As the hours tick by, former college basketball player Jarred Shaw wonders daily whether his life has come down to this bleak existence and whether he’ll ever see his home more than 10,000 miles away.

Jammed into a room no bigger than a typical New York City studio apartment with 11 other men, Shaw is far removed from the familiarity of the camaraderie of a locker room filled with teammates focused on winning a basketball game.

Shaw is one of approximately 276,000 people imprisoned in Indonesia, having been convicted of a drug offense and attempting to return to the United States as his medical condition deteriorates. Complicating matters, Shaw has Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that, according to the Mayo Clinic, causes swelling and irritation of the tissues in the digestive tract. It can lead to pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and malnutrition.Shaw, now 35, has already lost 40 pounds from his playing weight of 245 pounds on a 6-foot-10 frame, and the risk of colorectal cancer is high in people with Crohn’s disease.

“I can wake up any moment and be hospitalized,” Shaw told USA TODAY Sports. “Some days are better than others. It’s not where it needs to be. I still feel sick quite often. I am asking for sympathy, and hopefully a miracle can happen.”

A native of Dallas, Shaw played college basketball at Oklahoma State and Utah State, averaging 14.2 points per game in his final two seasons with the Aggies, and earning second-team All-Western Athletic Conference honors before being selected 18th in the 2015 NBA Development League draft by the Santa Cruz Warriors. Among his professional basketball stops, he has played in Japan, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.

Shaw won an Indonesian Basketball League Championship in 2023 with Prawira Harum Bandung and was named an IBL All-Star Game reserve in 2024, suiting up for Satria Muda Pertamina.

Mailed CBD gummies, an arrest and declining health in a prison cell

But his current saga began on May 7, 2025. Earlier that day, Shaw’s Tangerang Hawks scored a home victory over his former team, Satria Muda, with Shaw notching 28 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists.  

Shaw was later detained by Indonesian authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking after receiving a package of cannabidiol (CBD) gummies from Thailand, which he says he took only to combat symptoms of Crohn’s disease. Recreational marijuana was legal in Thailand at the time of Shaw’s arrest.

In a subsequent search of Shaw’s apartment in Tangerang regency, west of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, authorities found 132 pieces of cannabis candies called Delta 9 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

The gummies seized weighed 30 ounces – less than two pounds. After Shaw’s arrest by the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Police in the lobby of his apartment complex, the Indonesian Basketball Association banned him for life, and Shaw’s deal with the Tangerang Hawks was terminated for breach of contract, which prohibited him from using illegal drugs.

Indonesia is notorious for having some of the world’s strictest drug laws, and those caught trafficking can face the death penalty. Indonesia’s last execution, in July 2016, involved four convicted drug traffickers who faced a firing squad. Shaw is believed to be the first American to escape that sentence after being convicted of a drug crime in Indonesia.

Shaw was ultimately convicted in December 2025 and sentenced to 26 months in prison. During the trial, medical tests revealed that Shaw needed to be hospitalized because of his condition; he has yet to receive medical attention since his sentence.

“I feel like that’s what’s most important. Yeah, I committed a crime I wasn’t aware of. You know, the laws and stuff here,” Shaw said. “But I feel like the most important thing for me right now, and that’s to get back to Texas so I can get to a doctor, get back to my family, to my mom. I just need to get deported back to America, so I can get back to taking care of myself.”

According to Shaw’s legal team and medical documents obtained by USA TODAY Sports, his condition is dire, as his health is deteriorating. He is suffering from three active infections, gastrointestinal bleeding, and complications from Crohn’s disease that require specialized care unavailable at his current facility. Shaw still needs a gastroscopy, colonoscopy, polypectomy, intestinal ultrasound, and a CT enterography as part of his treatment plan, when or if he is released from prison. Those procedures will require a minimum three-day hospital stay.

Shaw is receiving support from an international criminal justice advocate, Donte West, based in Kansas City, Missouri, who is serving as his primary negotiator, and from Vlasic Labs, which has raised money to help nonviolent cannabis prisoners pay for commissary and hire attorneys on their behalf by sponsoring a golf tournament. Once West was on board to help, he said he flew to Indonesia, planning to stay only a few weeks but remained for the duration of Shaw’s trial.  Roger Volodarsky, the CEO of PuffCo, a company that provides information on extract consumption, has also donated to Shaw’s cause.

