Banged Up Abroad

Tim Schrader left his life in Australia to work as an English teacher in Bangkok. While he loved teaching, he was struggling financially and agreed to smuggle between 4 and 8 kilos of heroin for $10,000. Caught by Thai customs officers with more than a hundred times the amount of heroin needed to secure a death sentence, he knew he was finished. Serving a life sentence in Bangkok's notorious Bang Kwang Prison, Tim became depressed; he began using heroin and sharing needles with other prisoners. Soon, he discovered he was HIV-positive. But his life changed again when, more than five years after his arrest, Tim received a royal pardon on medical grounds and was free to fly home.

Young American backpacker Mark Wedeven wanted the ultimate adventure in the fall of 2002: crossing from Panama to Colombia through a hundred miles of dense jungle. Traveling with two others and a hired guide, the group was soon confronted in a jungle village by men armed with machetes. Luckily, their guide's calm diplomacy prevented an attack. But later, upon crossing into Colombia, armed guerrilla soldiers took them hostage. After being held for days, they were taken to a graveyard at the edge of a village, where Mark was convinced they were going to be executed. Instead, he was taken alone to a meeting with the squad commander and questioned about his politics. Fearing death, Mark and his companions were instead eventually freed.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 and a wider war seemed inevitable, Tom Lynch and his fellow contractors working on an oil field in Iraq decided they had to get out while they still could. Tom and a co-worker took off on a perilous journey across the desert to the Syrian border. Running dangerously low on gas and drinking water, they finally spotted signs of what they believed was Syrian habitation. But joy soon turned sour as Iraqi military vehicles tore toward them. The men were driven in convoy to a military complex and handed over to Saddam's secret police force, infamous for torture and brutality. They were taken to a notorious prison in Baghdad and listened to fellow inmates being tortured to death. But their two-month-long nightmare was far from over.

Michael Morey was a music-loving hippie who fell in love with a woman he met in Trinidad. But when he learned he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby, Michael agreed to smuggle cocaine from Ecuador to Europe to earn some extra money. With the drugs taped to his legs and stomach in Quito, Ecuador, Michael sets off the metal detector. Luckily, the guard waves him through. But his good fortune changes upon landing in Madrid. A customs officer inspects his bags and Michael is busted. On top of a nine-year prison sentence, he receives a letter from his girlfriend saying she lost the baby and is leaving him. All hope isn't lost, though, as a new Spanish love and hope for freedom are in sight.

The Oscar-winning 1978 film "Midnight Express" told the story of 23-year-old college student Billy Hayes—his imprisonment for drug smuggling and his escape from a prison in Istanbul, Turkey. But for legal reasons, neither the film nor the book, authored by Hayes, was completely accurate. Now, Billy tells the full story of being sent to the infamous Turkish Sagmalcilar prison and eventually escaping.

After Jackie Nichols' fiancé dies in a car accident, she flees to Japan to restart her life. Once there, she meets a charming drug mule and agrees to smuggle hashish with him. After four drug-smuggling trips together, their friendship fizzles and Jackie decides to go back home to America ... but not before smuggling one last time alone. That's when she gets caught and is sentenced to several years in a country known for having one of the world's strictest prison systems. Struggling to follow the incredibly severe rules — such as prohibitions on interacting with other prisoners and only being able to sit cross-legged or on her knees all day long — she nearly loses her mind . But she changes completely, becomes a model prisoner and is released for good behavior after a year and half.