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Worst Prisons in History · Be Amazed

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nelson Mandela said, you can't truly know a nation until you've been inside its jails, but today we're going beyond nations.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're going back through the centuries.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: From unimaginably hellish prison pets to very literal suspended sentences, we've buy by to the free world as we step inside the worst prisons in all of history, from ancient times to the day.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mammartine, prison.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: With society's pension for violence and war pervasive slavery and harsh punishments, life as a citizen in ancient Rome could be pretty grim.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: But have you ever stopped to imagine just how horrible life as a prison inmate would have been under the Roman Empire?
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, buckle up, Centurion.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Known as Carser in Latin, Mammor teen prison was an ancient maximum security prison that dates back to his early as the 7th century BC.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Commissioned by the 4th King of Rome, Ancus Marcius, between 640 and 616 BC, Mammertine largely consisted of a network of dank subterranean dungeons.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The lowest of these dungeons was known as the Tullianum, which was located within the city's subterranean sewer system.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: This truly hellish bit was only accessible via a small manhole in the upper self-law through which prisoners of the state were thrown to await their fate.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: With the only way in and out just above arms reach for those thrown into the pit, it's easy to imagine how torturous it must have been.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Long-term imprisonment wasn't a sentence under Roman law, and any kind of incarceration was usually intended to be a temporary measure prior to trials and executions.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even so, some very famous faces reportedly spent time in this hellhole.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Legend has it that Jesus' very own apostles St. Peter and Paul were both held in Mammardine prior to their crucifixions.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if the thought of waiting in a cramped sewer for your own very public, unaliving wasn't horrible enough, some prisoners like you'd hear the King of New Media were just left in the Tullianum to waste away completely.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mammardine was used as a prison until the 4th century AD, and in the 17th century the Church of San Giuseppe de Phelonami was built right over top of the site.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today, the remnants of Mamarachine are open as a museum right next to the Roman form and includes special dedications to both St. Peter and Paul.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm sure the applause was what agree, it's a little late for that.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obliette.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Medieval prisoners often faced a myriad of painful punishments, but if you believe it, one of the worst often inflicted, no violence at all.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Also known as Bottle Dungeons, Obliets were narrow-shass with only one escape route, through an out-of-reach trapdoor in its ceiling.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obliets, the name of which is derived from Oblié, the French word for forget, were sometimes
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: so that victims could hear life going on without them as they were slowly forgotten and left to expire.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if the idea of suffering the Ogliet alone is too horrible to bear, don't worry.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes prisoners would find themselves sharing the already cramped space with what was left of previous victims.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not to mention the rats that never owned those remains.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: That wasn't that a comforting thought.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obliets have been found in medieval castles all across Europe, but one of the most infamous can be found in Ireland's Leap Castle.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Home to the Ocaro clan in the 1500s, the castle's Obliet is said to have once been used to hide valuables, but this co-bladed clan eventually decided to use the space for an entirely different purpose.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: When Leap Castle was taken over by the Derby family in 1649, it's rumored the new owners made a shocking discovery in the Castle's Obliat.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Inside the Derby's found the dungeon was fitted with a number of wooden spikes as well as three cartloads of a previous prisoners who'd been left inside.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some believe the clearing out of this Obliat roused up ventral spirits of the departed prisoners who are set to wander Leap Castle to this day.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But whether you believe in ghost stories or not, the horrible and very real past of the Obliette provides enough nightmare fuel on its own.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Give it.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: While most kinds of imprisonments see inmates locked out of sight from the world, our next prison cell was very much a matter of public interest.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ghibiting was a type of imprisonment in which the condemned was locked in a human-shaped cage before being hung up for public display.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Most of the time, those who were gifted had already met their end at the hands of the authorities, but shockingly, sometimes live prisoners found themselves and gibbets too.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Once such story tells the tale of a villainous vagrant who, after committing some atrocious deeds, was sentenced to a live-gibiting in the 1600s that a place called Gibbett Moore and Derbisher England.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: As was customary in live Gibbtings, the vagrant was left to succumb to starvation, dehydration, and exposure to the elements, and legend has it his unearthly screams are still heard by hikers today.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Accounts of live Gibbtings like this happening in England are rare and often unsubstantiated.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, there is evidence that live Gibbtings were practiced in the British colonized Caribbean as late as the 1760s.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gibbets were meant as a sort of warning from the state to keep citizens in check and deter any potential crime, but they were also a source of fascination for the public.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, a day out to visit the local Gibbets was considered fun for all the family and medieval times, with some Gibbets attracting crowds amounting to tens of thousands.