prisoners dressed in blue and seated behind tables, awaiting us quietly.

The place was intolerably crowded. The whole building stank of a strong scent of urine and a faint hint of feces. Dust everywhere, from the cement making. Constant noise from banging plactic tubes and guards on loudspeakers every few minutes. I don't need to go on. Thailand is notorious for prisons with terrible living conditions, negligence and mistreatment, and extreme sentences. (This one was not the worst of Thai prisons; there are many movies and books on places far worse: some of you watched Brokedown Palace, or read The Damage Done, or Forget You Had a Daughter about the Bangkok Hilton, or maybe remember the Bridget Jones II prison mixup).

We were happy to have a successful program; we sang our songs, prayed our prayers, and shared food with them. They men smiled widely, sang enthusiastically, were in relatively good spirits. What we did is but put a speck of joy and Christmas cheer into an otherwise dreary prison routine. By the time we left, the men in the courtyard were aware of our presence. They all gathered close to where we would pass to get out, and took in a good look. Even the few western foreign prisoners did it. We may be the only people coming for a long, long time. We hope that those who could join, and those who might have seem us from afar, were uplifted by our program.