Original subtitles

[Raphael Rowe] Diavata Maximum Security Prison, Greece.

Have you done that before? Stabbed someone in prison?

[prisoner in Greek] Yes, I did.

[Rowe in English] Overcrowded and rundown.

I never thought I'd be using a fucking power drill inside a prison.

Home to some of the country's most dangerous prisoners.

[in Greek] It was unfortunate. I grabbed a knife and stabbed him.

[prisoner] Right now I am doing time for an armed robbery with a balaclava.

[in English] All three are serious offenders.

And to a new breed of criminal, the people smugglers.

[in Greek] All five of us got 55 years each.

[prisoner] My sentence is 109 years for people smuggling.

[Rowe in English] This is where I'm spending the next week.

But it's not my first time behind bars.

My name is Raphael Rowe.

I was convicted in the UK of a murder I didn't commit

and sentenced to life with no parole.

It took me 12 long years to clear my name.

Now I'm traveling the globe to discover what life is really like

inside the world's toughest prisons.

[lock clicks]

[siren wailing]

I'm on my way to Diavata Prison in the north of Greece.

It's a prison where they keep murderers, thieves, robbers

and all kinds of other offenders.

But one of the growing populations is people smugglers.

[shouting]

[Rowe] Following the wars in Iraq and then Syria,

in the last decade, over a million illegal migrants have entered Greece,

looking for a new life.

But at least 20,000 have died on the perilous journey to Europe

because of the risk taken with their lives by people smugglers.

To deter people smugglers from operating,

the government are handing out extremely long sentences.

In some cases, hundreds of years.

People smugglers operate in the shadows.

To some people, they're invisible,

but this prison has a huge number.

Are these guys who are ending up in prison changing their ways?

I'm gonna find out.

I'm concerned about what I'm going to find in this maximum security prison.

It's full of Greece's toughest criminals and overcrowded,

thanks to the massive influx of people smugglers.

Even before this crisis,

Greek prisons were starved of cash and had a reputation for violence.

[officer] Come.

This is it.

[officer in Greek] Turn around and look at me. Do you take drugs?

[Rowe in English] No drugs.

[officer in Greek] Take off your clothes and put them over there.

Please open your mouth.

Please get on your knees.

I require a urine sample, please.

[urinating]

[Rowe in English] And do you find that many prisoners who come in here

might have drugs in their system?

Yes. About 50%. Usually pills.

And, uh, heroin.

I was quite surprised that he said 50% of the prisoners

that come through this searching space have drugs in their system.

[officer in Greek] Your tests are negative.

Come, get inside.

[Rowe in English] I'm going to be sharing a cell designed for two

with three other men.

Over 100 people smugglers have been sent here

since the migration crisis hit Greece.

[officer in Greek] The truth is the majority of inmates come from abroad.

The prison would have no overpopulation problems

if it only had Greek inmates.

[lock clicks]

[in English] Number one is your cell. You can go inside from here.

[Rowe] At the prison's request,

none of the prisoners will be using their real names.

Hello.

Wherever they're from,

most prisoners here speak Greek or English.

-Hello. -Hello.

-My name is Nico. -[Rowe] Nico.

-Nico, yes. -[Rowe] Nice to meet you, Nico.

-Yeah, Johnny. -[Rowe] Nice to meet you, Johnny.

-Antonis. -[Rowe] Antonis.

Raphael. This is where I'm gonna be staying with you guys.

-[Johnny] Yeah. -[Rowe] So which one would be my one?

-This one. -This is my one? Okay.

These three guys have shared this small cell for the last five months.

[Johnny] Where do you come from?

-[Rowe] I come from London. -London.

-[Rowe] Come from England. -[Johnny] England.

You're all different nationalities, right? You're not Greek.

I am Greek.

-[Rowe] You are Greek? -Yeah.

-Albania, Afghanistan. -[Johnny mutters]

So tell me a little bit about how it works here.

What... what the day-to-day routine is.

[in Greek] They unlock the doors at 8:20 a.m.

until 12:30 p.m.

Then the food is distributed.

At 2:30 p.m., they open the door

until 8:40 p.m.

After that, we get fed.

Every day is the same.

[in English] Probably the most important question.

Who gets to choose what you watch on television?

-[laughing] -The old man.

No, every... All together, my friend.

