EMPLOYMENT & "DONATED LABOUR"

"In her experience, the initiatives for economic empowerment in prisons are rarely effective."

She sits firmly on the couch with a pile of handicrafts on her lap. A tower representing many hours of hard work comprised of a television cover, a bag, and a pillow cover covered with different shapes of flowers. The bright colors, as bright as the purple scarf tightly tied around her neck, represent freedom - the sunlight at the end of the tunnel while the confined walls of the prison tried to suffocate her. At the bottom of her pile of accomplishments, there lays a hand painted sheet with lettering that spells “I can’t live without you.” To whom were these words meant for? For her husband? For her husband whose drug addiction locked her up in prison for a total of six years? For her husband whose drug addiction threatened the lives of their daughters?

It was in prison where she learned how to thread a crochet hook in and out of the loops of the yarn. The loops formed the masterpieces that she had squeezed between her hands many times for comfort, as she did throughout the interview. This right to comfort, to skill, to have something to do and some means of economic empowerment isn’t something prisoners have equal access to. 

One last glance into one of the male prisons we visited, revealed a dusty sewing machine sitting unused in a hallway opposite the prison’s exit. No accompanying chair or table in sight, no scraps of fabric or thread to be found. This machine sat and collected dust while the inmates elected to instead spend their time making bamboo stools to sell to outsiders. [1] This very sewing machine was something the female inmates we spoke to could only dream of, as they twisted candle wicks for 10 hours each day to make just enough money for a cup of tea. This sewing machine stood for just one of the many resources lacking in the female jails we visited. Something we witnessed not more than a week later be requested by a Jailor for her female inmates; a machine that we can only hope will provide the means for these women to support themselves and their children, when their families decide not to. [2]

Unfortunately, Ranju Pandey, the Executive Director of SETU Nepal expressed that in her experience, the initiatives for economic empowerment in prisons are rarely effective. It has proven so difficult, in fact, to find the necessary market accessibility to make such handicraft activities worthwhile for the prisoners, that SETU has discontinued their programs which used to teach handicraft skills as income-generating activities. We heard echoes of this story when speaking with Rewati Gurung, the founder of Kokroma, which exclusively utilizes fabric made in prison for baby clothes and more. Currently, she is only employing male prisoners because she’s been told “male prisoners stay for 15-30 years whereas the females are just there for 6 months - 2 years.” To contrast this perception, only three out of the 18 female prisoners we spoke to fit this description. [3]

The idea of employment opportunities for prisoners sounds like a perfect tool to combat the poverty that likely played a role in their incarceration in the first place; and the poverty that prolongs their sentence due to an inability to pay their fine. [4] However, it is difficult to provide economic opportunities without fault in execution. The line between work and slave labour becomes dangerously blurry inside the walls of prison. The job opportunities that we were told about provided such low wages that a full day of work would not be enough to afford even one meal. [5]

To further complicate things, Nepal passed a bill in 2017 to legalize an open jail concept which was heavily supported by prison reform lobbyists. The open jail concept would allow certain prisoners (those who have served at least two thirds of their total jail term, are not considered to be imprisoned for “serious crimes” including murder, rape, trafficking of arms and ammunition, human trafficking, corruption, abduction and robbery, and have demonstrated good behavior) to “serve out [their] jail term working at a place assigned by the jail authorities.” [6] Every day worked reduces one’s sentence by two days, and the rhetoric surrounding compensation indicates the inmates would be “donating” their labour. While the open prison system would allow prisoners more freedom, and potentially aid in their reintegration into society, it also closely resembles a form of slave labor. It is crucial to consider and question who ultimately benefits from this system.