Today I ended up in Ecuador´s women´s prison

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Not having any particular plans for the day and having spoken to a guy who knew a guy, who’d met a guy in the Galapagos we discovered the name of one of the inmates of Quito’s women’s prison - which is the only requirement to gain access.

Our passcard for entry was Angie Shaw, a 24-year-old alleged cocaine smuggler from South Africa who is being detained in the prison awaiting sentencing. She has been there for nine months and is hoping her trial will not come before 12 months - at which point, a recent law has determined that any non-locals being held without sentence will be released without charge.

Expecting a hardened girl living in a rough environment what we actually found was a nice surprise.

The jail was a hubbub of music, stalls, children and chatter. Angie was sweet and forthcoming - more than happy to show us through all parts of the prison including her cell, the common areas and the room where she earns money in a shop.

Even the guards were fairly informal and friendly. When we were told that our friend Rohan would not be allowed to accompany us to the cells by one of the guards, Angie pleaded that she allow us. That was all it took for the guard to return to her knitting and let us pass.

We had turned up with our suggested grab bag of goodies for Angie including shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper and nail polish remover which she would apparently use to trade with her fellow inmates for other ‘luxury’ items.

Angie, however, barely looked in the bag though and just seemed very happy to have new friends.

She introduced us to three of her German friends - slightly unhinged but friendly convicted cocaine smugglers who could probably benefit from the services of a psychiatrist - if the prison would provide one.

We spent an interesting few hours learning about their tales and experiences and at no time felt at all unsafe (although Rowan may disagree with this statement after gaining the unwelcome interest of one of the larger and more ‘quirky’ Germans)

Another plus side to the visit was meeting the volunteers who look after the children who have turned 4 years old. Being this age they can no longer live onsite with their mothers, and must join the other older children in the orphanage designed for this purpose.

I had read about this facility in the local paper, and had planned to contact the organisers to see if I could volunteer my time there - once my Spanish was good enough to manage the requirments of this conversation.

When we arrived the volunteers were taking the children for their weekly maternal visit and they told me they would be happy to have me on board and gave me the number to call.

When I return to Quito from my time in the country, I will contact them to try to organise this.

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Photos

The only souvenir of my day in jail
This stamp was our passcard out of prison

Comments

[citt]

interesting
a volunteer job in there would be very interesting. I would be keen to hear the stories of the detainees, and if possible even encourage them to contribute to some sort of biographic anthology. That would be a fascinating slice of life read.