We are friends here, you know?

We are all friends.

[Rowe] Okay, okay. How long have you been in prison, all of you?

[Nico in Greek] I've been here ten years already for murder.

I came to this jail two years ago because of its drug rehab unit.

I was a user of drugs.

[in English] And you, Johnny?

[in Greek] My second time in prison.

[in English] First, hashish. After the second time, hashish.

[Rowe] So when you came to prison the first time for hashish,

you didn't learn your lesson.

[laughing]

[Nico] Business. Businessman. This is businessman.

Murder, drug trafficking?

Yes.

[in Greek] People smuggling.

People smuggling.

-[Rowe in English] People smuggling? -Hmm.

[prisoners chattering]

[Rowe] I'm just outside on the... on the cellblock wing.

So they put me in a cell with a murderer, a people smuggler and a drug trafficker.

All three are serious offenders.

The crimes are serious crimes, however you look at it.

But I don't know the details.

And they all seem like really nice guys.

The block is about to be locked down for the night.

We do have a hole-in-the-floor toilet in the cell,

but the hot water's off.

[whispering] Oh, very cold water.

I'm told it's been out for nearly a week.

[exhales]

It feels suffocating,

four of us squeezed into a few square meters.

So this is my sleeping space.

They have things in the cells. Television, drinks.

So there are some comforts.

But a cell is a cell.

It's a small space.

And you feel it.

Sitting here, you feel it.

[lock clicks]

It's my first morning inside Diavata Prison.

How you sleep through four men in a cell making grunting noises,

but Johnny obviously can.

[Johnny snoring]

[Rowe] Johnny!

Does he snore like that every night?

[in Greek, chuckles] That's nothing, believe me.

[snores] You snore. You do. You do snore.

-[Johnny] No. -[Rowe snorting]

-[laughing] -[Rowe] Yeah.

He can't even believe it. "No, no, I don't snore."

Which means I'm the first person who's told him that.

Could be fighting talk, right?

At 8:20, the cell doors are unlocked, and it's time for work.

Cash has been very tight since Greece's financial crisis a decade ago,

so there's not enough money for prison repairs.

Today, I've been assigned to work with my Afghan cellmate Nico,

who's serving life for murder and has had serious drug problems.

[Rowe] Nico.

Because he has construction skills,

they've asked him to fix the hot water and armed him with the tools for the job.

[Rowe] So, what are we doing here today then?

[in Greek] There's a broken water pipe here that needs fixing.

[in English] Feels like we're planning an escape.

There's loads of rubble, rock dug up.

[Nico in Greek] For nearly a week, the prisoners haven't had any hot water.

[whirring]

[Rowe in English] So, how come you're doing it? Why is there not people...

builders from outside coming in and doing this work?

[in Greek] If you are an inmate with some skills

or you have a trade, you can do it.

Working here in prison means we'll be released sooner.

[Rowe in English] Diavata Prison has come up with an imaginative solution

to its cash shortage.

They keep prisoners busy maintaining their own prison.

Instead of money,

they're rewarded with time off their sentences.

If I know for every day I do this, I get a day taken out of my sentence,

I would do this every day.

This one?

-Here? -[Nico] Yeah, hold on.

[whirring]

I never thought I'd be using a fucking power drill inside a prison cell.

A maximum security prison, I'm using a power drill.

As close to the outside wall as I possibly can get.

Are you not tempted to use this to go through this wall and run?

-[Nico] No. No, no, no. -No? [chuckles]

[in Greek] I've not been in the outside world for ten years.

I'm not about to do it now. Let's get going.

[whirring]

[Rowe in English] Yeah! We made a breakthrough.

-We finally got to the pipe. -[Nico] Yeah!

-[in Greek] You are tired. -[exhales]

[Nico in Greek] You want to have a break?

[in English] Yeah, let's have a rest.

Back on the cellblock, it's lunchtime.

Our meal was cooked by prisoners,

and I'm surprised to discover that, despite the shortage of cash,

the food is, by prison standards, great.

So we have fish, mashed potato,

beetroot.

[in Greek] They don't cut corners. The portions are generous.

[in English] This is really good. Johnny, so why are you not eating?

[in Greek] I'm not hungry. I had cornflakes at 11:00 a.m.

[Rowe in English] You have reserve.

