Unlocking My Muscles at the Women’s Prison - Kelly Hayes-Rait

Kelly Hayes-Raitt reports from Thailand.
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Chiang Mai, Massage - Violating Sanctions

Unlocking My Muscles at the Women’s Prison
The Author By Kelly Hayes-Raitt | June 5th, 2008 | Comments 1 Comment »

Massage places in Thailand are about as ubiquitous as Starbucks in Santa Monica, so choosing to allow a convicted criminal to pummel the daylights out of my muscles may seem like an odd choice – or an inspired one, depending on one’s perspective.

But, I chose the Chiang Mai Women’s Correctional Institution (www.correct.go.th/fdccham) because it gives soon-to-be-released women a chance to practice a new commercial skill, to earn some head-start money and to interact with the public in a controlled setting. As the young electrical engineer lying next to me said, “It massages my heart, too.”
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Following the narrow streets of the original walled city of Chiang Mai, Thailand’s first capitol and second largest city, I was confused by the ungated, pleasantly tiled patio featuring a sprawling mango tree with purple orchids cascading from its branches.

I was expecting cinderblocks, barbed wire, guns and guards. What I found was an atrium-like restaurant adjacent to a coffee shop serving cappuccinos and homemade pastries.

Housing 1,200 women convicted of drug crimes, the prison allows women who have successfully undergone drug rehab to participate in a 3-month voluntary vocational program to learn massage, cooking, dressmaking, hairdressing or waitressing. Well more than half of Thailand’s female prisoners are jailed for drug-related crimes.

Thai massage is a non-sexual, non-aesthetic experience where the massage mats are laid side-by-side in an open room, people are fully dressed in their own clothes or in cloth tie pants that look like hospital scrubs, and the masseurs banter with each other like hairdressers at an neighborhood salon.

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At 200 baht (about $6.70 US) for an hour, they’re cheap even by Thai standards. Getting a massage is a regular, social event similar to the way western men might gather at a barber shop. It’s not unusual to see Thai massage mats and reflexology chairs publicly lined up at the popular outdoor night markets to reinvigorate intrepid shoppers.....

Read more on Kelly's blog at link above.
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From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com