What it’s like for Australians who are in hell hole prisons overseas
AFTER her day in court, Cassie Sainsbury has returned to her Colombian prison hell hole - but the accused cocaine smuggler isn't the only Australian suffering the degradation of being banged up abroad.
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- Adelaide woman Cassandra Sainsbury, 22, locked up in Colombia
- Inside the squalid jail where the alleged cocaine mule is imprisoned
A CELL no bigger than 15 square metres can often house up to 20 prisoners in overcrowded prisons in countries like China, Cambodia and Vietnam.
There’s usually one toilet for everyone to share and little concern for personal hygiene.
Amenities like soap, shampoo, toothpaste and tampons are hard to come by and often require a hefty payment to corrupt guards.
Meals consist of a cup of rice, some boiled cabbage and, if inmates are lucky, a few small pieces of old meat.
Punishment for perceived breaches of draconian rules can include brutal beatings, being shackled to the walls or floor and solitary confinement for weeks at a time.
This is the harsh reality facing Australians who are banged up abroad on drugs charges. And it's a living hell that accused cocaine smuggler Cassie Sainsbury has returned to after her day in court today.
She's not the only Australian to endure the degradation of being banged up abroad.
Gordon Vuong was just 16 when he first arrived at the notorious Prey Sar prison, a facility about half an hour outside of Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
It became the teenager’s home in early 2005 after he was caught attempting to board a flight to Australia with 2.1 kilograms of heroin taped to his body.
Vuong was sentenced to 13 years in jail.
Prey Sar is a living hell, some former inmates say. Severe overcrowding means conditions are squalid, food is limited and inadequate, and guards use brutal punishment to control inmates.
Corrupt staff operate a “pay for play” system, demanding bribes if desperate inmates want to make even simple legal filings, according to Radio Free Asia.
“Those who break prison rules can be shackled, beaten, or kept in their cells for weeks on end,” it said.
Former Prey Sar inmate Kong Raya told RFA that up to 30 people share a tiny cell.
New prisoners are subjected to initiation beatings carried out by groups of inmates under the orders of guards, the Institute for Criminal Policy Research’s World Prison Brief said.
There’s a charge for using prison amenities, including pillows and blankets, and even basic items like soap and toilet paper come at a price.
Those who can’t afford to cough up must do without, leading to shocking hygiene conditions.
Vuong is due for release next year. When arrested, he was travelling with two men — Cambodian-Australian Yin Karat and Cambodian national Ek Sam Oeun — who he said had blackmailed him, threatened his family and taken his passport.
Over the border in Vietnam, 73-year-old Australian woman Nguyen Thi Huong was arrested trying to board a flight to Sydney in December 2014.
Authorities found 2.8 kilograms of heroin hidden inside 36 bars of soap, which she said were given to her by someone.
The great-grandmother was given the death sentence, but it was later reduced to life in Chi Hoa Prison.
The facility is infamous for its harsh treatment of inmates and squalid conditions.
Up to 10 people share a three metre by four metre cell, with no windows, no fresh air and lights that never turn off.
The prison doesn’t have running water, advocacy groups say.
The Foreign Prisoner Support Services says inmates are rarely allowed visitors, phone calls, letters, messages or access to the outside world.
Former Adelaide jockey Anthony Bannister was arrested at Guangzhou airport in China in 2014 and found with three kilograms of methamphetamine.
The drugs were concealed in several handbags that he was carrying in his luggage, on a flight bound for Australia.
Bannister told authorities he was duped by a sophisticated gang of scammers, who he thought he was doing a business deal with.
While he escaped the death penalty, he will spend the rest of his life in jail in Guangzhou — a city in the country’s south that has earnt the reputation of being the ice capital of the world.
Prison overcrowding is common, with up to 20 inmates sharing one tiny cell and forced to take turns resting on a single mattress.
RELATED: Extreme torture — inside China’s correctional facilities
There is one open air toilet to use and no hot water for showers. Amenities like soap and shampoo are hard to come by.
Guards rely on ruthless gangs to keep order, meaning they often have more authority than prison officials.
Time outside to exercise is limited. Instead, prisoners must work up to 14 hours a day in factories making various products from headphones to clothing.
Meals consist of rice and boiled cabbage, with old meat occasionally thrown in.
Former prisoners have reported that stints in solitary confinement are handed out for even slight indiscretions.
Those cells aren’t big enough to stand up in, forcing solitary prisoners to crouch in the dark and cop being woken up by guards every hour.
Bannister isn’t the only Australian living in detention in the region.
Queensland grandfather John Warwick was blind in one eye, battling a number of health conditions and barely mobile when authorities arrested him in mid-2014.
The 64-year-old disability pensioner from the Gold Coast was found with 1899 grams of ice hidden in a DVD player in his suitcase.
His family said Warwick was the victim of an elaborate internet scam that involved import-export business deals, a friendship with a fraudster and an arranged marriage.
He was being held in a prison hospital due to his ill health, but there have been concerns raised about his treatment.
For one, Warwick was repeatedly given iodine despite telling guards he was allergic to the drug.
Two months later, he was dead after suffering a heart attack.
A foreign prison many Aussies will know of is Kerobokan in Bali, thanks to convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby’s time there.
It’s now home to Sara Connor, a mother of two from Byron Bay in NSW, who was jailed for four years for her role in the killing of a Bali police officer on a Kuta beach.
Kerobokan prison, in the heart of Bali’s trendy Kerobokan-Seminyak tourist district is dreadfully overcrowded. Built for about 300 prisoners in total, it now houses 1378 inmates. All the women’s cells are also overcapacity.
Former kickboxer Michael Sacatides, who was caught in 2011 trying to smuggle almost two kilograms of methamphetamine into Indonesia from Bangkok, is also there.
The 45-year-old from Sydney was sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Another Aussie prisoner in Kerobokan, Paul Conibeer, told journalist Denham Hitchcock of the shocking conditions inside — drugs, violence and squalor.
Conibeer later wrote a book about his ordeal — a year-long sentence for an unpaid hotel bill — including how bribes to guards could get inmates prostitutes and fast food delivered.
“Kerobokan is one of the only jails in the world where the prisoners are in control,” Conibeer wrote.
He shared a 33-man cell with 51 other men. Some of Kerobokan’s cells don’t have toilets and inmates are instead given plastic bags “to crap in”.
Some of the remaining members of the Bali Nine are also in Kerobokan, who include Matthew Norman from Sydney, Renae Lawrence from Newcastle, and Matthew Czugaj from Brisbane.
In 2014-15, one-third of Australians in prison overseas were there because of drug offences, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
A number of those have been sentenced to death, it said.
“Many countries around the world can apply the death penalty to those convicted of using, dealing or trafficking drugs,” DFAT said.
“These countries include destinations popular with Australian travellers, such as Indonesia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.”
Originally published as What it’s like for Australians who are in hell hole prisons overseas
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