In 2010, in an episode of National Geographic Channel's "Locked Up Abroad", titled "The Real Midnight Express", Hayes finally told his fully accurate version of being sent to the infamous Turkish prison in Sağmalcilar, eventually escaping from the Marmara Sea prison on İmralı island. Hayes has since written the sequels "Midnight Return (Escaping Midnight Express)" and "The Midnight Express Letters - from a Turkish Prison, 1970-1975", the latter a collection of the original letters written home to family and friends during his imprisonment.