Month: August 2015

Board President, Devin, conducts interviews

Welcome to a new series called Quotes from the Women! Last year, Ruraq Maki’s Board President, Devin Montalto, conducted a series of interviews with the women about their involvement in illegal activity and their lives in the prison. Throughout the coming weeks, we will share pieces of our interviews, to help you get a sense the challenges the women face before incarceration and during incarceration. 

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is why the women are incarcerated. The majority are incarcerated for drug trafficking, one of the most common and profitable form of work in this area. But how do these women get involved in trafficking? And why? 

Today we share a fews answers to our interview question: Why did you get involved with drug trafficking?

“I had five kids to educate and I didn’t have enough money to pay for five kids education and my husband was sick, he has stomach cancer. That is why I had to find economic resources to help him get better. [Before I started trafficking] I took care of my house, my kids and my farm. It wasn’t enough because my husband got sick with cancer and I no longer had enough money. Operations here in Peru are very expensive and so is medicine.”  – 50 year old mother of 5, serving a 12 year sentence

“I got involved because I am separated from my child’s father and because I didn’t have any support from my child’s father I had to work to give her the best that I could, to give her what I never had. I went to work at a place in [omitted for confidentiality] where I met a friend and he invited me work in trafficking, to travel, thats how I got involved in that work, its what I did to support my daughter, so that she could get ahead.” – 22 year old, mother of 1, serving an 11 year sentence 

“I am here for drug trafficking, because I didn’t have enough money to educate my children; to send them to school.” – 40 year old, mother of 5, serving a 6 year sentence 

“More than anything I was trying to help my son who is mentally disabled, he needs a medicine…because he has seizures and its very expensive and in that moment when she asked me If I would do it I thought of him and didn’t think clearly, just of him and how I’d be able to buy his medicine. And because of my lack of thinking my children are now alone, my grandfather takes care of them but he is 75 years old and because my son is disable my grandfather has to feed him, bathe him and change his diapers, its too much for him.” – 33 year old, mother of 5, serving a 7 year sentence 

“Its my husbands fault that I’m here, I was always studying nothing more and when I committed to him he was already involved. I was in the car with him, when he was busted and so they thought I was one of the bosses, same as him, because I was with him in the car with the drugs they didn’t believe that I wasn’t involved.” – 33 year old, mother of 2, serving a 12 year sentence 

The Yanamilla Prison, Ayacucho, Peru

I’ve come to refer to the new prison director as the magic unicorn director since things seem to be moving along smoothly with him around. Today I went to get the final registration list of the women in the special classes next week. Since the women will be leaving their pabellon to go to the workshop area, I need a signed authorization from the Security Director. 

Several trips ago, we met a young Security Director who was overly flirtatious and, often, when I discussed issues with him in his office, I had a distinct feeling that other guards were outside snickering about us. Today, I was dreading having to deal with him, and his overt flirtations. Luck accompanied me again today because, as it turns out, he has been transferred and, in his stead, is a new security director who is nice, yet professional.  Signing my participant list without hesitation, he became extremely interested in the classes, even asking if he could sit on the business class! (I gently reminded him it was geared towards women)

Next up was asking for permission to bring my camera to take photos of the classes. This was the biggie, since cameras are strictly prohibited. Mustering up all the courage I had (and reminding myself it was highly unlikely my proposal would be approved), I presented the case for a camera to the Director.  Again, magic unicorn director proved himself worthy of that title by agreeing to let me bring my camera! There were some negotiations. I originally (and brashly) asked for 5 days, which he politely declined, saying I could have it for 1. I pleaded for 2, so I could take photos of each of the classes, and he understood my point and accepted. I’m still a bit dubious about how this will all work out with the guards at the door, but the Security Director (who is arranging the camera entry) has promised me that I will be allowed to take photos. 