West knows a thing or two about trials involving cannabis possession. He was sentenced to seven years and eight months in a Kansas prison in 2017 for marijuana possession as a first-time offender. That sentence was overturned in 2021 and he was exonerated after serving three years in prison.

Shaw waits for release, relief in crowded, challenging conditions

When he was first arrested, Shaw spent his time at Tangerang prison, best known for a 2021 fire that killed 41 inmates and injured more than 80 others. That prison, built in 1972, was originally designed to house about 900 inmates. Its population has since swelled to more than 2,000. 

Shaw is now housed at Lapas Kelas 1 Tangerang prison, which has similar crowding and safety issues as Tangerang. To help take his mind off the living conditions, he wakes up mid-morning to exercise, usually doing yoga stretches, and talks to his family via video call. Shaw says the prison guards are known to smoke cigarettes and wear flip-flops on duty.

“I’m a simple guy,” said Shaw, who also spends his days working on a book detailing his experiences. “I really don’t do too much. I don’t really go outside my space. You know, it’s freezing already. I’m not here to really make friends or anything. I just stick to my stuff. But my day-to-day, it is just that I try to take a little medicine that they give me, but it’s not really helping.”

Shaw’s medical symptoms vary. Some days, he is violently ill due to a 2022 diagnosis of ulcerated colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease. On other days, it’s indigestion caused by the food served at the prison. Bouts of depression add another layer to Shaw’s precarious situation.

With the help of West and officials at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Shaw has at least been able to see a doctor to obtain some of the care and the medicine he needs and to ensure his rights are not being violated, even though he says the medicine he gets doesn’t solve any of his issues.

“I think that was a misconception that the public was changing the narrative of him being a user, not a trafficker, to the population among us,” West said. “The most important thing is that people will use Jarred’s case to save other people’s lives.”

Advocates seek Trump administration’s help with Shaw’s release

Previous presidential administrations have been active in certain international criminal cases, especially when they feel someone has been wrongly imprisoned, and there is precedent for the United States government to intervene when one of its citizens is detained overseas or arrested for drug offenses.

The most notable case was WNBA player Brittney Griner. Griner was returning to Russia to play for Yekaterinburg UMMC in March 2022 during the WNBA’s offseason when the Russian Federal Customs Service arrested and charged her with drug smuggling after she was found with vape cartridges in her carry-on luggage.

The 10-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison before President Joe Biden’s administration agreed to a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring to sell millions of dollars’ worth of weapons. Griner was released in December 2022 after eight months in prison and resumed her professional basketball career months later.

“You’ll see how crazy the Indonesian prison is, so it’s just like, he has a real story to tell, and I think people make a big deal about this, and, you know, Brittney Griner got all this publicity, because of course she had the whole WNBA backing her,” West said. “Once he steps out of prison, I think it’ll be even that much more impactful too, because he’s going to save a lot of lives.”

West said his first priority is to get Shaw out of prison to deal with his medical issues. He has reached out to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Haymond in hopes of securing Shaw’s release.

The 32-year-old West, who is studying under the California Law Office Program and has been a spokesperson of the nonprofit the Last Prisoner Project, believes that Haymond can help and believes Shaw is the “perfect person” to receive leniency.  

West’s work with Shaw is independent of the Last Prisoner Project, which only works with prisoners incarcerated in the United States.

“I don’t think extended incarceration of Jarred Shaw protects the country of Indonesia,” West said. “That’s our goal. And, just in case the State Department doesn’t come get Jarred Shaw, I think there’s remission. Hopefully, there’s some type of parole mechanism, a medical parole. One good thing we do have is the doctor’s documents that say that he requires medical attention, and hopefully they honor that in the different governments of Indonesia.”

Consular staff have visited Shaw seven times since his arrest, remain in contact with his family, and told USA TODAY Sports they will stay closely engaged in his case.

‘The Trump Administration has no higher priority than Americans’ safety and security,’ a State Department spokesperson told USA TODAY Sports. ‘We take seriously our commitment to assist Americans abroad, and the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta is providing consular assistance to Jarred Shaw.’

