Prisoners can eat and drink whatever friends bring them, furnish their cells, own mobile phones and have full contact visits five days a week, which is unheard of in most jails. ....if you are discreet, you can buy cold beer for less than $A2 a can and pay to have the odd day outside with friends.....Phones, televisions, liquor and other luxuries are illegal, but prisoners with money have no trouble keeping them, or buying them back when they are confiscated.

Corby, like the other prisoners, will take her visitors to a small grassed area where someone will appear, spread a straw mat for all to sit on, and offer cola, lemonade or sweet tea. This area is small and can be cramped when it's busy, but no one minds if you have a picnic and a glass of wine, provided you make a small donation to the guards, who depend on visitors to make their living.

And, how ironic is this?

For those who want something stronger than the tea and soft drinks available at the stalls, they can buy bottles of arak. Hashish is readily available for about $A16 a gram.

The newspaper sent out questionaires to other prisoners to obtain information about prison life. Here's some of what they had to say:

• You can get a day out, but it's expensive
• Expect to pay double at the clinic for medicine
• Don't trust lawyers
  "Ninety per cent of them are liars. Many people pay money for their cases twice, the first time because the lawyer runs away with the money and then you have to look for another."

Justice is for sale:

One European prisoner says he paid $A35,000 to get his sentence brought down from 12 years to five. He says a further reduction to just 18 months was on offer when he appealed to the Supreme Court, but he could not raise the extra $A25,000 needed....

Other prisoners confirmed this:

You can pay early, before the prosecutor makes his request for a sentence, or you can wait and try to organise payment during the appeal process that Corby is now heading for, when there are no hearings and there is less public scrutiny. Payments of six-figure sums are not unusual in big drug cases.

And this inmate says it is the best prison in Asia:

Robert Fraser, a 45-year-old from Scotland, nearing the end of a four-year stretch for possession of hashish, says it is ridiculous to compare Kerobokan with the notorious Bangkok Hilton or Turkish jails made famous in the book Midnight Express. "It's no hell-hole here," he says. "If you are going to be in prison in Asia, this is the place to be."

Schapelle sites (including donation information) are:

• Innocent Without a Doubt
• DontShootSchapelle

TalkLeft's Prior Coverage:

• Schapelle: Guilty as Charged (live blog of verdict reading)
• Judgment Day for Schapelle
• Groups Seek Death Penalty for Schapelle