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I guess in the time before movies and TV, you got your entertainment however you could.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, things weren't so fun for residents living nearby.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Give it an individual's what stinks so badly after expiring that nearby residents would have to shut their windows to keep the wind from carrying the stench inside.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Typically, Gibbets weren't allowed to be removed until, well, after the prisoner inside had become nothing more than a skeleton in irons, which could take days, weeks, months, and in some cases, years.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: But even today, there are several disused Ghibit post standing across England as a grammar reminder of the practice's grizzly history.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Clink.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: With a name that's not to come from the sound of the clanging chains worn by its inmates, there aren't many prisons in history with a reputation quite as notorious or significant as the clank.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Established in the mid-12th century in London, England, the clink prison was built by the bishop of onechester of the day.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Henry of Blua, on the south bank of the River Tams.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, the bishop of Winchester was second in power only to the King of England and ruled an area of London known as the Liberty of the Clank.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: This basically meant he could act as Judge jury and serial imprisoner of those under his jurisdiction who didn't owe his line.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The clink prison was an operation for 600 years, and what initially began as a small operation controlled by the Bishop of Winchester grew into one of the most infamous prisons of all time.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Overcrouting was rife in the iron barred cold stone cells of the clink and disease and monotrition were also regular companions to the unfortunate who found themselves clapped in irons.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: As for the hospitality, the less said about that, the better.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jailers in the clink were shall we say, masters in the art of teaching and makes a lesson through less than gentle means, and employed a whole host of implements to maintain order.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the jailers were very poorly paid, the only way to get yourself a slightly less grim existence in the clink was through bribery.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Prisoners would sell their clothing and other possessions to buy extra food for double the rate outside the prison, as well as candles, bedding, and sometimes a bit of time out of their iron chains.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite its bottom of the barrel conditions, the clink wasn't just for your everyday drunkards, croaks, and vagrants.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: It welcomed just about anybody who dared to question the established order.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most famous inmates of the clink was Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger, who was thought to have spent time there after staging an uprising against Queen Mary the 1st and 1554.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Needless to say, things didn't end so well for Thomas.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still, the clink continued operation for the next 200 years in that time, even imprisoning the likes of Puritans belonging to the wider group that ultimately left England to settle what eventually became, Massachusetts.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The clinked down until in 1780 the prison was torched to the ground by riders and was never rebuilt.
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: While thankfully the clink's reign as a prison is no more, today the clink museum stands in its place constructed among the ruins as a reminder of the prison's notoriety.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Iron Maiden.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most famous torment contraptions of all time, the Iron Maiden's bone-rattling reputation surely makes it one of the worst one-person prison cells in history.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Often depicted as a human-sized boxlined with spikes in the interior victims of the Iron Maiden would find themselves forced inside with the door shut in on them spikes in all.
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sounds more horrible than you can imagine, right?
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: While the Iron Maiden is commonly assumed to have been a popular and permanent punishment for criminals of medieval society, modern historians now question whether they even existed at all.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The first historical reference to the Iron Maiden that we still have evidence of came more than 200 years after its supposed reign of terror through the Middle Ages.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: This reference came from German philosopher Johann Philipscibenkees in the 18th century, wrote an account of a coin for during Nürmberg meeting his end via the Iron Maiden in 1515.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although no Iron Maiden's from the medieval period are known to exist, throwing the authenticity of Johann's tale into question, replicas were soon constructed and passed off as medieval tortured devices and museums around Europe and later the United States.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most famous of these was the Iron Maiden of Nuremberg that was brought to the US by Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe It or Not, which is still on display to this day.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's not to say for certain that the Iron Maiden has never been used for real intentions.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Disturbingly in 2003, Time Magazine reported that a compound owned by Uday Hussein, the famously sadistic son of a rocky dictator Saddam Hussein, had been found to house a functioning Iron Maiden.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Time claimed Uday used it to punish and subordinates and given Uday's proven track record of unspeakable acts of cruelty, it seems likely that this modern monster broke the Iron Man's track record of being purely the stuff of legend.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not a record break to be proud of, if you ask me.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fu Quah prison.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Located around 20 miles off the coast of Vietnam, it's easy to be enchanted by
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But believe it or not, this tropical paradise was one's home to one of the world's most nightmareish prisons.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Also known as the Coconut Tree Prison, the Fuqua Prison gained notoriety during the Vietnam War.