West said that there has been interest in making a movie based on Shaw’s life and experience behind bars. But, for now, time is ticking.

‘I am grateful that the United States State Department has confirmed that consular officers remain actively engaged in Jarred Shaw’s case and have maintained regular contact with him during his detention in Indonesia,’ West said. ‘With the United States government closely monitoring the situation, we respectfully hope Indonesian authorities will give full consideration to the humanitarian and medical circumstances surrounding Jarred’s case as his parole review moves forward.’

Shaw says neither he nor anyone in his family has talked to anyone from the Department of State, but are ‘thankful that the leaders in Washington for the Trump administration are engaged in my situation and watching closely.’

‘I know our country is dealing with many serious issues around the world, but my hope is to return home to Texas so I can receive the medical care the doctor said I urgently need,’ Shaw said. ‘I love my country, and I do not want to die in another country.’

Shaw’s case highlights the drastically different laws and attitudes about cannabis in the United States and other countries. According to Harm Reduction International, China, Iran, North Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam are among the countries that use the death penalty for individuals convicted of drug offences.

However, beating a death penalty sentence, no matter what the crime, is extremely rare in Indonesia, a country of 287 million. According to the Directorate General of Correction, there are nearly 600 people on Indonesia’s death row, with nearly 100 of them foreigners.

In December, President Donald Trump mandated the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice, by executive order, to move marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III substance. Among the Schedule I drugs, defined as substances that are abusive and have no accepted medical use, marijuana was included with heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and ecstasy. Although taking the drug would still be illegal at the federal level, the move has the potential to change drug regulation.

Currently, 40 states and Washington, D.C., allow for the use of medical marijuana. The legal cannabis market size in the U.S. was $21 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $102.2 billion by the end of the decade.

Despite his incarceration and declining health, Shaw remains optimistic that he will be out of prison soon.

“I would tell my supporters, thank you for watching over me until this point. I have come a long way from beating the death penalty. My concern now is just my health, maintaining my health, and that’s to get back to Texas so I can get to a doctor, you know, get back to my family, to my mom.” Shaw said.

• Former Green Bay Packers President and CEO Bob Harlan died at the age of 89.
• Harlan’s key decisions included hiring GM Ron Wolf and spearheading the Lambeau Field renovation.
• He is credited with remaking the franchise and setting it up for decades of success.
• Harlan also made the tough call to end the tradition of playing home games in Milwaukee.

GREEN BAY, WI − Bob Harlan was the architect of today’s Green Bay Packers. His decisions during 18½ years as leader of the organization remade the franchise on and off the field.

Robert E. “Bob” Harlan died March 5 at age 89 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Green Bay.

He came across as an avuncular friend to everyone, but behind the genial façade was a leader who did not hesitate to make hard decisions, such as when he decided the team would no longer play games in Milwaukee, decided at the last minute that John Jones should not lead the organization because of medical reasons, and stripped general manager and head coach Mike Sherman of his GM duties.

His most controversial move was to seek a 0.5% Brown County-only sales tax to renovate Lambeau Field. The project, completed in 2003, made the Packers one of the NFL’s elite franchises on and off the field.

Before that, his decision in 1991 to give general manager Ron Wolf control of football operations led to two Super Bowl appearances and one victory, and set the model for football operations for 27 years, during which the Packers were one of the most successful teams in the NFL.

Harlan joined the Packers on June 1, 1971, as a player-contract negotiator after six years with the World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals. Before that he was sports information director for his alma mater, Marquette University in Milwaukee, which included one year with legendary coach Al McGuire. Harlan might be the only person to have both World Series and Super Bowl championship rings.

Harlan’s duties with the Packers increased year to year until he was named president and CEO on June 5, 1989. His first significant move was to fire Tom Braatz in mid-season in 1991 and hire Wolf as general manager and undisputed head of football operations.

Wolf hired Mike Holmgren as coach, traded for Brett Favre and signed free agent Reggie White.

The team won a Super Bowl in 1997 and lost one in ’98. The Packers were 261-154-1, a 63% winning percentage, from 1992-2017.

