Lamyai was pregnant when the judge gave her a four-year prison sentence for a petty theft. She had admitted to stealing a necklace from her employer's house to pay off her husband's gambling debts.

Lamyai delivered her baby girl, Luk Manee, in the Bang Khen prison in Bangkok. She was happy that the prison had allowed her to keep her child for a year. Women prisoners in Thailand are permitted under the law to keep their young ones (up to one year of age) to ensure that infants are not deprived of mother's care in their early months of growth.However, six months later, Lamyai started having second about her decision. "I was not sure if the jail was the right place for my baby. I did not want Manee to serve a jail term with me for she had not committed any crime. "Although the jail doctor insisted that infants must be with their mothers at least during the first six months, Lamyai realised that the jail was not an ideal place to bring up an infant. The prison offered no facilities.

"The first problem was feeding the baby," she declares. With a limited budget of Baht 12 per person per day (1US$=Baht 42.4) the inmate's diet is meagre and insufficient for a feeding mother. Lamyai was not able to produce enough milk to feed her baby. There was also no provision for extra food for children; Manee often went hungry.

A few charitable organisations do bring in food supplements for the children but the supply is erratic. When there was no supplementary food from outside, the baby survived on rice soup and a bit of boiled egg which Lamyai saved from her share. "Manee began to lose weight. Her face lost colour and she appeared shrivelled," says Lamyai.

When the prison doctor confirmed that Manee was suffering from malnutrition, Lamyai decided to send her daughter to her in-laws. "There was no choice, I could not let Manee remain with me. There was no food for her, no water to wash and clean her. Fate had made the decision for me."

But soon Lamyai started missing her. "I could not sleep at night, I wanted to hold the baby and feel her next to me." She often woke up in the middle of the night worrying about her wellbeing. "I felt guilty that I was not fulfilling my duties as a mother." Information about her daughter came in trickles. She learnt that her cousins mistreated Manee. "They nicknamed her khamoi lek (little thief). Some children would steal her toys saying that it was all right to do so with a thief's daughter." Lamyai is not the only prisoner suffering the agony of being a helpless mother.

According to statistics of the year 2000, there were at least 320 women (out of 33,000 women prisoners) who had children staying with them in jails. Most of the women have been arrested for pushing drugs.