Prison

So there is a prison which is right in the centre of the city of La Paz.

It is called San Pedro Prison and you can go inside and see what is in effect a bizarre little world that they have created for themselves with the help of "morally challenged" guards.

First things first you arrive in a plaza (we walked there from the main road took us less than 10 minutes) and you are confronted with a decision. You wonder how legit is this. You see guards standing at a door that looks way too public for tourists to be let in.

I had been told previously that there was a special side entrance for the prison for tourists so we did a walk around the massive prison to psych ourselves up.

When we had finished our psych up walk we were confronted with a woman who said to us in english do you want to visit some prisoners. We sort of looked at her and said

"yeah".

"Well who do you want to visit"...(I found the quotation mark key on this keyboard yay).

"um no-one we just want to go inside"

"the international prisoners section or the bolivian section"

At this stage I thought well why would I want to see international people in a prison that would just be depressing and also I'd blend in and the thought of blending in and then getting stuck inside was not appealing. Also the idea of having an emotionally salient conversation with a person stuck in a Bolivian prison on drug charges was not my idea of a fun wednesday afternoon.

"Ah the Bolivian section"

"ok well then follow him"

At this point our official "outside the prison tour guide" took us toward the huge door we had originally seen directly opposite a massive plaza with heaps of guards standing outside it and he took us into a small room just inside the door (before the actually prison entry) and said to us

"the captain is going to come into the room and hvae a chat with you. If he asks you if you have a camera say no but don't worry you can take it in with you".

At this point Fin's back was facing the door of the room and the captain came in relatively quietly and gave her the shock of her life (very entertaining for me).

So we are standing in this dimly lit tiny room try to bargain the price down with the captain of the prison (250 bolivianos more or less 35-40 US dollars).

I am not going to lie to you. While my bargaining skills are good when you are standing near the entrance of a prison you really lose the power of the walk away.

I mean I thought about saying "well fine then we aren't going in" but can you imagine the response.

"ok well then I won't let you in the prison which is technically illegal and contra my job title".

Fin tried her cutesy bargaining but eventually we got nowhere and agreed to pay the full price 250. We were then asked to write our names down and originally I thought hmm this seems like a time for a fake name. However then i decided to put my real name just in I had to prove I was an "outsider" when I left.

We didn't pay the captain directly cause that changes the fact that he bargained with us and on we trotted inside the prison after getting our "security stamp" so we could get out (this involved a large blue permanant marker with a star hand written on the inside of my wrist and the number 21).

By this stage I was well and truly shitting myself as there were lots of real prisoners standing at the gate and in the front courtyard. We went in and we were quickly caught up to a tour in progress with four other irish woman. We were introduced to our tour guide (who was just one of the prisoners who could speak english) and we quickly became aquainted with our security guides (four burly looking guides who followed us around). I assume that these guys commanded some respect as we didn't really get hassled at all. Not for being there and no-one really tried to sell us anything either. Now this is not to say that there was nothing to sell.

There were shops, foods stalls (barbaques) in the courtyards, jewellry salesmen, toy makers, ice cream sellers and hairdressers. I have been hassled more and felt more abused in an artesan market (handicrafts) or exiting a ruin than I did inside this prison with over 1500 prisoners.

Our guides were great but there was one person who actually turned out to be a guide who I was more scared of for the first 5 minutes than anyone else I saw in the whole prison. He turned out to be Jesus my newest Bolivian friend and Fin actually has a photo of him and I from the end of the tour. He kinda lingered around us on and off for the first portion of the tour and I thought he was just following us and he was so huge he totally freaked me out.

In the end I found out that Jesus had been there for 15 years and had 15 more to do for killing 5 people....I also met his wife (who tried to sell me cake) and his son (around 13 years old) who also live in the prison.

As I am sure you can understand by now this is no normal prison. The prisoners when they move in have to buy their location or cell and then rent the cell from the community that runs each seccion of the prison. Apparently a nice cell which is super swank costs 300US up front and then about 100 bolivianos a month for the rent. This goes to the collective of each area of the prison who then buy stuff for their section (cable communal tv, lightbulbs, soccer balls, drinks etc).

Most prisoners are there on drug offences but some of them looked seriously scary.

Prisoners if they hvae been good and have the blessing of the governor are allowed to have their families live with them. Like Jesus. I saw kids from 1 to 15 years old. And the older kids can come and go as they please for school etc.

There were also a series of woman who lived their with their family and a building which was apparently the "kindergarten".

There were workshops for making jewelry and toys for the outside which were made with material that the prisoners families sent into the prison. Now I know that letting tourists inside the prison is illegal and I know that our prison "guides and guards" got some of our 250 just not sure how much.

The most bizarre thing I think I saw was hardened criminals working with tiny bits of porcelain to make ornaments for the top of wedding cakes. They were quite proud of their work actually.

Hmm eventually after walking around and seeing various cells with cable tv inside and double beds, split levels etc I started to feel less sorry for these guys although apparently at night (when they lock themselves into their cells) it can get a bit rowdy/stabby.

We saw a part of a building which look totally different to the others in its section and were told that the captain had actually allowed a prisoner to build his cell ontop of the roof of a section and proceeded to add a private bathroom etc.

He then left and sold it onto someone else for a tidy profit apparently.

There are elected leaders of each section who get to rule for a year and then have to go for re-election if they want.

There are pool tables that prisoners have to pay other prisoners to use.

Finally apparently they make coke inside the prison and smuggle it outside. They even offered us some and told us we could sample their goods but the funniest thing was when we all said no apologetically they were so polite saying no obligation only if you want to.

After a 90 minute tour on the edge of my wits I decided it was time to "leave prison" and so we strolled out plain as day for any of the local bolivians to see us exiting the prison (making sure to show our exit stamp on the way????).

All in all I LOVED IT. It is just nothing like you would expect a prison to be and I think it is nothing like most other prisons in the world. Totally surreal and nerve racking but really good fun. If you come to La Paz go to San pedro prison.

Mike.