After spending nearly four years in detention in Japan for having tried to import drugs there, a young Quebecer has returned to the country and can now testify to the abominable conditions in which he says he lived in a prison considered the one of the strictest in the world. Prisons here are “like hotels,” he says.
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“I think about that, and I had a narrow escape”, drops Jonathan Isabelle, 26, who returned from Japan on December 22.
Sipping a coffee, the young man recently on parole realizes in hindsight how lucky he is to be here.
He knows full well that he nearly languished for 20 years in a cell in Fuchū prison, in the suburbs of Tokyo.
This is where the majority of foreign nationals are incarcerated, as are the country’s most violent criminals, including members of the triads.
There, the freestyle soccer fan says he lived in atrocious conditions.
Taken from Jonathan Isabelle’s Facebook
Jonathan Isabelle, before all this misadventure.
Isabelle reportedly suffered intimidation, physical and mental torture, health problems, frostbite, and was fed heart-pounding meals for no less than three years and ten months.
A normal life
For this child of the DPJ who grew up in the Laurentians, it all started at the beginning of 2019. At the time, he was offered $20,000 by bad company to transport a suitcase full of drugs to the country of Sunrise.
If he himself admits to having seen this golden opportunity as an opportunity towards “a normal life”, he still swears that he thought he was dragging cannabis and not hard drugs.
Rather, it was 30 kg of methamphetamine concealed in clothing.
On February 16, 2019, the carefree youngster flew from Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport to Narita airport.
On the spot, the Japanese customs officers did not take long to corner him.
“If I had passed, it would have been in the hands of vulnerable people,” he said, now relieved that the drug did not reach consumers.
That the beginning
Nine months later, Isabelle convinced the Japanese court that he believed he was concealing marijuana, and nothing else. He thus avoided a sentence of two decades.
Instead, he was sentenced to serve eight years and pay a $35,000 fine. At that moment, he knew his ordeal was just beginning.
“It was a fight every day to survive, he confides to the Log. Everything is thought out so that you are controlled, every second of your existence.”
real torture
Isabelle claims to have been mentally tortured and beaten by the guards.
“I got stirred up, kicker, he explains. I saw a lot of violence from the guards. They smash everything, they yell at you in front of everyone.”
Once, a prisoner of Russian origin was allegedly a victim of this rage, close to him.
“I was like, ‘They’re really going to kill him in front of my eyes.’ He couldn’t breathe, much like George Floyd. You think twice before arguing.
“It’s mental torture that you experience day after day,” he says, estimating that he waited 40 days in solitary confinement, in the “hole”.
According to his memories, it was for trivial reasons like patting a fellow inmate on the back, or having an unauthorized discussion.
The rule was that they had no physical contact with each other, he said.
In these isolation cells, the guards never turn off the light and the showers are rare, says Isabelle, and you have to ask to relieve yourself.
“You sit in the middle of the room with your hands on your thighs. You don’t move all day. You are being watched,” he recalls. It is without counting that these dungeons would sometimes be completely soiled. Over time, insects had practically become his friends, he sneers.
“Once, there were traces of blood everywhere, including on the bedding, which they refused to change me. We often slept and ate on the ground. The cockroaches were the size of the palm of my hand.”
To add to the misfortune of the one who was then 21 years old, the pandemic started less than a year after his arrival.
The security measures only got worse, forcing him to find himself isolated from his cronies even more often.
“It was horrible. It was isolation for everyone. We had to wear our mask even alone, in our cell.
Chilblains and disgusting dishes
And then, even if the winters are less cold in Japan than in Quebec, that would not have prevented Isabelle from suffering from it there.
“You have no heating. That’s what I found the hardest. It’s three or four degrees. The number of frostbites I’ve had… My hands were purple, blue. And it starts again every day.”
The food there would also be disgusting.
“I ate the worst food of my life. I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t want to know. The smell, I will never forget. Sometimes it made my heart ache. But you end up holding your nose, then you eat.”
Like at the hotel
Once a week, the prisoners would be entitled to a movie, to entertain themselves.
However, the Quebecer believes rather that it is a question of a poisoned gift, of torture.
“They show you trailers for good movies that you’ll never get to see. Then they put flat movies in English, subtitled in Japanese.”
Besides, he had to work in a factory with the other jailers.
“It’s downright slavery. They make you do useless jobs to make you feel like shit,” he says.
By comparison, he believes inmates are downright luxurious in Canada. He believes that the prisons here are “like hotels”.
As if that weren’t enough, the Quebecer who was diagnosed with attachment, borderline and oppositional personality disorders quickly began to suffer from major health problems.
It is for this reason that his adoptive mother struggled with the federal government to have him repatriated “for humanitarian reasons”.
“Tears come easily when I think of my mother,” blows Jonathan Isabelle, who tried to reassure her as much as possible.
Optimistic
They exchanged a hundred letters during his detention. The lady, who always wanted to preserve her anonymity, even paid most of the $35,000 fine imposed on her.
Courtesy picture
Handwritten letters from Jonathan Isabelle, which he wrote to his mother during his incarceration in Japan.
“I must have saved a year, a year and a half, in prison thanks to that,” he admits.
Fortunately for him, the steps for his transfer were confirmed last summer. Excited, he could hardly believe the guards when D-Day came.
He had a thought for certain prisoners, who had become friends. “I was sad for them. Their galley was not over.
Nevertheless, Isabelle strives to draw something positive from her misadventure.
“I am more attentive to those around me, and motivated to do something positive. I lived four terrible years, but I learned English, discipline, to meditate, to know myself. I am no longer the same. It’s up to me to choose whether I come out of it stronger or destroyed.”
Finally, does he consider having served as a mule, used for his naivety?
“On the one hand, yes. But I take the blame. I made the decision to do it, ”says the one who does not seek pity, but who regrets the harm caused to his loved ones.
“Just being able to buy a present for Mother’s Day feels so good to me. My priorities have really changed. I think I have the background to lead a good life,” he concludes.