http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/05/01/wormwood_scrubs/index2.html

22/12/06: -- Friday: No more Stanton. He "had court" today, and while he asked me to try to save his place in this room, it was no go: "We aren't saving anything for anybody." So now I've got Phil. He's "of an age" (mine, probably a little older), whom they've put in here, as he explains, because they told him he and I are "both intelligent and first-time offenders and you ought to get along." Phil is a white South African, from Johannesburg, in for drug smuggling -- some huge amount of cocaine -- which he brought in from Boston by way of Trinidad, having picked up the stuff in Venezuela (Caracas). He says he begged "them" (he means the cartel) not to send him through Trinidad, as it would be (and was) a flag for customs at Heathrow. But I suppose these drug lords always make sure that a certain number of their "mules" get caught, otherwise it would look suspicious. Anyhow, Phil is really up the creek -- facing 10 years. He did it because he's been unemployed for five years -- he's some kind of geologist or metallurgical engineer, used to work for De Beers, but can't get work in South Africa anymore "because I'm white." His wife has recently run off with some other man and he has kids to support -- who now don't know where he is or what's happened to him. He seems OK, just resigned. "Stunned" is a better word.