Letters from Detention

We are getting fewer here. When I first arrived, we were around 95 people and around 30 that came only to sleep. 17 cells, almost all meant for a single person. Now we are 24 and around 20 more during night. People keep getting released. I’m glad for...

STATEMENT: ON COLLABORATION In yesterday’s bail hearing, both the prosecution and the judge claimed repeatedly that I have not been collaborating with the legal process. The implication was that keeping me in prison is a punishment for this perceived...

Boredom and the occasional brush with violence is probably the worst part of prison. Boredom, frustration, anger, depression. They all come from the same place. No one here is unaffected and I suspect many will have lasting psychological damage from...

It’s evening in the cellblock. Things are fairly quiet. It was a long day. Many had visits from their lawyers, a few got released; most of them finished their sentence on Thursday, but Friday was a holiday and due to the slow administration, they...

Most of the time we are between 80 and 90 prisoners in my cellblock. Around half of those are always sick. Part of that is bad sanitation, we have little clean water, but mostly it’s because we are a lot of people crammed together in one small space....

I’m tired. Sleep deprived. Prison is much louder than I could ever imagine. And add to that sleeping on the floor, in a small room with 6 other inmates, getting rest is a significant challenge. I’ve been thinking about my situation and the case...

Just outside the door to my cellblock, is the “calabozo”, the dungeon. Officially, they are called “reflection cells”. This is where people who misbehave are sent for 12 hours or more, without food and in ugly conditions. The door has a small grid...

El Inca is a prison that contains all kinds of people. People who didn’t pay alimony, people who committed fraud, recreational drug users, drug traffickers, murderers – and me - . One thing that surprised me a lot when I came here was how important...

In this prison there are not many books. There are a few Bibles and a copy of Ben Hur in my cell block. But that’s it. I’ve seen a library when entering the prison, but I never see people there, or with new books. No one seems to know or care. This...

Two weeks. Prison here in Ecuador is a maddening mix of long stretches of isolation and boredom interspersed with random threats and acts of violence. Today was a break in the structure: visitation day. You can receive max 2 visitors for 3 hours. Two...

I'm sitting in prison- I'm in my cell. It's dark, someone took all the light bulbs in the cells. So, I'm sitting close to the door, so the light from the corridor outside can allow me to see what I'm writing. I've been here a week, but it feels...