YOU'VE heard of spas facing the beach or in a rainforest setting. How about one set in prison?
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| POPULAR: Selangor's Kajang Prison spa was opened last December. It's the first of its kind in Malaysia. |
This is no gimmick. For a start, it is not for profit and your spa therapists are the prison's female inmates.
Authorities of one of Malaysia's biggest prisons came up with this novel idea to rehabilitate its inmates and has opened its services to the public, reported New Straits Times.
The report claimed that the service is so popular that on weekends, some hopeful customers are left disappointed because they are not allowed in.
Selangor's Kajang Prison spa - the first of its kind in the country - was opened last December.
Prison authorities embarked on the project to teach skills to women prisoners, some of them foreigners who were ironically thrown behind bars for working illegally in beauty and massage parlours.
Corporal Rahmah Zawawi, a warden who has been working at Kajang Prison (women's wing) for the past 22 years, said the spa and salon training had been such a success that private beauty parlour owners had inquired about hiring the prisoners.
She told NST: 'But we had to turn them down as they are only allowed to work within the prison premises.'
Most of the inmates working at the prison spa and salon serve jail terms of six months or less.
She said: 'Currently, seven girls are working in the salon and all of them are Indonesians.
'They are in jail because they did not have valid travel or work documents. We don't allow those with dangerous criminal records to work here.'
The rates are kept low. A scrub, sauna session and facial cost a total of RM85 ($35) - well below market price. Services are only open to females.
Said Corporal Rahmah: 'All they have to do is inform the guard that they have an appointment with us and drive straight in.'
Warders with knowledge in the beauty business train the inmates. Only those with short-term prison sentences are selected.
It doesn't matter if this means that 'staff' turnover is high.
Said Corporal Rahmah: 'We don't mind that we keep training and training prisoners all the time. This gives the women a chance to start a new life when they get out.'
Regular customers
Customers like businesswoman Tania Zakaria is not bothered that convicted criminals are her spa and beauty therapists. She feels safe and tells others that their services are as good as those in regular spas.
'I heard about the services from a friend and decided to try it out of curiosity. Today, I am one of their regular customers. I dye my hair here, get my weekly massages and come for a hair wash whenever I can.
'It's simply an amazing feeling to be able to get an hour of massage for only RM30,' she said.
But spa and beauty services are not the only things the rehabilitation programme offers.
The women's wing also has a bakery, a batik painting area, an information technology centre and even a tailoring centre. All are operated by the inmates under close supervision of the warders.
Said Kajang Prison rehabilitation centre officer Ummi Aiman Tajidin: 'Many of them have benefited from the training and earn a living at the same time. Some even started their own businesses after they were freed.'
She said the prison also offers reading, writing and arithmetic classes to illiterate prisoners.
Prisoners are also being taught to sew comforters and bedsheets.
The prisoners must be well behaved before they are allowed to take part in the programmes, she added.
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