Welcome to Mingde 明德外役監

This weekend’s road trip started with us traveling down to Tainan 台南 to visit Mingde 明德外役監 which is a prison where we were going for lunch and then on too Ping Tung 屏東 to have a BBQ and see some of Rita’s friends.

We were up early to catch the fast train from Taipei Main Station to Hsinchu 新竹 where friends of Rita’s were going to collect us and drive us to the prison Mingde 明德外役監 for lunch which was going to be cooked by the prisoners!

This is us actually leaving, but I got to admit we were allowed to drive in with our own cars which was really cool, unlike the rest of the visitors who had to take the bus to see their locked up relatives.

The prison visit was really cool and I had half been expecting to be confronted by a high maximum security prison with guard dogs and men running around with guns and stuff, but actually it was all quite down to earth.

The prison was a minimum security with about 350 inmates mainly doing time for white collar crimes etc. bank fraud or steeling company assets.

All aboard.

The forecourt.

From the side.

I think I am probably only a handful of tourist who have visit a Taiwanese prison just for fun without having to do time. I was lucky enough to have this trip as one our friends use to work at Mingde as a human resources officer (She’s the one far left at the lunch table).

Just about to start lunch.

The vice warden was there to meet us and was a very nice chap. He was the main guy in charge that day we went and had tea in his office and he explained what they did here and he was really keen for us to see how the prison worked and the facility they had so we got a full tour.

In the front with the boss on tour.

Let me explain, the prison is a 500 acre farm, with a 350 personal work force that works from Monday to Friday with a 10 dollar salary per day for manual work on the farm, that’s just over 1p perday. They mainly specialise in farming free ranged Chickens and growing Mango fruit which tasted seriously good by the way.

Prison scenery.

The flower garden.

There produced which is produced on the farm is for the high-end food market and they exports mainly to Japan and Korea where each Mango sells for 500 dollars per one that’s about £8.30p per fruit so Mingde 明德外役監 has a seriously high income! It did kind of remind me of the Shawshank Redemption without the violence.

Homemade working out kit.

Nice old motorbike.

But as this place goes the location is very beautiful and as a prisoner you have to be selected to go there form another prison for example good behavior.

The rehabilitation rate is extremely high with all inmates leaving with a manually skilled job so it easy for them to get employed when their back in society.

Team prision.

Me and the warden.

Police bus, just cool. Most of the images should in large if you click on them.