Prison in Peru (Guest Blog by Lula)

I am a foreign national serving a seven-year sentence in Peru. I write this as a cry for help. Shaun, as I was reading your book, Prison Time, something kept pushing at the inside of me to tell you how the foreigners here are suffering.

Most of us have no means of support and never hear from our embassies. Getting freedom is so hard. We go back and forth to court, which usually gets postponed for small things. Some foreigners give up hope.

We can apply to return to our countries, but we have to pay our tickets and fines. We have to present our papers from inside to the director and other managing bodies. From there, we wait up to three months before going to court, where they determine your release date. Sometimes they lose your documents, which means you have to start over again and run around and get your documents.

Do you know of any international human rights organisations I may be able to get in contact with? Or do you know of an organisation like Prisoners Abroad but for other foreigners? I would be very grateful. Many of us are stranded here because we have no means.

There aren’t many work opportunities, and strangely, if you want to work, you have to pay to be in the workplace. Everything works in reverse here.

I would love to hear from you,

Lula

Any advice on helping Lula is welcome in the comments below.

Previous Guest Blog

Click here for my YouTube prison videos
Click here for descriptions of all of the prisoners I write about at Jon’s Jail Journal ranging from Mafia hit men to giant transsexuals
Shaun Attwood