A prison warden is hoping to shed light on the need for reform through pencil drawings he has made over six years that depict inmates’ daily lives.
“I am not trying to open old wounds, I just want more people to understand prisons — a subject of public concern — and to unite to fix any problems,” Yilan Prison Warden Ewam Lin (林文蔚) said.
Lin, 47, was earlier this year selected to be a member of the Presidential Office’s preparatory committee on judicial reform. He became a warden 17 years ago.
Photo courtesy of Ewam Lin
He said his immediate reaction was that being a warden was not much different to being a prisoner, citing the need to stand for many hours at a time.
Although he quit the job not long after starting it, Lin said that he was forced to take it up again when his mother became ill, adding that at the time he lacked the energy or resolve to find another line of work.
Lin said that in 2010 he resolved to start keeping a journal and he decided drawings would be the best way to record daily life in the prison.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Some of the themes that Lin’s work touches on are overcrowding and the isolation of death-row inmates.
He now has a body of work that comprises more than 1,000 pieces. His artwork has been published in books and exhibited at galleries.
He began drawing when he was under a great deal of pressure, Lin said, adding that nobody he spoke to understood what life is like inside a prison.
Lin said it was a challenge to convey the need for reform through his drawings, but he realized that only by depicting this effectively could he attract the resources and support necessary to effect change.
“My job is to accompany the inmates during this stage of their lives, to help them to be better people when they leave prison,” Lin said.
Lin said that he now feels his job is important and every inmate who has changed for the better will have a great impact on society.
Whether an inmate leaves the prison a better person ultimately depends on how much effort wardens put into their reform, Lin said.
“These people have already hit rock bottom; they have already paid a high price for their actions. They cannot be simply written off as bad people,” Lin said.
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