Yeah, I'm okay.

[in Greek] This morning, I got him milk while he was still sleeping.

-[Rowe] Mm-hmm. -I feed him, as he is old.

He is of a certain age, you have to admit.

[laughing]

We respect him. He is older than us.

-[in English] Cornflakes. -[laughing]

One liter of milk with cornflakes.

[laughing]

[Rowe] It's the afternoon unlock, and the doors are electronically opened,

and all the prisoners come out of their cell again to socialize,

go to work, make phone calls.

Some have come out, some have not come out,

because the regime here is liberal.

It is slightly more relaxed than you can find in... in some places.

Before Nico and I head back to work,

I want to know how his journey to Europe ended up with him committing murder.

Nico is from Afghanistan.

He was smuggled here aged just 17,

during the war between the Taliban and American-led forces.

Where did you grow up?

[in Greek] Mazar-i-Sharif.

My father died before I was even born.

I was one of five brothers,

so I had to work to support my mother.

We were very poor.

A lot of the time, we didn't have food to eat.

[in English] How did you get into Greece?

[in Greek] I crossed Iran, then Turkey.

We were 120 people in one truck.

I paid the smuggler $500.

We drove for 13 hours without stopping.

You change cars, and during the nights, you stay in the mountains.

I spent one night in Turkey and then paid 1,200 euros,

and the next day I was in Greece.

[in English] How many of those 120 people that you traveled with made it?

[in Greek] Very few. The ones who didn't have any money were locked up...

until they were able to pay up.

They were treated like slaves.

Some starved to death. Some died of thirst.

Uh, many were arrested

by the police in Iran.

If they were found in the mountains, they were shot dead.

[Rowe in English] You get into Greece. You're now an illegal immigrant.

How do you survive? What do you do?

[in Greek] So the only thing I could do was work as a laborer for a farmer.

I worked for five to seven months.

I was asking for my money patiently, and he kept ignoring me.

[in English] So, what did you do?

[in Greek] I told him, "If you don't pay, I'll harm you."

I grabbed a knife and stabbed him.

[in English] Did you just stab him the one time?

[in Greek] Yes, just the one time, but unfortunately, it was fatal.

I stabbed him down here.

-[Rowe in English] Oh, you stabbed him. -[Nico mutters]

[Nico in Greek] I didn't intend to kill him.

It wasn't premeditated.

Have you been caught up in drugs in prison?

Have you used drugs to escape the reality of prison?

[in Greek] After my mom died, I was doing heroin for six months.

It was like a death penalty.

I didn't have any will to survive.

[Rowe in English] It's time for Nico and me to get back to the hot water pipe.

Nico is clearly a troubled and angry person,

and he has more to reveal about his history of violence.

[Nico in Greek] I choose to do this because

it makes me forget about my sentence.

I fill my time not thinking of shit,

like stabbing someone or finding drugs.

[in English] Have you done that before? Stab someone in prison?

[Nico in Greek] Yes, I did.

Did the person die?

[Nico in Greek] He didn't die. He was severely injured.

[Rowe] Why did you stab the person?

[Nico in Greek] Because he owed me money.

[in English] How many times did you stab the guy?

[Nico in Greek] Uh, I stabbed him three times.

They gave me ten more years.

I made a mistake. I went to prison, and I paid a bitter price.

That's life. When you do something wrong, you have to pay for it.

[Rowe in English] I'm still trying to get my head around Nico.

He's a bit of a conundrum to me,

as his experience in life of being smuggled from country to country

to try and improve his life had a significant impact on his state of mind.

He's gone through such a sad journey,

but he killed another man, unprovoked.

He says it was about money,

but he then goes on to do almost the same thing in prison.

And that, to the authorities, must be a concern.

The important thing is he's ten years into a life sentence,

and in that time, he says he's changed.

Nico's story is a reminder

that there are many potential dangers inside this prison.

[chattering]

Back on the wing,

guards have targeted a cell to be searched

for phones, drugs or weapons.

[Rowe] So, is this something that they do every day?

They search the cells?

[officer in Greek] We do searches every day.

Each day, it's a different floor, a different cell.

First, we take the inmates out of the cells

and search each and every one of them.

And then the guards go in and search the cell itself.

It can be problematic.

The inmates get annoyed because we are going through their home.

