Letters of Confession

(Baonghean) - Although it has just been launched, the letter-writing movement "Sending Apologies" at Prison No. 6 has truly become a meaningful and deeply humane activity. It is humanity, love, and forgiveness that have aroused the good will, repentance, and remorse of each prisoner; helping them to somewhat eliminate the feeling of torment and remorse, thereby determining to study, work, reform, and improve to soon rebuild their lives.

Prison No. 6 located in Hanh Lam commune, Thanh Chuong district is currently managing nearly 4,000 prisoners. In recent years, the Prison Management Board has regularly strengthened leadership, direction and effectively organized and implemented many solutions for managing detention, education and rehabilitation of prisoners. In particular, the implementation of Plan No. 319/KH-C81-C86 dated March 6, 2014 of the General Department VIII on organizing the launching of prisoners writing letters "Sending apology" is a meaningful work. Up to now, 3,216 prisoners have participated in writing letters, including 2,564 letters to relatives, 219 letters to victims, relatives of victims, 433 letters to agencies, organizations, teachers, friends and other components...

Letters from prisoners are collected by the Steering Committee.

Prisoner NCL, in a letter to his mother, wrote: “Dear mother! More than a year has passed, but I am still shocked as if it were yesterday. Every night in my fitful sleep, memories of my family come back to torment my soul in endless remorse, the ultimate pain of an unfilial son, a bad husband and an irreverent father. I boldly wrote these lines of letters to pour out my heart with a belated apology to you and our family... If I had understood that family happiness is precious and sacred, I would not have let selfishness, pettiness and cruelty control my heart and then caused the ultimate sin... even though the wound in my heart is not easy to heal, I believe that with my repentance and determination to do good, I will make up for some of the pain I have caused my family.”

In a letter to his wife and children, prisoner BXT confided, “H. D. and my beloved children, after studying and receiving the care and guidance of the prison wardens, I have thought a lot and I understand that it is time for me to stop, to self-cultivate, to truly be good, then I will see that life has value, life will be peaceful and calm. I made too many mistakes before, my dear, I did not know how to stop at the boundary between dignity and lack of dignity, so now I am almost 60 years old but I am like a child learning the two words “to be human”…

In addition to letters sent to relatives, many prisoners also sent letters to the families and relatives of the victims with the hope of receiving forgiveness. “Dear uncles and family!... During my days in prison, I have thought a lot about my mistakes, I should have knelt before you two to ask for your forgiveness but I have not been able to do that because I have not had the opportunity... I do not expect much, I just hope you two will accept my apology on behalf of the deceased, so that the deceased can also be happy in the afterlife and my conscience will be somewhat relieved and give me more strength to reform myself even though I know that my sins are too great...”. That is the heartfelt repentance and repentance asking for the TVT's forgiveness.

The campaign to encourage prisoners to write letters with the theme “Sending an apology” aims to create opportunities for prisoners to express their emotions, thoughts, and remorse for the crimes they have committed. This is of great significance in the management and education of prisoners; it motivates prisoners to eliminate their inferiority complex, actively compete in training, working, and improving themselves to rebuild their lives; it contributes to limiting and minimizing the recidivism of prisoners who have completed their prison sentences and returned to their localities.

Letter from NCB prisoner to mother

In order for the campaign to be successful, the Board of Directors of Prison No. 6 established a Steering Committee, and at the same time organized dissemination and education for all officers and soldiers in each sub-camp to grasp the purpose, requirements, and importance of mobilizing prisoners to write letters of apology. Accordingly, specific responsibilities were assigned to each direct prison officer, meeting each prisoner to grasp their thoughts, aspirations, and problems and inferiority complexes. From there, propagandizing and encouraging prisoners to overcome their mistakes, voluntarily register to write letters...

These letters filled with remorse were searched by the steering committee to send to the correct address registered by the inmates. Although those letters could not erase all the pain and loss, with sincere words, remorse and regret of the inmates, they created a more sympathetic view for those who are serving sentences, those who are being punished by law, conscience... Accordingly, there were responses from the recipients. These are bridges of tolerance, contributing to helping inmates eliminate their inferiority complex, reform well and reintegrate into the community. One can mention the letter from the mother of inmate NVK. In the letter, she wrote: "I am also touched and forgive him, my own child cannot be abandoned, he was too debauched before, that's why he got into this situation... Thank you to the prison for having a way to open up for inmates, people like my child to think about good things".

Colonel Nguyen Viet Hoan, Warden of Prison No. 6, said: Organizing prisoners to write letters of "Apologies" is a form of humane education, awakening the latent goodness in prisoners. At the same time, it helps prison officers understand the psychology and thoughts of prisoners to have appropriate educational measures; calling on social organizations, authorities, localities, families, relatives, and victims to join in helping them improve their personalities and become good citizens. Through monitoring, many prisoners after writing letters have had positive changes in their feelings, becoming happier and more optimistic. "It is never too late if someone knows how to sincerely repent. We will continue to organize letters for prisoners, considering this a measure to educate prisoners to strive to reform well and soon reintegrate into the community."

“Sending an apology” has been a bridge connecting the affections, the voices from the deep instincts of people who once made mistakes and were stolen. We believe that the letters sent will receive something good in return, so that more and more prisoners who have entered the path of crime will soon return to the community, becoming a useful person for society…

Quang An