This is every parents nightmare so make sure you tell your kids to watch out for this. It happens a lot more often than you think.

In the 910 days Natalia Stachowiak has been locked up in a Panamanian prison for international drug trafficking, she’s had $13 manicure-pedicures, $10 massages, and a $6 blow-dry and style.

The 21-year-old Edmontonian, one of the youngest inmates at Centro Femenino de Rehabilitación, also placed second in a prison beauty pageant.

She shared the small victory on social media using a contraband cellphone, which costs her about $30 a month in data.

 

Stachowiak is one of the more financially fortunate inmates. She gets American money wired to her from family back home, then smuggled into the prison by Panamanians who take a 15 per cent cut of the cash. It pays for everything from her cellphone and phone cards to food, toilet paper and soap — unless you trust the wrong person as a go-between, and get nothing. The low Canadian dollar has affected even this prison economy: her family now has to send roughly $160 CAD for her to receive $100 US.  See the entire article here