A number of inmates have found fleeting yet tearful reunions with their children in prison visiting rooms a great motivator in their rehabilitation.

For their own part, these children react differently to the absence of their parents.

At 7:00 am on a recent day, the K3 visiting quarter of Thu Duc Prison, located in Ham Tan District in the south-central province of Binh Thuan, was already teeming with inmates and their relatives.

As a bus drew to a stop, passengers, including kids and elderly people, hurriedly got off, heading for the visiting rooms.

Visitors carried bags laden with food and gifts for their relatives serving jail terms here.

Among them was a pre-adolescent girl tightly hugging a woman in a striped uniform for prisoners.

The woman, in her early 50s, is the girl’s mother.    

The mother kept kissing her daughter on her cheeks, forehead and hair and caressing her, eyes brimming with tears. She then embraced and kissed the women who accompanied her daughter on the cheeks.

Tears kept rolling as the inmate and her visitors asked after each other along with those at home.

These touching scenes occur daily in the visiting rooms at Thu Duc Prison.

“As the facility handles different sorts of criminals, people can visit their relatives doing time here at any time, instead of just on certain days,” Colonel Tran Huu Thong, a warder at Thu Duc Prison, explains about visiting schedules.

Bin, come here with Dad!

A young man with a fair complexion and a muscular build called out to Bin, his 3-year-old son who had just gotten off a bus.

The toddler dashed excitedly into his father’s waiting arms.

The father and son and his nephew frolicked and chased one another happily in the yard outside the visiting rooms.

“My son is quite agile and he grows up day by day. I always strive to abide by the rules here and behave well so that I’m eligible to see my son each month,” the inmate and father, named N.N.H, said.

H., now 27, was sentenced to three years in jail for robbery.

His gentle-looking eyes and light-skinned face along with the loving way he plays with his son and nephew make it hard to believe that he was once a robber.

H. recalled that after he finished the 12^th grade, his parents enrolled him in a truck-driving course.

This enabled him to work as a driver, earning a normal wage. One time, after having a drink with his friends, he joined them in a robbery during which they were caught red-handed. H. was later imprisoned.

“Several of my cell mates miss their children terribly, but they don’t want the kids to visit them here, as they don’t know how to explain their offences to them.”

“I think differently. I committed a crime and am working hard to rectify it. As my son reaches adulthood, I won’t keep him in the dark about my offence or my imprisonment,” H. stressed.

The little girl who hides her tears

Another inmate was talking lovingly to Bong, her 5-year-old daughter, who giggled as her mother fondled her cheeks.

“Do you miss mommy, Bong?” the mother asked affectionately.

“Yes.”

“What do you do when you miss mommy?

“I don’t cry and help grandpa prepare vegetables for cooking,” the little girl answered sweetly.

Sitting next to Bong was her granddad, who is in his early 60s.

The man, named D.P.L., revealed he is a farmer in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

As soon as his daughter, D.P.H., turned 18, she left her hometown for Ho Chi Minh City in search of a job.

She earned her living as a blue-collar worker and got married before giving birth to Bong.

Once, during a conflict that escalated amongst H. and her friends, she got involved in a brawl, and caused injuries to her rivals, landing her in Division 3 at Thu Duc Prison.

She was then dealt another blow, as her husband soon left their daughter behind in the care of her parents.

Despite a low income and long distances, H.’s father has taken Bong to the prison to see her every month.

“Poor her! She often cries herself to sleep silently at night,” H.’s father revealed.

The precocious little girl often retreats to a corner to muffle her cry whenever she misses her mother, and counts down the days to each visit.