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Constructed in 1949 by French colonialists to a prison via the Meas Patriots and Rebels who defied French control, Fuqua could hold as many as 40,000 prisoners at one time.
• 12:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: These 40,000 were spread across 12 areas of ramshackel huts guarded by police battalions.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The prison changed over to U.S. control in the 60s, but it seemed regardless of whichever nation was running it.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The prisoner's experience per long periods of incarceration under appalling conditions.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only was the prison overcrowded, but prisoners were provided with very little food, poor sanitation, harsh physical punishments, and basically no medical care which led to widespread disease among inmates.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Following the end of the Vietnam War, the prison was officially closed in 1975 after almost three decades of suffering.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since then, the grounds of the prison have been preserved as a war memorial and museum to serve as a sobering reminder of the horrific conditions endured by prisoners of war.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: These days, the only inmates at Fuqua are mannequins that represent what life was like for former prisoners.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: This chilling reenactment represents one of the worst punishments at Fuqua known as the Tiger Cage.
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Made of barbed wire, the cage was too low for those inside to sit up fully, and too short for them to comfortably lie down, meaning inmates were forced into uncomfortable positions to avoid the wires.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today, the Fuqua Prison Museum attracts more than 10,000 visitors every year, including former inmates and serves as a reminder that the worst prisons of humanity's past aren't all that far in the rear view mirror.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: El Salvador's helled prisons.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's clear to see that cramp conditions in prisons have run ramp at the round history, but sadly, the problem of prison overcrowding still exists today.
• 13:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: At 12 feet wide and 15 feet tall, these jail sales and El Salvador are often crammed with more than 30 criminals a piece.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: While these cells were designed to accommodate stays of up to just 72 hours, many prisoners wind up being held in Salvadoran police holding cells for more than a year.
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: But why?
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And El Salvador prison overcrowding is a severe problem that has plagued the country for decades.
• 14:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, there are more than two times the number of inmates in Al Salvador as the country's prisons can safely hold, meaning that many detainees are never actually sent to proper prison facilities.
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they find themselves in these horribly-crap jail cells.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Most of the crime in Al Salvador's perpetrated by two gangs known as MS-13 and Barrio-18, which have a combined total of 25,000 members at large with over 9,000 in prison.
• 14:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because of the high crime rate, El Salvador has implemented severe law enforcement strategies which has in turn led to large numbers of arrests and naturally prison inmates.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: In January 2023, the Salvadorian government opens Sika, which is now the largest maximum security prison in Latin America.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: C-Cot was specially built to hold only the highest drinking members of MS-13 in Barrio 18, who are all thought to be serving life sentences with no possibility of release.
• 15:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Inside C-Cot, each cell is built to hold a staggering 156 prisoners, including metal bonks with no mattresses and just two toilets to share.
• 15:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only do inmates have no privacy from one another, but cells are also fitted with graded ceiling, so guards can see exactly what's going on inside.
• 15:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: These ceiling lattices are also made of sharpened metal to prevent prisoners from trying to climb them.
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Contrary to international guidelines on prisoners' human rights, SeaCut has no outdoor recreational space and doesn't even allow family visits.
• 15:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: While it's clear many sent to Seekot are likely to have committed crimes more horrible than we can even imagine, knowing that prisons like this exist in our world today isn't on the list disturbing, and a point of controversy for human rights advocates.
• 16:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shethodeef.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Originally built on the orders of King Francis 1st in 1524, the Shethodeef was intended to be an island fortress to protect the French city of Marcel from seafaring attackers.
• 16:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 1540, however, the island found its new purpose.
• 16:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks to its isolated location and dangerous offshore currents, Shethodeef was the perfect escape-proof prison.
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: The prison was housed inside the original fortress and prisoners were placed in cells in accordance with their status.
• 16:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: The poor prisoners were kept in the cells on the ground floor, often in how it rificly cramped groups of as many as 20 prisoners per cell.
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: The cells had no windows, damped surroundings, and only a straw mat on hard floor to sleep on.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Verman constantly scurried underfoot, and indeed, the conditions and hygiene were so poor in this part of the fortress that the life expectancy of inmates inside the prison was just nine months.
• 17:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the urinmates, on the other hand, were able to purchase themselves more spacious cells fitted out with windows and sometimes chimneys.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever their social class, many prisoners were sentenced to life in prison at their many of homes meant much of their time, chained to the walls or forced into labor.
