Trevor Reed Tells of Ordeal in Russian Psych Facility with 'Disturbed' Prisoners: 'Blood All Over the Walls'

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images Trevor Reed

Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in April, is revealing some of the horror he endured while inside a Russian psychiatric treatment facility.

"I was in there with seven other prisoners in a cell. They all had severe, psychological health issues — most of them," Reed, 30, says in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. "So over 50 percent of them in that cell were in there for murder. Or, like, multiple murders, sexual assault and murder — just really disturbed individuals."

Reed was freed in April as part of a prisoner exchange that allowed the release of Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was serving a 20-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of drug smuggling in 2011. Yaroshenko has denied the allegations against him.

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Reed had been detained in Russia since August 2019 and was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2020 for endangering the "life and health" of Russian police officers after a night of drinking — charges Reed has denied and which U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan called "preposterous."

Speaking with Tapper for a CNN Special Report, "Finally Home: The Trevor Reed Interview," the former Marine said he was sent to the facility as punishment for pushing an appeal after his conviction.

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty

Despite the efforts of his family — and later of President Joe Biden and other administration officials — to secure his freedom and bring him home to Texas, Reed said he became resigned to a life behind bars.

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"A lot of people are not going to like what I'm going to say about this, but I kind of viewed their having hope as being a weakness," Reed told Tapper. "So I did not want to have that hope of, like, me, you know, being released somehow and then have that taken from me."

"You denied yourself hope?" Tapper asked.

"Yeah," Reed said. "I wouldn't let myself hope."

Reed said his cell inside the psychiatric facility was "not a good place."

"There was blood all over the walls there — where prisoners had killed themselves, or killed other prisoners, or attempted to do that," he said. "The toilet's just a hole in the floor. And there's, you know, crap everywhere, all over the floor, on the walls. There's people in there also that walk around that look like zombies."

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U.S. efforts to free Reed were led in large part by Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan. Talks had been taking place for months but picked up speed just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as tensions rose in the area. The effort to get Reed back to America was hampered, however, by the invasion, which has led to fewer staffers at the American embassy in Russia.

LM Otero/AP/Shutterstock Joey (left), Paula Reed

Other factors that added urgency to the situation included Reed's deteriorating health and his family's activism — which led to a meeting with Biden, 79.

The Reeds are the only family of a detainee to secure a meeting with the president, according to CNN, which reports that Reed's father, Joey, believes that it was that meeting that made his release possible.

"Today, we welcome home Trevor Reed and celebrate his return to the family that missed him dearly. Trevor, a former U.S. Marine, is free from Russian detention," Biden said, announcing his release and return. "I heard in the voices of Trevor's parents how much they've worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevor's freedom."

"Finally Home: The Trevor Reed Interview" airs Sunday night on CNN.