Yesterday I mentioned that I spoke to the women a bit about the changes in the prison. One of the biggest changes is that Peruvian law no longer allow benefits for people incarcerated for trafficking.  Benefits were a system where people could earn time off their sentence for working and good behavior. Although benefits were not available to all prisoners (people incarcerated for maximum sentences couldn’t receive benefits) it did help lower the sentences for many people. 

Trafficking continues to be on the rise in Peru and more and more young people are turning to that kind of work. As a result, the Peruvian government is making the laws ever stricter, in hopes of deterring people. Of course, harsher punishments do little to deter people from trafficking- people need well paying job and long term employment opportunities, but, like many countries, Peru is relying on its criminal justice system to solve crime without putting time, energy, or money into the root causes. 

The result is that the prisons have become even more over crowded. Trafficking laws are already strict in Peru, people often are incarcerated for 10-15 years, and now, without benefits, everyone is staying put while more people flood in.

The women noted that most of the newcomers are young women, who unfortunately, do not follow the rules. Earlier this year there were several incidents by new women which caused stricter rules to be enforced. There is definitely a sense of frustration from the women  who have been in the prison a long time, as the little liberties they have are slowly being taken away. 

It will be interesting to see how these new laws affect the prison and, once the prisons are too full, what next steps the government here will take. 

Permission papers for the prison

I’ve come to expect my first day in the prison going something like this: I arrive, with a stack of old permissions in hand. I negotiate my way into the prison, using my old permissions as leverage. I arrive at the appropriate office, with new papers in hand- exact replicas of what I was told I needed (and did) present during my last trip. At the office I’m told that _____________ no longer works there/is on vacation/changed departments, instead I need to see _____________ and he wants ___________ instead of what I have. Today did not disappoint!

Last January I spent a week working on a 20 page education plan for 2015, that I was told I was required to present. My plan was approved and I was promised that in August my permissions would be ready when I arrived. Instead, the person who took such care with my plan during the last trip was on vacation and left his substitute nothing. Fortunately, his substitute, although dumb founded about what to do with me, was a nice enough fellow and clearly didn’t want to turn me away.

After giving me a scare when he said, “Well, there is nothing I can do. I don’t know anything about you and your plan,” (to which I replied, “Well, I did what I was told to do.”) he took me to the Director and explained my position. The Director was new, only in the prison for a week, so we both held our breaths, not knowing what type of guy he was. Was he an official director, who would make me jump through hoops and present 50 more papers in 5 different offices before giving me permission? Was he a flirtatious director, who would  flirt with me and ask me inappropriate personal questions before giving me permission? Was he a lazy director, who would pawn me off to a different department, which would then take 4 days to give me my papers? Or was he a stern director, who would listen to my pleas and then simply say no?

As it turns out, he was none of these, in fact, he was a mixture of official, efficient, and kind. Hearing me out and looking through my past permissions and current, revised plan, he agreed that we could have our classes with the additional teachers (4 in total, a record for Ruraq Maki!). He also posed an important question: Wouldn’t it be better if, in January when I returned, he just gave me permission for the entire year so I didn’t have to keep coming back? Why, yes sir, it would be. 

For the first time ever, in 6 years, I had the permissions for everyone, and all class materials (including knives and other sharp objects) completed and signed on my very first day in the prison. No coming back later. No we’ll do it the next day. No wait, except for the 15 minutes I sat outside the director’s office while his secretary typed up my forms. I could get used to this. 

While all this was going on, the women had sent a guard to come find me and bring me back to their pabellon (cell block). Although her urgency that the women were waiting to talk to me was touching, I refused to budge until I had papers in hand. Once I finally did, and went to see the women, there was an excited welcome and we chatted about the current conditions in the prison (more on this tomorrow) and our class schedule in the coming weeks. 

For the rest of the morning I registered women for our classes so that tomorrow, when I return, I can get authorization to move those women from the pabellon to the workshop area, where classes will be held. I’m also requesting permission to bring my camera in on special class days so I can document the courses. I’ll be crossing my fingers that tomorrow will be as successful as today.