Sarah and Mash Go To Jail

My Salsa instructor, Segundo, used to volunteer at the women's prison in Quito and invited Mash and I along on Sunday, 8/26. We were definately hesitant at first, especially since I watched a special called "Locked Up Abroad" on the Discovery channel before I came to South America, so I had an idea of what to expect.

Where to begin...

Segundo prepped us on the way to the jail and had us practice saying the name of the person in the jail that we would be visiting: Martina Sibole. When you arrive you have to present your passport and then they give you two large stamps on your left forearm. This is to prove that you are a visitor when you leave. Apparently they used to use the same stamp all the time, but they were getting replicated by prisoners who would then try to escape!

Think of everything you know about a U.S. prison. You have it? Well, now think of everything that could be as far from that as possible and you have "El Inca" women's prison of Quito. The prison is just a huge open compound, almost like a really big hostal. Everyone is free to roam around. It is visiting day, so there are men lounging around, kids running back-and-forth and prisoners selling food that they have had brought in from the outside. At first you think it looks like a big party, rather than jail. But then the reality sets in. It's dirty. It smells. The food they serve for free is barely edible, so if the prisoners want to eat they have to have money to buy food from the vendors.

I ask Segundo about all the kids. There are many. He tells me that a majority of them actually live at the jail with their mother who is inprisoned. They do not go to school and they must cram into the mother's cell. Segundo tells me that there is one women who has 9 shildren that live with her in her cell in the prison. He had tried to work on a program to get the kids out of the jail and provide a place for them to stay and be cared for. It fell through.

Men come off they street to have sex with the women in prison. There is no birth control. Some times the women get pregnant. Abortions are illegal in Ecaudor, so they either have to give birth to a baby that will grow up in the horrible conditions in the jail with them, or they drink a large amount of acid reflux medicine which apparently is like a home-made abortion used in the prison. It's dangerous, but many of them feel like they have no other alternative.

We meet Martina Sibole. She is German, but she can speak English which is really good for Mash and I. Her boyfriend from Colombia is there with her because it is visiting day. She carries a cell phone which is illegal in the prison, but getting caught just means paying the guards $10. Apparently, the guards can be bribed for anything. Alcohol and drugs are rampant. I ask her where she hides the cell phone? And if they check the cells and the prisoners? Yes, she says, they do. She hides it in the only place they won't check (if you get my meaning). She is missing a tooth or two. She tells us that 90% of the female prisoners are in on drug charges. She was caught trying to smuggle drugs back to Germany for someone and has been sentenced to 8 years in the Ecaudorian jail. There are no real trials here. If you are caught, you are sentenced and that is it. They don't care whether you claim that the drugs weren't yours or you had your bag switched. There is no defense.

She takes us to a room where she heads up a program in which the female prisoners make hand-made greeting cards that are then sent to missionaries and churches in the US and elsewhere and sold. The prisoners get paid a small fee. She says that it is better than nothing.

Then we meet a young 24 year old South African girl and her elderly mother. Both in prison for trying to smuggle 12 kilos back to South Africa. The girl tells us that the drugs weren't theirs. That their friends from Ecaudor gave them suitcases to use because they had too many little ones and wouldn't be able to check them all. A lie. She has been waiting the usual 6 months just to get her sentencing. She tells me that she will take the blame for everything so that her mother can go back to South Africa...she won't make it in the prison for 8-10 years.

And then we meet the All-American girl from New Jersey. Long brown hair. Pretty. I think that she must just be visiting like Mash and I and then I see that she is eating food with a fellow prisoner from Canada. I sit down with her and we talk. She is a single mother of a now 3 year old who is back in the states. In the states she liked to ride dirt bikes for fun. She had a best friend who was a good, hard-working guy who happened to have a brother who was into drug trafficking. He had done it 7 or 8 times already and convinced her that it was really easy. She just had to Ecaudor for 3 days and met up with his contacts there. They would handle everything. She would be there for a "funeral." When she returned, he would give her $5,000. A tempting offer for the struggling single mother. On the way, she got scared and wanted to get out. She called the brother, but he said that if she ever wanted to see her daughter again she had better go through with it. As soon as she steps off the plane in Ecaudor, she is arrested. The men she was supposed to meet were arrested the day before and were carrying a piece of paper in their pocket with her name (misspelled) on it. She was given no translator and was sentenced to 4 years. She never actually touched any drugs.

I ask her if she was scared when she was first locked up. She says she was terrified. She didn't speak a word of spanish and was picked on immediately once the other prisoners found out she was American because they assumed she has money. She says if she hadn't made friends with the Canadian lady, she never would have made it. Now, she is doing better. She takes Samba lessons from a visitor who comes in. She calls her daughter twice a week. When her daughter asks why she can't come home she tells her she is really far away. Her parents could come visit her, but she won't allow them to. She doesn't want them to see her like this. In the dirty South American prison.

A sombering experience overall. It just really makes you appreciate everything that you have... And that there can be serious consequences for making even one irresponsible decision.