This is the largest prison in Chile, holding over 6,000 men. The conditions are bad since they are at double capacity and the food they eat is just horrible. Some of the men were so thin and pale from not getting enough nutrition and in some places the smell is just horrible. On top of all they have to endure, some of these men are missing limbs, in wheel chairs, blind or disabled.
One man in a wheel chair named Guillermo, was from the US, had a horrible car accident and now was here. Many I talked to were serving fifteen, twenty years, some a life sentence. Story after story of so much suffering and pain because of one mistake they made, some years ago when they were teens. There are many gangs within the prisons and so certain prisoners cannot together.
My brother started by doing some card tricks that really got everyone engaged. We have to make them realize that we are not some self righteous Americans coming in to “do our thing” or start a church, but rather just normal people that care about them and want to make them laugh. They get a lot of churches that come in here, many that are corrupt with the only objective being to get the prisoners to tell their families to pay these churches tithes on their behalf.
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