Bringing Tet early to prison

Prisoners attend a New Year's Eve dinner and chat under a blooming peach blossom. Photo: Pham Bang

Reunion meal

Every year around December 25, Nghe An Provincial Police Detention Center organizes an early New Year's Eve meal for prisoners serving their sentences there.

Today, the kitchen of Nghe An Provincial Police Detention Center is busier than usual. The prisoners are excited to participate in cooking and cutting cakes to prepare for the New Year's Eve meal. In the hall, a group of prisoners are decorating with balloons and fixing peach blossoms.

The leaders of Nghe An Provincial Police Detention Center decided to increase the food rations by 5 times the normal amount for the New Year's Eve meal. This is the effort of the Board of Supervisors, officers and soldiers of the unit to provide prisoners in addition to the prescribed Tet meal.

Before the New Year's Eve meal, the prisoners excitedly decorated the balloons and fixed the peach blossom branches to prepare for the upcoming Tet holiday in the prison. Photo: Pham Bang

Everything was done, after the speech of Lieutenant Colonel Vu Duy Nguyen - Deputy Warden of the Detention Camp, 109 prisoners in neat rows entered the dining room to the sound of spring songs. They happily ate and chatted in a warm, friendly atmosphere that helped ease their homesickness and their longing for their loved ones.

The New Year's Eve meal in the detention camp is still full of Tet flavor, with banh chung, jellied meat, fish, green vegetables, pickled onions... All are prepared by the hands of the prisoners with many available food ingredients in the camp, the result of the prisoners' labor during their time serving their sentences here.

"The meal is the heart of the prison officers, and also to encourage prisoners to continue to strive in reform and work to have their sentences reduced and soon return to their families and society," said Lieutenant Colonel Vu Duy Nguyen - Deputy Warden of the Detention Camp of Nghe An Provincial Police.

Prisoners happily serve food to each other. Photo: Pham Bang

Better motivation for improvement

This is the first Tet that prisoner Tran Dang Q. (born 1981) is in the Detention Center. Q. was convicted for being involved in a case of transporting stolen goods. Before being arrested and sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison, Q. spent nearly 2 years on the run when he realized he had committed a crime.

“On Tet holiday, people gather with their families, but I have to go to serve my sentence. It's very painful, but I get to have a New Year's Eve meal, and receive a lot of care and encouragement from the Board of Supervisors and prison officers, so I feel less homesick. I promise to reform myself so that next year I won't have to celebrate Tet in prison again,” prisoner Q. confided.

As for prisoner Nguyen Van B. (from Quy Hop), up to this point he has served 2 months in prison out of a 12-month sentence for gambling. When B. went to prison, his young wife and 2 small children had to struggle to make ends meet because the house lacked a husband and father.

In his story, B said that, thinking about the previous Tet holidays, although the house was not full, being close to his wife and children was very happy and warm. Now here, thinking about his wife and children at home, he missed them so much. Luckily, thanks to the camp organizing the year-end meal, he somewhat relieved his longing for his family during the upcoming Tet holidays.

After finishing their meal, the prisoners happily chatted with the detention camp officers. Photo: Pham Bang

“I miss my wife and children so much during Tet. This Tet without my husband and father, I wonder if she can buy the children new clothes, or if the three of us can have a full Tet. The more I love my wife and children, the more I blame myself. Now I just try to reform myself and never repeat the same mistakes so that I can return to my wife and children soon,” B. said.

According to prison officers, during Tet, prisoners' thoughts and psychology are often disturbed. Therefore, officers must encourage and care more to make them more steadfast and secure in their work and rehabilitation.

Looking at the smiles and eyes of the prisoners at the New Year's Eve meal, we see their belief in goodness, putting aside past mistakes to soon return to reunite with their families and rebuild their lives.

Warm New Year's Eve meal in prison

(Baonghean.vn) - Prisoners gathered around a meal tray including banh chung, jellied meat, pickled onions, green vegetables and decorated with blooming peach blossoms and sparkling lights to prepare for the upcoming Tet holiday.