Food, haircuts and prison pay – what Hong Kong Occupy leaders Joshua Wong and Nathan Law thought about life behind bars
The duo, released on bail on Tuesday pending appeal, share memories of their 69-day confinement
Law said he pondered the choices he actually had, such as what to eat for his next meal and whether the allowance he got in prison would be enough to buy snacks.
Even though he could access television and newspapers, “[the environment] causes you to be distanced from the big events and what is happening outside,” Law said.
With Hong Kong’s young faces of democracy in jail, is civil society being put in chains?
Wong said he was struck by the rigid prison timetable, where one “could not have independent thinking”.
“Outside jail, you can decide what to do with the 24 hours of every day, but in prison, [what you have to do] for every minute and second has been arranged for you,” said Wong, who spent about two months in a juvenile correctional facility before being transferred to an adult prison after he turned 21 earlier in October.
When Wong asked guards if inmates could grow their hair to 1cm long instead of a 6mm buzz cut, he was warned not to “incite other prisoners to be concerned about the matter”.
Watch: Occupy student leaders Joshua Wong and Nathan Law speak to the media