Hell in Barbados - click here to buy from Amazon

hell in barbados - by terry donaldson

The true story of a man imprisoned in paradise.

Terry Donaldson' story depicts how a drug-addicted smuggler found his salvation in the unlikeliest of places.

Told with shocking honesty, Hell in Barbados take us into the mind of an addict and shows us just how low a man can fall before he finds the strength to save himself.

Click here to buy Hell in Barbados: The True Story of a Man Imprisoned in Paradise from Amazon.co.uk

Hell in Barbados

Three years in a foreign jail helped one man get off drugs and turn his life around
writes Graeme Green.

Former drug addict Terry Donaldson was caught trying to smuggle cocaine from Barbados to Britain.
He spent three years in a Barbados jail, where he witnessed beatings, shootings, prostitution and a full-scale riot. He's now back in Britain, helping others who are suffering from addictions.

The day I got busted I was carrying 3kg of cocaine which had been brought to my hotel room so I could smuggle it into Britain. Barbados Airport was crowded, and I was tense and paranoid as I had been smoking cocaine... I never even made it through departures.

The Barbados police had been tipped off and were waiting for me. They showed me their badges and led me into a room where they ripped my suitcase apart and found the drugs in the lining. In court, I pleaded guilty and got four years in jail, which meant I would be out in three.

I was taken to Glendairy Prison, a huge old slave trade building. Inside, there was hardly any sunlight. The cells were tiny, with three guys to a cell. The overcrowding and conditions were abysmal and the noise was ferocious. I slept on the concrete floor, with just a rag as a pillow. There were cockroaches and insects everywhere. Food consisted of a bowl of rice a day, with maybe a bit of corned beef in it. Some days, we'd get an orange. Your body just gets used to it.

Some of the guards treated us well, others smuggled in drugs and guns or recruited people for prostitution. Rapes were organised by prison officers, too.

The violence was relentless, both from the guards and from gangs vying for control. People were poisoned, or put into wooden boxes and thrown down stairs. Someone might get paid 20 cigarettes to back another inmate.

You had to stand up for yourself and I had a couple of big fights, which earned me some respect. Mostly I learned how to talk to people and avoid trouble.

The most terrifying part of my time there was the riot. It had been brewing for a long time as everyone was fed up with being bullied and humiliated by the jail's superintendent and his puffed up task force, called the Dog Men who would grab people and rip apart their clothes for no reason.

It kicked off after one of the younger guys complained that he had been raped but the head screw didn't want to know. The rape victim brought 20 of his friends in retaliation who began beating up and cutting the inmate who'd raped him. Everyone started throwing rocks and across the prison, you could see flames coming out of doors and windows as people set their cells alight, which set fire to the the wooden roof.

The riot continued for a day or so until the guards herded everyone into a warehouse where some inmates were beaten and left in cages for days without food. The guards shot three people - killing two of them and committed other atrocities. It was crazy.

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good out of the bad

The only good thing about going to jail was that I managed to get off drugs and had a lot of time to think about my life. I'd previously run my own tarot card business and done readings on TV programmes such as The Big Breakfast. But I had been living a Jekyll and Hyde lifestyle. I'd been into heroin, speed and other drugs since my early twenties but once I started smoking crack cocaine, it became a total addiction.

I did terrible things for money to feed my habit before ending up in serious debt to a dealer. He offered me the opportunity to clear my debts if I did this one job in Barbados.

On the day I left prison, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief that I'd survived. I promised myself that I would never go back to prison and never go back to drugs.
As horrific as my experience was, I know it saved my life.

Terry Donaldson's book "Hell in Barbados" is now out (Maverick House, £7.99).

This article appeared in Metro on 20th February, 2007

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