In 2012, Paul Conibeer, a traveler, was jailed in Bali's infamous Kerobokan Prison—the home of Shapelle Corby, the 'Bali Nine,' and a host of international travelers on death row for smuggling drugs. Paul's crime was a dispute over an unpaid hotel bill and his failure to 'pay off' the right people in the Kuta Police system that saw him jailed for almost 12 months. In
I Survived Kerobokan Prison,
Paul tells his harrowing story of sleeping on a tiled floor at Kuta Police Station for 60 days, using a water bottle as a pillow. After two months of hell in a stench-filled cell he was transferred to Kerobokan. Kerobokan brought Paul into contact with a wide variety of prisoners—murderers, rapists, drug mules, and the innocent, like himself—all searching for a way to survive. In his 300 days in Kerobokan, the toll on Paul's body and mental state were dramatic in that he: lived with 52 men in a 33 man cell; slept on a mattress on the floor with the rats and cockroaches; had no money to barter for food, water, and smokes; continually had to watch his back frightened that he might be stabbed; had his cell mate die in his arms from sickness.