[Rowe] What are they looking for?

[officer in Greek] Drugs, homemade wine, homemade knives.

[Rowe in English] This time, it's clear.

But senior guard Dimitri Petropoulos

is keen to show me that's not always the case.

[Dimitri Petropoulos in Greek] Come and see some things that we've found

and confiscated during the last years.

[Rowe in English] This is what you find in prisoners' cells?

These are serious weapons.

[Petropoulos in Greek] I think some of them are very interesting.

We don't normally search religious objects,

but they can be dangerous as well.

[Rowe in English] No matter how friendly the inmates are,

you have to be alert at all times.

LOVE FOR OUR FELLOW MAN MUST GOVERN OUR HEART AND SOUL

It's my third day as an inmate in Diavata Prison in Greece.

[guards chattering]

[in Greek] The guards aren't here to let us out yet.

Now we are going to work.

[in English] There's no door handle on the inside of a cell door.

By 9:00 a.m., all my cellmates are hard at work,

reducing their sentences one day at a time.

Nico is still trying to fix the prison's hot water.

Johnny, who's in here for drug dealing, is in the prison shop.

Antonis, the convicted people smuggler,

has landed a cushy job, making coffee for the prison staff.

He works every single day he can to knock time off his sentence.

-[in Greek] Cheers. -[speaks Greek]

[in English] Okay.

[man] Come out, come on!

[Rowe] Antonis has offered to show me the exercise yard.

The transition from inside to outside is blinding.

If ever you want a reminder that we're inside a maximum prison here in Greece,

you only have to look at the guard tower with the guard poised

with what looks like a submachine gun.

Antonis is so dedicated to working to reduce his sentence,

he hardly ever goes outside.

[Antonis in Greek] It's been so long since I've been out here.

[in English] When was the last time you came outside then?

[in Greek] Eight months.

[in English] Let me understand this.

Are you saying to me that you haven't come out

onto this exercise yard for eight months?

Yes.

[Rowe] Why?

[in Greek] Because of my work. I'm always at work.

[in English] Oh, what's this? This is the weights?

Now I'm out here, it's a chance to see the prison gym.

[in Greek] This is the exercise area.

[Rowe in English] There's no money for proper gym equipment,

but they've improvised.

Oh, gosh. It's heavy.

[Antonis in Greek] They're water bottles filled with sand.

[Rowe in English] Okay.

I decide to test my strength against Kostas,

who looks like a serious weightlifter.

I go first.

-[Kostas] Okay? -Yep.

[grunts] This is light.

[grunts]

[exhales]

And Kostas shows me what he can do.

[prisoner speaking Greek]

-[Kostas grunts] -Showing off. That is showing off.

But he's a bigger guy than me, right?

I knew that Antonis had been given a huge sentence for people smuggling,

which Greece now classes as a very serious crime,

which threatens its border security and risks migrants' lives.

How did you get involved in...

in people smuggling?

[in Greek] A friend of mine was doing it.

I helped him out.

I knew another guy who was renting out vans,

and I introduced them to each other.

[in English] You knew he was gonna smuggle?

[in Greek] Yes.

[Rowe in English] What happened next?

[Antonis in Greek] The police made an arrest.

All five of us got 55 years each.

[in English] So you're doing 55 years?

[in Greek] And also a fine of 500,000 euros.

[laughs]

[in English] Do you accept your role for what was going on?

[in Greek] It was only an introduction.

I am not responsible for what happened. I didn't take it seriously.

Anybody could have done it.

[Rowe in English] He says his role was small, yet he got 55 years.

He didn't think that he was doing anything wrong is what he told me.

Whatever the truth of his story,

Antonis is one of over a hundred people smugglers in this prison,

more than one in four of the inmates.

On top of the problem with the hot water,

there's a new crisis in this crumbling building.

[officer in Greek] Raphael, have you got a minute?

[Rowe in English] Now the backup electricity generator has broken down.

I've been recruited to help fix it with Kostas,

the guy who out-lifted me this morning.

[officer in Greek] Kostas?

Today you'll both work on the generator.

Okay. See you.

[Kostas in English] Okay.

[Kostas in Greek] We are going to fix the generator.

We will modify the exhaust pipe.

[Rowe in English] Kostas is a 36-year-old truck driver

who's got a crucial role in keeping this prison running,

thanks to his mechanical skills.