“The Packers family was saddened to learn of the passing of Bob Harlan,” Packers president and CEO Ed Policy said in a release. “Bob was a visionary leader whose impact on the franchise was transformational. From his inspired hiring of Ron Wolf to turn around the club’s on-field fortunes to his tireless work to redevelop Lambeau Field, Bob restored the Packers to competitive excellence during his tenure and helped ensure our unique and treasured flagship NFL franchise was on sound footing for sustained generational success.

“We send our deepest sympathies to his wife, Madeline, and the entire Harlan family.”

Tom Murphy, vice president and former archivist for the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, said Harlan would be near the top of his list for most influential Packers executives.

“Bob Harlan and Ron Wolf have to be right up there with Lambeau and Lombardi,” he said. “I don’t know why he’s not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”

Murphy said Harlan’s hiring of Wolf and his work in getting the sales tax passed for the 2003 renovation of Lambeau Field were among the most important actions in franchise history.

“He did that, probably, at the peril of his own health. He was under great pressure and that was a pretty close vote,” Murphy said.

Harlan said in his 2007 memoir, “Green and Golden Moments, Bob Harlan and the Green Bay Packers,” that winning the 1997 Super Bowl was his proudest football moment “because even some diehard Packers fans in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s thought it was never going to happen again.”

Harlan was humble and self-effacing, but anyone who misread that for softness was badly mistaken. Professionally, Harlan always made the best interests of the Green Bay Packers a priority. He made the tough decisions, probably none more difficult than his last-minute decision to recommend that John Jones, his chosen successor as Packers president, be replaced for health reasons.

In June 2006, Jones underwent heart surgery to correct a dissected aorta, during which he suffered a stroke that affected his short-term memory and physical stamina.

The Packers made Mark Murphy president and CEO, instead, after asking Harlan to remain at the helm for one year beyond the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Harlan said his greatest accomplishments were hiring Wolf and Ted Thompson as general managers and passing the Lambeau Field renovation sales tax.

“People talk about a window of opportunity for a football team to succeed,” he wrote in his memoir. “Well, we had a window of opportunity to get the stadium done. I think God tapped me on the shoulder one day and said, ‘You’d better do it right now and get it over with.’ And we did. Now it’s in place for the future, and we can move forward. If we didn’t have the stadium, there wouldn’t be a future.”

Harlan said passing the 0.5% sales tax to pay for the 2003 renovation of Lambeau field saved the Packers, but it was also the hardest thing he’d ever done. So hard, he started his memoir talking about how his wife, Madeline, told him to stop reading letters to the editor on the subject. In that regard, he was fortunate that window opened before the advent of social media.

Harlan said the referendum campaign, which the Packers won with 53% of the vote, was a nightmare.

“… you can’t imagine how bad a nightmare it is until you live through it. People kept saying to me, ‘Bob, you’re the only one who can win this for us.’

“And I kept thinking, ‘Well, if we lose it, I’m also the guy who’s going to lose it for the franchise.’ That weighed on me a great deal.”

He also directed the Packers fourth-ever stock sale in 1997, which aided in the 2003 renovation.

Because of that renovation, the Packers could expand Lambeau Field and launch the Titletown District, the total of which cost more than the 2003 renovation and was done without taxpayer dollars.

Harlan was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept. 9, 1936. His father, Sy Harlan, was the president of a trucking company, but died at age 56. Harlan said his mother, Alice, was a huge influence in his life because his dad traveled a lot and she was the one guiding his upbringing.

Harlan was a tough character when he needed to be, but when his mother died in 2000, he was unwilling to return to his family home, as his wife Madeline explained in his book.

“He was exceptionally close to his mother. Whereas his father was extremely successful and someone to emulate, his mother was probably the one who had more to do with forming his values,” she wrote. “Then there was the selling of her house after the funeral. Bob never went back to that house.”

Harlan was known for personally answering his phone at Lambeau Field and returning all calls, especially if they were from fans or stockholders. Those calls often enough resulted in Harlan getting an earful about something the Packers allegedly were doing wrong, but he believed it was his responsibility to hear them out.

“When I talk to one fan there’s a good chance that he’ll go tell 20 other people about it,” Harlan wrote. “So I’m not just talking to one fan, I’m talking to 21 … Public relations is very important to the Green Bay Packers, and there’s never going to be a day when it’s not important.”

