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A 51-year-old Chinese immigrant has found faith, an American family and the English language - all while incarcerated in the Albany County jail.

Despite her strict surroundings for the past 15 months, Yulan Zhang has found reasons to be happy. She does cry when explaining her clumsy efforts to obtain green cards illegally - but she also beams when talking about her recent Catholic baptism and her new friends, who exemplify Christianity to her.

"Life is still beautiful," Ms. Zhang told The Evangelist during a recent visit.

Her friends - six Americans who met her on jail visits - say that her palpable joy inspires them back. They have come to trust her as a lifelong friend, even as they suspect Ms. Zhang will be deported when she's released from the Albany County Correctional Facility in September.

Ms. Zhang is itching to get out of jail, but dreading the possibility of leaving America.

Many friends
"I'm going to miss her," said Maryanne Schrank, one of Ms. Zhang's visitors. "She's very engaging."

Mrs. Schrank is a volunteer with the New Sanctuary Movement, a local group that works with religious congregations to help immigrants with basic and legal needs.

Mrs. Schrank, whose own son was once detained in Haiti, has visited Ms. Zhang almost every Friday since September for two reasons: "I think it's important for her to have consistent friends; and it's very good for me. I could be in the same situation some day."

Some of Ms. Zhang's visitors fear for her upon her return to China: What if law enforcement awaits her there?

"What she really wants is to stay in the U.S.," explained Brother Kenneth Lucas, OFM Conv., a chaplain at the jail. "It's going to be a sad day."

Beijing background
For now, Ms. Zhang exhibits a quiet strength. At just five feet one inch, her small frame barely fills her yellow prison jumpsuit, but her arms are toned and her straight, dark hair pools around her shoulders. Bangs graze the top of her eyelids, allowing small, brown eyes to peep through - with wrinkles at the corners, but only when she laughs.

At first, the jail food made her sick. But then she started exercising: daily walks in the yard, as well as pushups and floor routines. This also helped her conquer insomnia.

Back in her native Beijing, Ms. Zhang worked as an accountant. She made the equivalent of $50 a month during one stint. In 1995, in an effort to make a better living and get her son into an American college, she moved to the United States on a temporary business visa.

She was ordered deported in 1997, but stayed in America, working a number of waitressing jobs in the New York City region.

Legal knot
On three occasions in 2008, Ms. Zhang allegedly brokered deals with a member of law enforcement posing as a corrupt U.S. Customs official on behalf of about five undocumented immigrants seeking illegal green cards.

Approximately $100,000 changed hands. She was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April 2009 and later pleaded guilty to several counts of bribery.

"I think she just got caught in a difficult situation with our system," said Jean Stern, another New Sanctuary Movement volunteer and a professor of Chinese government and politics at Siena College in Loudonville.

Added Barbara Bailey, another visitor and an attorney: "I am a lawyer and I don't want to make light of the fact that she did break the law." Still, Ms. Bailey said, Ms. Zhang's actions could be considered normal in China.

Rev. Paul Smith, a priest of the Albany Diocese and part-time prison chaplain, agreed.

"This is not a criminal," Father Smith said of Ms. Zhang. "It's a woman who made a mistake. She thought she was pursuing Plan B. She did not deliberately flout the law. If Naomi has a fault, it is naiveté. She trusts."

Infectious joy
Naomi is Ms. Zhang's baptismal name. She volunteers that it means "happy."

The story of her conversion fascinates visitors: She knew a troubled couple whose marriage was saved by Christianity; "Zhang saw that Jesus can transform lives, and she remembered it," said Ms. Bailey, who attends St. Vincent de Paul parish in Albany.

"Then Zhang was sent to prison," Ms. Bailey recalled. "She was in despair. These people came to visit her and they keep coming - and they're nice to her and they try to help her, without ever having known her. And these people are Christians."

Taking their cue, Ms. Zhang started going to Monday Mass at the jail.

"She didn't know what was going on, but the look on her face was vivid," said Father Smith, who celebrated the liturgies. "When we played the music, this lady just came alive."

Ms. Zhang would take the hands of other inmates and sway, smiling. Back in her cell, she translated the hymns' lyrics into Chinese. She wanted more, so she approached Father Smith, who gave her Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults materials in Chinese.

With the permission of Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, Father Smith administered the sacraments of baptism, first Communion and confirmation in one afternoon. A corrections officer volunteered to witness the celebration - and sing the "Ave Maria."

Every day, Ms. Zhang reads a Chinese Catholic Bible given her by Brother Kenneth. He also gave her a brown olive wood chaplet - an abbreviated rosary - adorned with a Franciscan tau cross.

Ms. Zhang's reaction to her baptism was nothing short of a transformation.

'I have Jesus'
"I have no loneliness," she told The Evangelist. "I have Jesus. I have God."

She's eager for Mass every week, explaining that during communion, "I feel Jesus going through me."

While awaiting her imminent release and likely deportation, Ms. Zhang passes the time reading an English dictionary, playing solitaire and watching American television shows.

Her son, Zheng Bi, is 25, engaged and earning his master's degree in business administration back in China.

Ms. Zhang doesn't know what's in store for her back in China, but her visitors have some suggestions. She could teach English, one said; she could work for the Church, offered another.

Other than the chaplet, Brother Kenneth said he doesn't give Ms. Zhang special treatment over other inmates, but he does feel closer to her.

"It's very easy to like her because she's so genuinely grateful for anything you do for her," he said. "All three of us were like family to her and she to us," he added, referring to himself, Father Smith and Sister Marion Rafferty, RSM, who often visits Ms. Zhang in her cell.

Ms. Bailey agreed. "I'm very happy to know this woman," she said. "It's just another wonderful spot in my life."

(08/05/10)[[In-content Ad]]

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