The El Buen Pastor women's prison in Bogota, Colombia. Photo/News Corp Australia
The El Buen Pastor women's prison in Bogota, Colombia. Photo/News Corp Australia
A Bogota local who is a regular visitor to the jail where accused Australian drug smuggler Cassie Sainsbury is now detained says woman-on-woman rape is commonplace behind its walls.
Andrea Paolo Daza Quintero has been inside the El Buen Pastor women's prison in the Colombian capital multiple times to visit her mother, who was incarcerated last year for fraudulently selling a house with her husband.
Daza Quintero said sexual violence between women was rife in the jail and that drug-taking was more prevalent inside than outside.
"You find rapes; the women rape other women. Violation, between women," Daza Quintero told news.com.au via a translator outside the prison while she was waiting for access.
"If you like somebody, if one girl falls in love with another, she will look for a way to rape you."
Sainsbury, 22, has been detained inside the prison for the past month awaiting trial after she was found with 5.8kg of cocaine inside 18 headphone boxes in her suitcase at Bogota's El Dorado International Airport.
The jail where she has been kept since April 11 is divided into nine different sections, called patios, where inmates are grouped according to the type and severity of their offences.
There is one patio for drug smugglers and another for accused child killers, who are only allowed out from their cells one hour per day.
Sainsbury, a South Australian, is detained in Patio 5, which is reserved for foreigners and known as "narco patio" because of the number of accused drug traffickers locked up there. Daza Quintero's mother was in Patio 4, which is the place for prisoners who are soon to leave jail.
"Violence is normal in all of the patios," Daza Quintero said.
"Smoking of drugs, you can find more on the inside than on the outside."
The inmates are woken at 4am to fight for a place in the crowded showers and endure what's served up for breakfast.
"It's bad food. The food is terrible," Daza Quintero said.
And the shocking conditions don't stop there.
"My mum said that inside the cells were dark, wet, the walls are not clean. The stone walls are black because of the humidity. The smell is bad inside," she said.
Daza Quintero explained that the only window to the outside world was a tiny metal slot, which offered "just a small amount of sunlight, no more".
Cassie was found with 5.8kg of cocaine.
When prisoners arrive they are given a wafer-thin mattress to be placed on a concrete bed. They aren't given a blanket.
Daza Quintero said she brought her mother soap, a toothbrush and a blanket because the quality of what they were given inside the jail was so poor.
She also said there were lots of sick people inside who had to suffer through their illnesses because people were only let out for medical attention in the event of an emergency.
Sainsbury is understood to have had a rough time inside El Buen Pastor.
Her Colombian lawyer, Orlando Herran, told Nine News last week that she had been "psychologically affected" by her incarceration and was "permanently crying".
She was sticking to herself inside her patio and declining to take part in lessons the jail offered.
However, she appeared to be in better spirits on Tuesday when she was spotted laughing and smiling with inmates on the balcony of Patio 5 as she waved at the waiting media.
She waved her hands through the bars at a News Corp photographer and a TV crew, while a cellmate held up a sign that read "Cassandra pide libertad immediata", which translates as "Cassandra asks freedom immediately".
Sainsbury is slowly adapting to prison life, a prison source told Nine News, and she is beginning to smoke regularly and attend the outdoor 7.30am roll call willingly.
Her mood is expected to improve greatly now that her mother Lisa Evans and sister Khala Sainsbury have arrived in Bogota to visit her. It is not clear yet when they will be able to access the jail to see her.
Sainsbury and her family say she is innocent of the drug trafficking charges.