[Kostas] Give me...

-[Rowe] This one? -[Kostas] Yes.

And wood.

[Rowe] And the wood.

How long have you been doing this job?

[Kostas in Greek] Three years.

[in English] Is that how long you been in prison?

[Kostas in Greek] Yes.

[Rowe in English] It turns out that Kostas was part of the same smuggling ring

as my cellmate Antonis.

Tell me about the... the crime that you committed then.

You were convicted for people smuggling.

[Kostas in Greek] My responsibility was to transport them.

These people had come to the Evros border, and I transported them,

put them in a truck and got them to Thessaloniki.

[Rowe in English] I wanna put myself in your position.

And I'm thinking about being behind the wheel in the truck.

How do the people that are being smuggled get into the truck?

[Kostas in Greek] On the highway.

There are some places out there, public toilets in certain locations.

They'll wait there, and we'll load them from there.

Ninety-nine people.

The trucks were big, very big, with plenty of space.

[Rowe in English] How did you get caught?

[Kostas in Greek] I stopped at a gas station.

That's where the police stopped me.

[Rowe in English] What's your sentence?

[Kostas in Greek] My sentence is 109 years for people smuggling.

[Rowe in English] A hundred and nine years?

[Kostas in Greek] How the Greek system works is,

whatever the sentence you get,

the most that you'll serve is 20 years. That's the most you'll do.

[Rowe in English] Twenty years is still a long time.

Why did you do it?

[Kostas in Greek] My main motive was money.

[Rowe in English] Well, what were you paid?

[Kostas] Hmm.

[chuckles, speaks Greek]

[in English] Uh, stop. Please stop.

-[Rowe] Okay. -[Kostas] Stop.

[Rowe] I'm not surprised he's tight-lipped.

Migrants often pay smugglers thousands of euros each.

Smuggling just 99 people

could have made Kostas' gang over half a million euros.

Okay, let's carry on.

[Kostas in Greek] I didn't harm anyone. I didn't kill anyone.

Until a few years ago, people smuggling was just a misdemeanor.

Now it's a criminal offense. I believe it's disproportionate.

I might be offender, but what I did is no crime.

[in English] Listening to him did make me think,

"Is 109 years for trying to help people who were fleeing from war-torn countries

or looking for a... a better life justice?"

In Kostas' case, he did it for the money.

It's a financial industry.

There is a lot of money involved for a lot of people who are involved

in the people smuggling operation.

But I can't imagine what it's like for those men, women and children

who flee in desperation,

end up dying on the back of those trucks.

You know, squeezed in like sardines,

having spent everything they own to get to where they need to get to,

in the hope that they will have a better life.

[whirring]

Both the people smugglers I've met

have played down the seriousness of what they were involved in,

but I've heard that less than three miles away from the prison,

there is a refugee camp for people who have been smuggled into Greece.

So today, I'm on a day release from the prison

to hear their side of the story.

This is one of many refugee camps here in Greece

where migrants and refugees seek asylum.

And for many, it will be a relief after the journey they've taken

and the risks they've gone through to get here.

There are dozens of camps like this around Greece.

-This one alone has 700 people. -[barks]

Mr. Ahmed?

Ahmed Haji is from Northern Iraq.

He and his large family fled the bitter conflict there.

They hired a people smuggler

who promised to get them to Western Europe and a better future.

But in reality, they've been stuck in Greece,

living in this metal box for three and a half years.

[Rowe] Tell me how you made your journey.

[in Kurdish] I came to Turkey to Istanbul.

I found a smuggler there.

I paid him almost $80,000.

We were in a vehicle for almost two hours,

then we walked for seven hours to reach the border.

There was water, a river.

It was a small boat,

meant to be for 14 or 20 people, but we were 47 in it together.

They threw away our bags and everything to free up space for us.

We had to put the small children under our feet.

It was a big water, uh, big river. It was not pleasant at all.

At one point, my family and four sons were swept away by the water.

We were swept away for 100 meters, and we thought, "That's it!"

[Rowe in English] Ahmed and his family were the lucky ones.

[Ahmed Haji in Kurdish] There was someone I knew.

He'd left home a couple of months before us.

He fell in the water. His wife and his two children drowned.

