MY VISIT TO A WOMAN JAIL

 

MY VISIT TO A WOMAN JAIL

As a lecturer is part of society, I am required to be actively involved in the society as the implementation of Tridarma Perguruan Tinggi. Many activities that I do for the society, one of which is educating the society about a certain issue.

I did it last 2 weeks—September 29, 2022—in a woman jail (Lady Jail) in Tulungagung.  The visit was my first experience. As I arrived, I was welcome by warden wearing a light blue uniform. He asked me some questions regarding my identity and the purposes of my visit. I addressed that the purpose of my visit was to deliver my material to female prison inmates. He then asked me to present my identity card, and I showed it to him immediately. He then asked me to leave it and my mobile phone as well. I return for my identity card, he handed in a visit card to me. I objected to leave my mobile because I needed a camera to take some pictures. He agreed, and he asked a woman officer to escort me to the place where the weekly meeting is commonly held.

          The main entrance and the room in which the ladies stay is not so distant, just a couple of meters. As I arrived in the place and waiting for the preparation for the meeting done, another woman officer welcome me, and she introduced herself as the one who was in charge. We had a light conversation concerning many things, including the life in the jail.

          The place for the meeting was ready. It was in the veranda of the ladies’ room. It looked clean and neat, the floor was dustless. Small plants in small pots were in some spots. With the grey and white colours, the wall looked very solid and strong. A large mat was spread out in the veranda, and some ladies scrambled for seats on it. They had face-to-face position.

There were eighteen ladies sitting on the mat in the veranda. They all were welcoming me. As I mingled with them, I felt that we were psychologically distant. They starred at me, and so did I. I spread out my sight to all of them, and I found most of them with tattoo in their arms. Looking at their tattoos, my guts were almost shrinking. I was a little bit shocked with the situation, the one which I never find in my campus. My shock got more intense as I saw one of them held an around-four-month baby. “What?!, a baby stays here?!”, my soul and my mind loudly screamed. What I saw made me trembling, so that the materials that I had prepared suddenly disappeared.

                                                     I mingled with them

I tried to control the psychological unpleasantness by taking very deep breath for a couple of times. Alhamdulillah, I eventually managed to control my mind and my soul, so that I could greet them with the normal voice and tone. I introduced myself, and I told them that I would not teach them anything because I was not their teacher, rather, I would be their mate or friend. This strategy worked. They got much warmer, more friendly, and more open. They were willing to mention their names, even some of them felt free to talk about their cases. From the light conversation, I found that drugs case was the most dominant case among others.

The warmth among us enabled me to deliver my topic: ethics in mass media. Social media was not something new for them even though during in the jail they were not allowed to have a mobile phone. Prior to their jail life, social media was a bread-and-butter case, and they were sure it would be the case when they are released from it. The discussion on the social media ethics took place casually and warmly. Their eyes suggested that they were treated equally, none of us was a subordinate for the other. The discussion was closed with their promise to utilize social media as wisely as possible as they have the opportunity to use it. Alhamdulillah, I could make it. The duty was done successfully.

The visit to the jail taught me a lot. In spite of the fact that a jail is not a nice place to visit, it should be admitted that it is part of our society. It exists, and some of our society members are the inmates of it. It opens our eyes that life always binarily contradicts: east and west, top and bottom, right and left, right and wrong, freedom and unfreedom. Also, a jail suggests that the wheel of life keeps moving; at one moment it posits at the top, but on the other time it drops to the bottom. Let’s be grateful with our at-hand freedom, Guys. People in the jail are counting the days, waiting for their releasing day.

 

 Tulungagung, October 14, 2022