This Is Life In A Thai Jail: Face Death Or Madness (1999)

Life in Jail (1999): Dangerous at the best of times, we see inside some of the world s most terrifying prisons, in Thailand. Subscribe to Journeyman here: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=journeymanpictures# In the dim light of Big Tiger prison, men lie top to toe in overcrowded cells. New inmates sit idly jangling their feet irons, put-on them to reduce the prison suicide rate. Amongst these men is Lyle Doniger who with Deborah Spinner and Jane McKenzie smuggled in their bodies 10 heroin-packed condoms from Sydney to Thailand in 1996. These three Australian junkies gambled with Thailand s famously tough smuggling laws and lost. "I was under the influence of drugs," says Jane, "we really didn t think before we took the actions we did." In Thai law they are considered lucky, the mandatory death sentence for heroin trafficking was commuted to a 50-year jail term. Lyle is afraid he ll go mad. "Most foreigners hit a wall at about six to eight years so I m really sweating it." In the women s prison, Deborah laments her loss. "My son is 5 now. He doesn t even remember me... that breaks my heart." In these cells thousands of miles from home they must serve their time alone. Lyle Doniger was unexpectedly given a royal pardon in 2002 and released. Jane McKenzie and Deborah Spinner were transferred to Australia in 2004, and released from a Sydney prison in 2007. For more information, visit https://www.journeyman.tv/film/693 Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/journeymanpictures Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JourneymanNews https://twitter.com/JourneymanVOD Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/journeymanpictures Produced by ABC Australia. Ref - 0693