Weo prefers to sew by hand. She has tried the sewing machine, but found her mind was calmer when she worked the thread with her own fingers.

“Your mind follows the thread, one by one, row by row. You know? It’s like meditation. I don’t like machines,” she told a group of design students visiting the Central Women’s Correctional Institution in Bangkok, UN News reports.

Sewing by hand also means Weo can produce a unique pattern that is hard to find in conventional shops. The students, sketchbooks in hand, had come to see that kind of craft up close.

Design meets craft

The institution is Thailand’s first women’s prison, where approximately 150 women learn weaving, knitting and machine sewing to make marketable products, according to UN News.

The visit was part of Through the Wall, an initiative launched in November 2025 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ). It pairs design students with incarcerated women to create modern, sustainable products that can be sold outside prison.

Earlier this year, 22 students visited the prison and met the women who are now manufacturing the new products. Their designs had to appeal to modern consumers, be practical, and tell a story linked to rehabilitation.

As the morning went on, UN News reports, some students lost their initial apprehension and sat across from the women to pick up fabric samples. Some borrowed needles and, with the women’s guidance, tried a little sewing themselves. A few sat on the floor in the basket-weaving corner with women who have mastered the skill.

Time well spent

A panel of judges evaluated nine projects from 19 students in a competition earlier this year. The winner was Time-Made, a design featuring intricately smocked watch straps.

For the students behind it, UN News reports, time has a two-fold meaning: the sentence that prisoners can reduce by working in prison, and the time that people outside value, a privilege sometimes taken for granted.

“We wanted our product to remind people that we can use time carefully and meaningfully. That we can watch our time,” said Game, 21, co-winner of the competition.

Natty, also 21, has been studying lifestyle products for three years. She had expected the prison to look gloomy and scary, and was surprised to find the workroom bright and airy. She did notice that most of the women used dark colours.

“I want to take the skills they have and show them brighter fabrics and see what happens,” she said.

Skills for life outside

Sitting beside Weo was Ana, who is from Latin America and whose name has been changed to protect her identity. After four years in prison, UN News reports, she can make perfect stuffed animals and is fluent in Thai, although she has never seen Thailand outside the prison walls.

“I heard it’s beautiful here, but it doesn’t matter. After this, when I manage to get back to Brazil, I will start an import business and sell stuffed animals from Thailand. I know how to do it. I have the connections, and I speak the language,” she said.

That link between skills learned inside and a working life outside is at the heart of the project.

Aki Okanan, a former prison reform expert at UNODC, said the project aims to “create prison-made goods that appeal to modern consumers while equipping correctional officers with essential marketing skills”. She added that it also raises international awareness of the role of rehabilitation and vocational training in reducing re-offending.

For TIJ’s Chontit Chuenurah, the project is also about public attitudes. “The stigma surrounding those who have made mistakes has long been a wall in our society. To help them cross that barrier, we must restore their human dignity,” she said.

“By weaving their stories into these products, we use the creativity of the youth to build a bridge between the prison and the outside world, replacing fear with understanding.”

What happens next

All of the designs received support for product development and marketing. The winning product, together with a selection of others, will be produced in collaboration with partner correctional facilities.

As the students passed through the gates and security controls to leave, UN News reports, their enthusiasm waned. The women cannot leave with them, but the collaboration connects them to the outside world, which UN News describes as the first step in reintegration.