Case studies
For some the hardest thing about overseas imprisonment is the isolation and distance from home and family. For others it’s the terrible conditions and daily struggle for survival. Sometimes, it’s a combination of all of them.
Nobody can truly convey the reality of life in an overseas prison, or the desperation of being left at home wondering what has happened to your loved-one, better than the people who have experienced these things for themselves.The following case studies talk in depth about the shocking treatment people can experience in an overseas prison, and what it’s like to be separated by thousands of miles without the modern forms of communication we take for granted today. But they also show that with the right support, prison doesn’t have to destroy the lives of those it affects.
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Pat, a mother's story
When I first heard of my daughter’s sentence, I was in England. Her lawyer phoned: “I’m very sorry to tell you that Teresa has been given a ten-year sentence.” I was completely taken aback, I didn’t know what to say.
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Mark in Venezuela
I was arrested at the airport, on my way home from Venezuela. Because of my long dreadlocks the police nicknamed me Bob Marley. That was to be my name for the next four years, inside one of Venezuela's most violent prisons.
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Mark comes home
Hi, my name is Mark, and this is my story. I was born and brought up in Wales but I left the country in 1985, when I was 22 years old. Since then I’ve lived all over the place – Spain, Eastern Europe, but by 2003 I was living in southern India. I’ve always tried to come back at least once a year though – this is still my home after all.
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Shelley: One year on
Shelley was seven when she left the UK with her parents for a new life in America. Almost twenty years later, and after serving just under one year in prison, she was deported from the US and sent back to England. One year on, she tells us about the shock of returning to a strange land.
