The war on drugs from a unique perspective

One of the outside activities organized by the school was a trip to the women's prison in Quito. I jumped at the opportunity because I had the feeling that it would be nothing like what I expected. I was right.

We were told repeatedly by our guides from the school to carefully maintain the stamps we would get on our arms upon entry. They were literally our get out of jail free cards. The first stamp was proof that you'd handed over your original passport to a guard; the second came after another guard frisked you for knives, cell phones, sunglasses, and other banned items.

When we walked into the prison itself, I was stunned. There were no bars or orange jumpsuits or eerily silent corridors. So much for Law & Order. Instead, there was Latin hip hop music playing, laundry drying on lines stretched across the entry way, and children playing around the feet of mingling adults.

The prisoners wear plain clothes, so they are indistinguishable from the many visitors. (It was now obvious why the arm stamps were so important!) Some were selling trinkets or toiletries, others are standing in line at a hamburger stand. It reminded me of a neighborhood block party.

We met with several foreign prisoners for most of the visit. The majority of women prisoners are foreigners here and most are in for drug-related offenses, particularly trafficking. The one I talked to was Californian and 3.5 years in to an eight-year sentence. She claimed that the several kilos of heroin in her luggage was put there by her boyfriend, who she knew by a fake name. He had told her he was Puerto Rican but was really Colombian. You're locked up even if you had no idea unless you can deliver the true perpetrator. What are the chances.

She showed us her room, which she shares with two other people. It was designed for one inmate, but they are the lucky ones. The building was designed to hold approximately 300. The inmate population tops 700. And that does not include the children, who stay with their mothers because they have no where else to go. There are some rooms designed for one in which eight people sleep.

There was so much more I wanted to say, but this is already quite long. What an unforgettable, eye-opening experience. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos--cameras weren't allowed.