Just what is it like to be lashed? In 1993, Gavin Sherrard-Smith, a computer expert from Cheltenham, received 50 lashes with a bamboo cane in a prison in Qatar.

He was accused of breaking an alcohol ban while living in Doha, the capital - something that Mr Sherrard-Smith, now 47, has always denied.

This is his astonishing account of how the brutal punishment was carried out, and how he endured it.

 Read Full Article at Daily Mail

The greatest country in the world is turning into a shit hole.

This is Jon. If you can't tell from his picture, he's a young, British, skinny, white guy who got caught pushing the drug Ecstasy when he used to organize underground rave parties. He was a successful stockbroker living in Paradise Valley in Phoenix, but now he's celled-up amid murderers, shemales, and the mentally ill sporting Day-Glo orangewear and dodging booty bandits in a Tucson Federal Penitentiary.

 What follows is excerpts from his blog, Jon's Jail Journal, which chronicles how a regular wanker tries to survive being caged with hardcore criminals. More than that, he exposes the inhumane conditions of jail and how a system can undeservingly throw people away without a second chance. 

As of May 2007, he is still locked up and still contributing to his journal. He will be in jail at least another two years.