Col. Vo Dai Ton, South Vietnamese Special Forces during the Vietnam War, was imprisoned by the Communists at B14 (Thang Liet) prison for ten years during the 1980s. After escaping by boat to Australia, he had returned to Vietnam to speak out in 1981.  He was imprisoned at B14 in solitary confinement for ten years.  In his book, Vo Dai Ton related that the inmates at Thanh Liet camp were classified into categories. Their food rations varied according to their health conditions and whether or not they were honest in their confessions. An inmate who was accorded 47 dong for food and 9 kilograms of rice per month was given a bowl of cooked rice and plain soup from boiled vegetable daily. An inmate who was accorded 60 dong for food and 12 kilograms of rice per month was given more than one bowl of rice, a few blades of vegetable, some soup of boiled vegetable daily, and a mince of meat monthly. An inmate who was accorded 120 dong for food and 15 kilograms of rice per month was given 2 bowls of rice, a few blades of vegetable, some water of boiled vegetable daily, and 2 minces of meat monthly. An inmate who was accorded 180 dong and 15 kilograms of rice per month was given 2 bowls of rice and boiled vegetable daily, and 3 minces of meat monthly (Vo Dai Ton, 1993: 174).

Vo Dai Ton described how he was under separate confinement at Thanh Liet camp:

Each inmate was detained in a cell. His hands were not shackled, but his feet were kept in fetters. His mouth might be stuffed with a piece of rubber fastened by a string that is pulled toward the back of his head and kept by a lock. In this way, the inmate could not cry out. The security police in Hanoi and in prison have techniques of torture without causing death. Their beating cause internal injury that is serious enough to gradually wear out the inmate's bodily strength so that within several days of recovery the inmate would be resistant enough for the next beating. They did not apply electric shock; they tied up the inmate, cornered him to the wall, forced his head down to the ground, kicked and trampled on him. Fettering inmates' feet, cutting daily food ration, and starving of inmates are common practices.

The bitterest and cruelest torture was loneliness. Vo Dai Ton said that for more than 10 years he had been under solitary detention, he had never allowed to any activity, even a simplest one. Day and night, he was cooped up alone in the cell. Time of emptiness appeared endless, exerting on one's nerves, and making one lose one's mind and become insane. As always, the food ration remained the same--rice and salt. Tediousness and despair were always in pair, really! In addition, the inmates were also toyed with psychological and sentimental tricks. They were never allowed to write to their families. No news from home! Every now and then, they show you pictures of your wife and children. Then, they put them away again, just to corrupt your mind! (Vo Dai Ton, 1993: 191).

The poet Nguyen Chi Thien was in solitary confinement in the B-14 (Thanh Liet) prison for 45 months from 1987 to 1990.  This was the most serious time of his imprisonment, when the "fire of creation" left him in 1988 and he composed no more poems in prison.  All of his energy was spent in remembering his work.  He mourns the loss of nearly 100 from his memory.  When Mr. Thien was brought to the Ba Sao Camp after these 45 months in Thanh Liet he weighed less than eighty pounds.  He relates that Vo Dai Ton  and Hoang Minh Chinh "fighters for democracy" were imprisoned at B-14 with him.  (Nguyen Chi Thien, Autobiography 2005).