Their bodies were never found.

[Rowe in English] Over a thousand migrants a year lose their lives

trying to reach Europe.

When you met with these smugglers, what did they promise you?

[in Kurdish] The plan was to go straight through Bulgaria.

Uh, that's why we paid so much.

But they conned me and brought me here.

On some of the smuggling routes,

other smugglers were actually robbing people.

[in English] Is this what you expected when you fled Iraq

and paid people smugglers lots of money,

to end up in a refugee camp?

[in Kurdish] Smuggling is all lies. There's no truth to it.

[in English] It's a shocking state of affairs.

But I thank you for sharing your story with us.

More than half of asylum claims are rejected by the Greek authorities.

Ahmed and his family, and hundreds of thousands like them,

have risked their lives and forfeited their savings

for a very uncertain future.

He tells a very different story of people smugglers' involvement

in transporting men like him and families like his

from one place to another.

He says that they're not good guys. They're manipulative.

They're liars, and they do things just for money,

and they put him and families like his at risk doing what they do.

But as long as people want to escape poverty and war,

migrants will keep on coming,

and smugglers will make fat profits.

Back inside Diavata Prison, I'm going to track down Kostas,

the people smuggler serving 109 years.

He's told me about the crime he got convicted for,

but I've got more questions for him.

Do you have any other um, court cases outstanding?

[in Greek] Yes, there are others pending.

[in English] Lots of people who are being smuggled do lose their lives.

And they lose their lives because men like you

are prepared at the other end to transport them.

So you give them hope, hope that they sometimes never reach,

because they die on that journey.

What do you say to that?

[in Greek] Those cases

have nothing to do with me.

I've never been involved in an incident like that.

It's never happened to me.

[in English] So you're not ashamed or remorseful?

[in Greek] No.

[in English] Do you think long prison sentences for people smugglers

is the answer to deter others from doing the things that you've done?

[in Greek] The long sentences don't work.

Seventy percent of inmates will do it again even if they don't want to,

because there's nothing for them outside.

[Rowe exhales]

[in English] He's not ashamed of what he does.

He doesn't think that the government's policy

of increasing sentences is a deterrent.

-And maybe it does deter some people. -[chattering]

But I don't think it deters Kostas.

Aside from all the people smugglers in this prison,

they have another big challenge.

When I arrived here,

I was told that 50% of new inmates tested positive for drugs.

My own cellmate Nico was a heroin addict.

-Thank you, my friend. -Thank you very much.

But Diavata has a special drug rehab unit,

and it's pretty unique for a prison.

The unit is housed in its own secure zone.

Prisoners have to apply to join.

Then the prison decides who's eligible.

[Rowe] It's very different here, isn't it, from the prison?

[prisoner in Greek] Yes, it's totally different.

Uh...

A lot of the time, I don't feel like I am in prison.

[Rowe in English] Thirty-five-year-old George

is one of the 13 prisoners going through the rehab program here.

[George in Greek] We painted Prometheus stealing the fire.

Prometheus is the name of our community.

There is our motto,

and this is what we shout after our therapy.

[chattering]

[prisoners] We are together, bound by our souls,

one for the other, for a better life!

We are Prometheus!

[Rowe in English] These 13 inmates know they are the lucky ones.

The unit has space for 84 men, but with so little money,

they can only help a fraction of the inmates who need treatment.

[George in Greek] I share it with another member of the community.

[Rowe in English] Right now, George is clean,

but he needs to make sure that when he's released in two years' time,

he can stay clean for good.

Why are you in prison?

[George in Greek] Now I am doing time for an armed robbery with a balaclava.

Uh, banks, post offices, betting shops.

Things like that.

[Rowe in English] And what weapon do you use?

[George in Greek] An automatic, not a revolver. An automatic.

[Rowe in English] Ever used a gun on anybody?

[George in Greek] I've never shot anyone.

I just fire into the air to scare them to get the money.

I had to do what I had to do to get my fix.

Heroin, cocaine, hash...

-[Rowe in English] Everything. -Everything.

[Rowe] And that's why you're here in this... this therapeutic community,

and overcoming your drug dependency, which drives your crime.

[George in Greek] Since I was a kid,

I've had this image of myself,

that I am a criminal, that there is nothing good in me,

which is exactly the opposite.

