Locked Up Abroad: kiwi ex-inmate recounts dark days in Bali prison

“There’s nothing to do. You just sit down or lie down or stand up,” said New Zealander Terrence Green to the Taranaki Daily News on his jail time. Green lived with Denpasar’s baddest boys in a police cell where he spent two months after being arrested for property theft.

The cell was a bit tight, at 10 x 3 meters for 14 men, a plywood platform on the floor. It was the plywood platform that was “intolerable” after only a couple of days for Green. “The place was reasonably clean, I’ll give them that much.”

Not only was the food gross, as we could imagine, but it was also lacking: “You buy everything. The only thing that is provided is an evening meal – pieces of chicken, rice and green stuff. The food is unpalatable in most cases.”

Green said that officers picked their favorite prisoners and even alleges that one night a young narcotics prisoner walked up and down the hall with a policeman’s machine gun. 

He claims he asked the New Zealand Embassy for help but it was “useless.” 

“They have 120 days in which to prove their case against you. Basically you’re guilty until proven innocent.”

The worst part of his prison time though was when is pregnant wife lost their child through a premature birth and not being able to do anything about it. 

READ ALSO

OVERBOOKED AT THE ‘HOTEL KEROBOKAN’