Raising a Family Behind Bars
After one of history’s worst typhoons stormed through the Philippines, a decimated jail opened its doors to inmates’ displaced families, inciting the most bittersweet of reunions.
When Typhoon Haiyan hit Leyte Provincial Jail in the Philippines last November, Jean He, thirty-four, was visiting her husband, Roberto Anyou, in prison. As the 200-mile-per-hour winds tore apart the building’s roof and walls, they huddled in the communal toilet, praying.
“We’ve never experienced a storm like this. My parents died two years ago and I was thinking during the storm, Maybe this is when I was going to die too,” said Jean, who was five months pregnant at the time. “The other prisoners helped me get to the [toilet] where we took shelter. I just crouched in the corner, protecting my belly."