I found people who show me real love and respect here.

-[therapist] Good morning, everyone. -[all] Good morning.

[therapist] Who wants to share his thoughts today?

[Rowe in English] Every day, they have group therapy

to help each other understand and manage their addictions.

[George in Greek] Good morning.

Uh, it's very hard for me to talk about this stuff, but I'm trying.

My sister visited me after a long time.

At last we talked about some issues with our father.

[prisoner] I've spoken with one of my children.

My other two don't speak to me.

If only they knew their dad

is a changed man.

[therapist] Very good. Embrace.

[Rowe in English] It was quite an emotive session.

Grown men who have committed crimes have talked quite openly

about what their day's or week's challenges have been.

And that's what this... this program,

this therapeutic community, is trying to do,

provide these guys with the means, the tools,

the ability to go on that journey to change their life.

And we know when they change their life,

it changes the life of a potential victim.

For me, that's so important.

Today, one of the group is turning 40.

[George in Greek] Let me help you.

[Rowe in English] I know how to put an apron on, George.

[chuckles]

Oh, so you prepared the icing already.

[George in Greek] Take the icing and spread it all over.

[Rowe in English] I'll start in the middle.

Are you impressed?

[George in Greek] You're doing it better than me.

[Rowe in English] Okay. How does it feel to be clean?

[George in Greek] I didn't believe that I could ever live without drugs.

I didn't believe I could work, not even prepare this cake.

[Rowe in English] And do you recognize how much pain you must have caused

when you were firing guns to scare people?

[George in Greek] I can understand how they felt.

I can put myself in their position. I can understand how they felt.

I can't do anything about it.

I feel guilt and remorse.

I am at peace with my past.

[all] ♪ May you live long May you grow old and have white hair ♪

♪ Give to everyone The light of knowledge ♪

♪ And may all say here is a wise man ♪

[Rowe in English] From what I've seen today,

this unit is giving prisoners the sort of help they desperately need.

It's a shame it's only helping 13 people.

I promised my cellmate Nico, doing time for murder,

a game of basketball before I left the prison.

[cheers]

Nico has been admitted to the drug therapy program before,

but he couldn't take the intensity of it and soon dropped out.

Now he's desperate for another chance.

When I was over there, the regime, the structure requires quite a lot of you.

And in a place like this, that can be challenging.

So do you think you're ready to go back this time?

[in Greek] Over there, you have to face yourself in the mirror,

realize who you are, what you've done.

When you're in here, it is difficult to face up to yourself.

It's difficult for anyone.

[in English] Why do you think you're ready to face yourself?

[in Greek] I feel I am at an age that allows me to handle these things now,

and it's for my own good.

There's no downside.

It's time to decide what I want to do with my life when I get out.

I have to be ready to reenter society.

I hope to get out of prison

and be a normal person

and forget what I've been through these past 15 years.

[Rowe in English] It's my final morning at Diavata Prison.

But each of my three cellmates

could be staying here for a decade or more,

even with time knocked off for working.

They're likely to be joined by even more people smugglers in the years ahead.

And that may continue to limit what the prison can do

to help other inmates change.

Before I leave, I want to ask the prison's director,

Anastasios Papadopoulos, what he makes of this situation.

You are running some really good programs here.

The drug dependency unit.

But there's only very few spaces for them to take advantage of.

[Anastasios Papadopoulos in Greek] The reality is

our resources are extremely limited.

The prison was designed to hold around 360 people.

Right now, instead of 360, we are accommodating 440 prisoners.

It's a number that goes well beyond the capabilities of the prison.

[Rowe in English] But the growing number of prisoners,

not just here but in prisons across the country,

are involved in people smuggling.

So does that suggest that the very long sentences that they are getting

is not the deterrent that the lawmakers hoped that it would be?

[Papadopoulos in Greek] What you say is true,

but a stricter sentence does act as a deterrent.

As well as sentencing, we need to educate these people

that what they've done are criminal acts.

Putting the lives of human beings in danger is a big crime for me.

[Rowe in English] But from what I've seen and heard,

it's this new breed of criminals

that may be the hardest of all to reform.

I've seen some amazing initiatives

that are changing some prisoners' lives for the better.

But have I seen a system that can reform the new category of prisoner,

the people smuggler? I'm not so sure.

[theme music playing]