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“I believe in this programme and

I push my girls hard so they will be

able to support themselves,” she said

firmly to me through her daughter.

Naowart is indeed “Mom”, offering

both supportive friendship and a

purposeful vocation as these women

adjust back into society.

“When these women are paroled,

they receive 100 baht (US$3) and that

does not go too far. They soon find

themselves in trouble,” she continued

reflectively as she quietly poured me a

cup of tea. “I had to open this spa, and

when people started to understand

what we were doing, our business

grew and I had to hire more staff.”

I was wondering how she could

put so much trust in these newly

released inmates?

“In prison, you have time to see

someone’s heart,” she said eerily as

if reading my thoughts. “I can see a

person change. When they first come

in, their head is lowered and they have

little self-esteem. But as we spend time

together, we often connect. We brought

in monks, missionaries and positive

speakers to teach them a new way of life.

Some we can reach, some we never do.”

Numbers of prisoners behind bars in Asia as at June 25, 2014. Thailand ranked

third with a total of approximately 308,000 prisoners.

AFGHANISTAN

HONG KONG (CHINA)

SINGAPORE

BHUTAN

Number of Detainees

THAILAND

NEPAL

TAIWAN

LAOS

PHILIPPINES

KYRGYZSTAN

UZBEKISTAN

BRUNEI

DARUSSALAM

INDIA

SRI LANKA

JAPAN

MONGOLIA

VIETNAM

SOUTH KOREA

IRAN

CAMBODIA

MYANMAR

MACAU (CHINA)

PAKISTAN

TAJIKISTAN

MALAYSIA

46,200

39,740

28,976

22,414

16,315

14,613

12,863

10,953

10,060

9,317

8,906

7,930

4,020

1,183

1,104

1,050

530

0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000

BANGLADESH

KAZAKHSTAN

TURKMENISTAN

MALDIVES

INDONESIA

217,851

CHINA

SOURCE: STATISTA 2015

NUMBERS BEHIND BARS

47,969

49,821

60,000

1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000 1,600,000 1,800,000

154,000

130,180

1,701,344

385,135

307,924

64,131

64,932

74,944

65,662

110,925