Getting into La Picota prison in Bogotà is almost as difficult as getting out. It took two failed planned visits last week, and a passport check, three stamps on my hands, two body searches, one finger-printing and a labrador sniffing in my groin today to finally get into talk to some of the inmates in one of Colombia's most dangerous prisons.
Piso 5-6 is filled with drug smugglers, mainly Colombians but also a few extranjeros, who do not get (m)any visits....
Andy from Manchester is in prison for three years. It is his first time in the clink, after 15 years in "the industry". Although he has already paid off his mortgage back in Blighty and was wearing shiny trainers that I noted were newer than mine, he told me he was getting out of drug smuggling when he finishes his current sentence.
Maphu from Slovakia had pupils like pinholes when we arrived, having apparently been in a party spirit for the last few days. He is doing 11 years for drug smuggling, but has already completed four years of his sentence and is hoping to be out in two years for 'discounts' (good behaviour). It's his second time in prison, but despite also wearing newer trainers than me, says he is planning on getting out of "the industry" when he gets out, and settling down with his Colombian girlfriend.
Marvin the Mexican was from Tijuana and is also in for drug smuggling, but he preferred to talk (and have his photo taken with) the female volunteers, so I didnt find out too much about him.
There was also a moustachoed Mexican from Sinalao, whose name I didn´t catch, and whose committed crime I didn`t ask, mainly because he had a moustache and I had a feeling he might not be in the same "industry" as the others.
Andy, Maphu, Marvin and Moustachioed Mexican Man seem to have it quite easy in La Picota. There are only 120 inmates in Piso 5-6, compared with 400-500 convicts in the other prison blocks; there are also only two people to a cell, a television in the prison yard, and all inmates with enough pesos are allowed a weekly visit from a lady of the night (on a Sunday afternoon).
On the downside, the food looked shit, recreational / educational activities almost non-existent and the showers are apparently cold. I didn´t ask any of the inmates if they had to share their soap.
On the downside, the food looked shit, recreational / educational activities almost non-existent and the showers are apparently cold. I didn´t ask any of the inmates if they had to share their soap.
The prison yard in Piso 5-6, La Picota
The carpentry workshop in La Picota prison
Marvin the Mexican wanted his photo taken with the ladies
L-R: Melvin the Mexican drug smuggler, Josh and Nic (volunteers), Maphu the Slovakian drug smuggler,
the Moustachioed Mexican whose crime remained unknown, me, Andy the Mancurian drug smuggler
