A British backpacker has been thrown in the ‘worlds toughest jail’ on drug trafficking charges.
John Henshaw is serving time in a Bolivian prison after allegedly being caught with a small amount of cannabis at the La Paz International Airport in February.
He was swiftly thrown into a San Pedro prison that is known for stabbings and its favouritism of those with money.
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The 39-year-old from Greater Manchester was travelling through South America when it all went wrong.
Trapped in a prison that is rife with crime and violence, this situation appears to be bleak for Henshaw.
According to former inmates Thomas McFadden and Rusty Young, if a prisoner like Henshaw wanted additional safety from other prisoners and to steer clear of having to sleep on the floor, they'd have to fork out the cash to buy their own cells from outgoing inmates.
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In Young's book Marching Powder he claimed he once met a politician inmate with a 'formidable library and a jacuzzi in his room' and that money was the key to security there.
McFadden also explained how outside of the cell, it was a different ball game.
When he absolutely had to leave the security of his digs, he would ‘go to the washrooms really early in the morning, so that I wasn’t attacked’ by other inmates.
For Henshaw however, it’s proving difficult to get the supplies he needs as according to family, he is being ‘drip fed’ money from the British Embassy in Bolivia so that he doesn’t acquire enough wealth to be robbed inside.
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So, how will get a cell?
To help the locked-up father of one, his family in England have raised over £3,000 on GoFundMe to pay for his essentials, food, a cell and legal fees but it’s still not enough.
Alex Foy, the GoFundMe organiser, said about Henshaw’s condition: “John has found himself in one of the worst prisons in South America.
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“He's been thrown in San Pedro, La paz, Bolivia which is featured on an episode of ‘World's Toughest Jails’. It's 30-90 days until they look at his case.”
But those 90 days won’t be comfortable.
Foy explained: “There's zero human rights, the prison is left to the prisoners. All the guards are on the outside, they never go inside.”
They said: “He's spent all of his money on a lawyer and fees, with more to come and a fine.
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"You have to pay to be in the prison and then pay for the safety of a cell, otherwise you sleep in the corridors, basically living rough, on the streets of the worst jail of the poorest country in the Americas, and a very dangerous place on the outside of the jail, never mind inside.”
Henshaw is having a ‘rough time’ and needs a of help financially to get by in the prison, with his family saying he's sleeping in a ‘very dangerous place’.
A friend of the backpacker, Lewis Powell, said: "It's a very bizarre kind of prison. It's a hellhole. You're paying for the privilege of getting a cell in this horrible prison. There's a huge risk to his safety really.
"When I heard he had been charged with trafficking I thought god, that's extreme, considering there's cartels inside the prison itself.
"He's just a tourist travelling South America and he's been caught up in this."
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson told LADbible: “We are providing consular support to a British man detained in Bolivia and are in contact with the local authorities.”
LADbible has reached out to the Ministry of Justice in Bolivia for comment.
Topics: Crime, Travel, UK News, World News
Britt Jones