Working with People who are Drug Addicts, Offenders and Prisoners
When I attended the RNDM Charism & Spirituality course in St Rambert, France in 2000, I was inspired by the Holy Spirit with a dream which was to be a companion with the poorest, with women who are disadvantaged and marginalized.
Coming back to Australia, I was fortunate that I was employed by the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association in Victoria to work with female prisoners with Asian backgrounds including Chinese, Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese. I visited them weekly at Dame Phillis Frost Prison in Deer Park and Tarrengower in Maldon, Victoria. I worked as a prisoner support officer and collaborated with prison staff and the correction networks. The project was funded by the government. The service was to provide emotional support, personal therapy, counselling programs, liaising with their families and advocating for their cultural needs.
I also visited their families who were in need and helped with family visits for small children. There were times I took small children and their grandma to visit the mother in prison. It was heartbreaking to see them crying when holding each other at the visit. There were some cases in which women were pregnant while they were sentenced; thus, their newborn babies came to life and lived in a prison environment! What a starting point for such a life! I felt very sad for the newborn babies as they were deprived of love and care from their families. But…love is not absent in prison…it was such a blessing to see the women holding, talking and smiling to the little babies. “The babies are so beautiful and innocent, they brought me light and made me forget about my problems!” they said.
Some years after the prisoner support program had been developed, I was asked to help male prisoners as well. I started to visit them weekly in Melbourne Assessment Prison and occasionally in Port Phillip and Fulham prisons. I found it more challenging and harder as each prison has its own security system and culture. I found it to be a blessing for me to
help and support them. I did not feel any fear or hesitation when encountering these people. I found myself blessed when listening to their life stories. Each story was a surprise to me and opened to me a mystery journey that I never had experienced.
I also provided ongoing support programs for post released prisoners helping them to re-integrate into communities and complete their parole. I found this a very demanding responsibility as I had to see them weekly at my office and write the progress reports to the parole board and the corrections officers. I was so happy for those who made good progress and completed their parole. Unfortunately, there were people who breached their parole by relapsing into drugs and by not complying with legal requirements.
From 2004 I started working on a Drug & Alcohol counseling program funded by the Department of Justice, providing services to people who enter into a Parole or Community Based Order. The aim of the project was to engage them in drug and alcohol treatment, helping them to complete their orders without committing further offences and encouraging them to make positive changes in their lives. In doing this, I also helped them to access other agencies and services such as Centrelink employment, public housing, and training courses. For offenders and prisoners with an Asian background, language and culture, it is a big challenge when dealing with the court and prison environment.
In my position as prisoner’s support and drugs counsellor, I had worked in collaborating with the Community Corrections Officers in Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond, Springvale and Dandenong as well as with Collingwood Neighbourhood Court and Dandenong Drug Court. There was a time I was asked to do a presentation related to my clients’ and community issues such as “Why Vietnamese women became involved in crime?”
Mary Kim at the County Court Benefiance Conference
In listening to my clients’ life stories and problems and how they got involved in drugs and committed crimes, I felt very sad. Not only were they physically in prison, but also mentally imprisoned themselves by drugs. We provided the drug treatment counselling program, it sounds great, but it is really a tough and difficult journey of stepping out of the circle to be free of drugs. One needs to be a hero in fighting with oneself!
One of my clients expressed to me: “Since I got into my drug habit, I didn’t feel normal, I struggled, and I failed many times…and I ended up by having to take drugs in order to feel normal! I felt so bad and shameful. I was disappointed and so angry with myself!”
I was working with a single woman for many years on and off. For a short time, she was clean of drugs and started to attend group activity. She was working well on treatment, and I did hope she would be able to have a better life. But suddenly she disappeared! She relapsed and was arrested again! She was in tears when seeing me “I was shameful as I was in and out of prison five times because of my addiction. I was so tired and hopeless of leading myself down this pathway…” When I heard that, my heart was broken, I felt I was being dragged along with her. I realised that we are all human beings, so fragile with weaknesses. To be back to normal and to reshape one’s life is not easy at all! However, nothing is impossible if we trust in God and believe in God’s loving compassion!
Mary Kim with Dandenong Drug Court Staffs
I felt so blessed to be a companion with those people in their difficulties with their disappointment, depression, fear, anger, anxiety. It was a very challenging ministry, but it was also rewarding when seeing my clients moving on to a new direction for their lives. There were those who successfully completed their orders, got jobs and settled back into their families and communities. There were clients who came back to me with great appreciation and gratitude. I put those who failed into God’s love and care to empower them to start again.
I thank God for calling me to journeying with the poor in these aspects of life. Not only did I give, but also, I received and learnt so much from them. I often thought, if I was one of them, how could I have handled their situation? Could I have successfully gone through it to have lived a better life?
I have learnt to appreciate and respect people despite their mistakes. I have learnt to be patient and compassionate as God is.
Sr. Goretty Vu Dung RNDM
