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INSIDE A SAUDI PRISON
RE-CREATING THE PRISON CELL
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Al
Hayer prison, where Bill Sampson is being
held .
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A
Padded Room
For the past two years, Canadian William
Sampson has been locked in a padded room about
6 metres long. His food appears through a hatch
in the door, a concrete slab serves as a bed and
fluorescent lights beat down on him 24 hours a day.
The cell guarantees him unrelenting isolation and
the looming possibility of a public beheading. This
is life inside the Al Hayer prison. (read more about
Saudi justice)
When
the fifth estate decided to recreate Sampson’s
time in Al Hayer, his jail cell became integral
to the story. Descriptions of the cell were provided
by Ron Jones (read more about
Ron Jones), who was held in Al Hayer for 67
days and is interviewed in “State of Denial.”
Sampson is not allowed a pen or paper, and there
is no written record of his time in prison. In fact,
no one outside the prison even knows what happened
to Sampson during his first year there, and the
only photographic evidence that has been released
was his taped confession.
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Reconstructing
the inside
of a Saudi jail.
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Re-creating
the Cell
So with Jones’s description and his schematic
diagram as starting points, CBC crews constructed
a three-walled space that approximated the look and
feel of a cell deep in the Saudi desert. Two large
lamps substituted for the harsh glare of fluorescent
lighting. Small details unique to the cell, such as
a mirror and a security camera, were included, although
the odd touch of an unused television was not. Sampson’s
cell contains no personal belongings and he is not
allowed any reading material. (see
more pictures of the cell)
To
complete the picture, an actor was used to re-enact
the claustrophobic routine of a person in isolation.
Dressed in a robe and sandals, the actor was shot
pacing around the cell (Sampson himself walks about
10 km a day), sleeping and disrobing. These scenes
were then incorporated into the final documentary,
giving viewers a rare glimpse of life inside a Saudi
jail.
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