Harlan made the decision to play all Packers home games at Lambeau Field, after three regular-season games were played in Milwaukee for decades. He worked on the plan alone for months before he started telling people, including his own executive committee. Harlan said it was a hard decision, but came off with much less controversy than he expected.

When Harlan made decisions, he often did so on his own. He said that when he took a decision to the executive board, he looked for its support, not its permission.

Harlan, by nature and position as Packers president, could be persuasive. When he appointed his first new executive committee members in 11 years, the Packers suggested the new members would be available for interviews. One of them, however, had a long-running dispute with the Press-Gazette and vowed to never again talk to its reporters, a position he maintained for four years. Harlan said he’d take care of it, and he did. The interview was done, without rancor, and that board member ever after was a good source and available for interviews.

In his book, Harlan made the astounding claim at the beginning of one chapter that he never paid for a ticket to a Green Bay Packers game, even when he was in college at Marquette University. He would sneak through a hole in the fence at County Stadium in Milwaukee and once in Green Bay placed himself in the middle of a group of people and just walked into the stadium.

After retiring from the Packers, Harlan served on the board of directors of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

Harlan is survived by his wife, Madeline, and three sons, Kevin, Mike and Bryan. Kevin is an award-winning sports broadcaster, and granddaughter Olivia Harlan Dekker is a college and NFL reporter.

Pittsburgh Penguins star forward Evgeni Malkin was ejected from Thursday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres for a retaliatory slash.

Malkin had been cross-checked by Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin 38 seconds into the second period by the Sabres net. Malkin responded with an attempted slash then connected with another slash to the side of the defenseman’s face. He grabbed Dahlin by the helmet and dropped his gloves as Dahlin bent over.

The Penguins center received two minutes for cross-checking and also five minutes and a game misconduct for slashing. Dahlin got two minutes for cross-checking.

Buffalo got one goal on the five-minute power play to take a 2-1 lead.

The Penguins were already playing without Sidney Crosby, who was injured at the Olympics and is expected to miss four weeks. He skated on Thursday before Pittsburgh’s morning skate.

Although the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are finished, women’s hockey is still gaining traction, particularly the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Founded in 2023, the league is expected to set a new U.S. attendance record with an upcoming game between the New York Sirens and Seattle Torrent.

The game is set for April 4 and will take place at Madison Square Garden. It is already sold out.

Per ESPN, a spokesperson for the Sirens said that the sell out is ‘riding the wave of the Winter Olympics.’ Team USA team won gold in Milan in a thrilling overtime victory over Canada, boosting interest in women’s hockey substantially.

Although neither the Sirens nor the Torrent are near the top of the PWHL standings, the venue and renewed interest have created an atmosphere that fans want to be a part of.

Sirens general manager Pascal Daoust said that ‘selling out The World’s Most Famous Arena is a defining moment for the New York Sirens and a powerful statement about the growth of our league, the passion of our fans, and our commitment to building something lasting and great, all together.’

Are there any U.S. Olympians on the Sirens or Torrent?

The Torrent, an expansion team new to the PWHL this year, boast four players from the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s Olympic team: Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter and Cayla Barnes. Unfortunately, Knight, 2026 Olympic hero and Torrent captain, will not be playing in the April 4 game. Knight is recovering from an MCL injury and is out indefinitely.

The Sirens feature three players from the silver medal-winning Canadian Olympic team: Sarah Fillier, Kristin O’Neill, and Kayle Osborne.

What is the record for attendance in the PWHL?

The current attendance record was set on Feb. 27 this year during a game between the Seattle Torrent and Toronto Sceptres, drawing 17,335 fans to Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. Given how prevalent the U.S. women’s national team is on the Torrent roster, it’s no wonder that they’ve drawn arguably the most interest since the Olympics ended.

Madison Square Garden has a capacity of 18,006 for hockey, breaking the record by nearly seven hundred fans.

Where else are PWHL teams playing in April?

Outside of their home arenas, there is a game between the the Boston Fleet and Montréal Victoire set for April 11 at Boston’s TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics.

That game has also already sold out, per the PWHL. TD Garden’s capacity for hockey is 17,850. The Fleet usually play their home games at the Tsongas Center (capacity 6,500) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.