By Sasja Bögemann

Why did I start writing to prisoners? I saw this documentary on prisons in the U.S.A. about a year ago and it shocked me how the prisoners were being treated and how the justice systems fails in a very substantial amount of the cases. The thing that shocked me most, was that in a country as the U.S.A., nowadays, with all the technology we gained in the last couple of decades, still innocent people were being executed.

I did some searching on the internet, and I came across a Dutch group who wrote to prisoners all over te world. I joined them, and not long after that I got three addresses of men on Death Row in Florida. Soon I learned through the people in my internet group that there were a lot of European people imprisoned in Thailand and that circumstances were even worse over there. I searched for information about Thai Prisons and I read the book of Pedro Ruyzing, a Dutch taxi driver who had been in Bangkwang on drug charges and had been imprisoned for 8 years. I finished the book in no time and decided that, although I thought 3 pen pals was enough already, there was room for one more in Bangkwang.

About the same time I got an e-mail from one of the members of my internet group that she had been given an address by Kay Danes of the Foreign Prisoners Support Service of someone who was having a hard time in Bangkwang and needed friends, and that was Steve.

I have been writing to Steve for half a year now. I hope that he will get the possibility of serving the rest of his sentence in England very soon, because I don't think anyone is able to stay for 33 years in Bangkwang under those horrible circumstances and get out sane -or even alive...-. I know that what Steve has done was wrong and I don't think he should not be punished, but the punishment must be in relation to the crime and that is absolutely not the case here.

                                   

Please help by signing Steve’s petition. It takes 30 seconds and will really help. Please forward this Website to all your friends and ask them to sign his Petition