• 17:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cheto Dief was a notorious prison in its own right, but it became world famous with the publication of Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo in 1844.
• 17:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the tale of sailor Edmund Dante, who was wrongly accused of treason and spends 14 years at Cheto Dief before a daring yet successful escape and a body bag thrown into the sea.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: In reality, no one is known to have pulled off such an escape as the water surrounding the prison aren't incredibly powerful, much like San Francisco's Alcatraz, any attempt to escape would more likely than not result in drowning.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what made it such a formidable prison.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: After all, nothing breaks up prisoners morale and escape instinct than the near-garing tea of death beyond the walls.
• 18:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: cough and prison.
• 18:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: While life sentences often make headlines nowadays, life sentences really last a full remainder of the convicted individual's life, but our next method of historical incarceration was specifically designed to un-present its victims till death do they part.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Imurement, also known as live-and-tumment, was a type of capital punishment in which the victim was permanently enclosed in a tight confined space with absolutely no means of exit.
• 18:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the earliest recorded instances of Imurement goes back to priestesses of ancient Rome known as the Vestal virgins who used this method to punish those who broke their vows of chastity.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Methods of Immurement have varied through time, but some of the most common included the victim being locked in a box or sealed inside a cavity behind a brick wall.
• 18:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though the history of Immurement dates back centuries shockingly, cases of live-and-tum and are traceable even in more modern times.
• 19:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: During the 20th century, the Urga prison and Mongolia was notorious for its use of what can't be known as coffin prisons.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Coffin prisons were extremely small, cramped boxes that resembled coffins that were used as a method of a merement.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Usually measuring in it no more than four feet long and two and a half feet wide, these boxes were specially designed to make sure that prisoners trapped inside can either lie down nor stretch out.
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only were those inside left to contend with intense physical strain in discomfort, but each box had just one small port hole.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes these portals were used to funnel small amounts of food to those imprisoned inside to prolong their punishment.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, this utterly medieval method of imprisonment was outlawed in Mongolia in around 1920.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And more broadly, in 1966, the use of unusual or cruel methods of punishment like Immurement was prohibited by the United Nations and the International Covenant on civil and political rights.
• 19:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, as you'll soon see, occasionally, leaders of the modern free world still like to play a little fast and loose with the UN's human rights laws.
• 20:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Guantanamo Bay.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Out of all the prisons and history, few are as infamous as Guantanamo Bay.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Located within a US naval base in southeast Cuba, Guantanamo Bay has been known for its ultra-high security and usage and detaining individuals deemed a security risk by the US government.
• 20:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay often face indefinite detention, meaning many are held without trials or formal charges, nor a clear timeline for release.
• 20:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This uncertainty means that those inside are frequently faced with unimaginable psychological distress and a sense of true hopelessness.
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since its establishment as a prison in 2002, the conditions of confinement at Guantanamo Bay have been widely criticized by human rights organizations.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Accounts from prisoners have pointed to regular instances of harsh treatment and severe interrogation techniques.
• 21:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: These includes sleep deprivation with guards deliberately making as much noise as possible to keep inmates awake, as well as the opposite, sensory deprivation where inmates eyes and ears are kept covered for days at a time, all while having their hands tied within thick gloves.
• 21:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: In protest of their harsh treatment detainees have been known to go on hunger strikes, which are met with even harsher punishments, including the extremely unpleasant practice of force feeding.
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only does the facilities remote location further isolate inmates from the outside world, but it also complicates legal and humanitarian access.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Guantanamo Bay is in Cuba, there has been much political debate over whether the facility falls under US law, which creates difficulties for inmates seeking to receive legal help.
• 21:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: The strict military control over the facility further restricts access for lawyers and human rights groups, not to mention the fact that the zenies are prohibited from communicating with the outside world by email or phone.
• 21:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's reported that around 30 prisoners remain in Guantanamo Bay today, but efforts to close the facility are ongoing, reflecting the complex legal, political, and ethical issues surrounding its existence.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: San Quentin State Prison, opened in 1854 San Quentin as the oldest prison in California, but sadly this place hasn't gotten better with age.
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: San Quentin's notorious condemned row is home to prisoners who have been sentenced to a government issued early finale shall we say?
• 22:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: With a total of 652 condemned prisoners throughout the state, California holds the most
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: at 546 of them are held at San Quentin.
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The condemned prisoners inside are some of the worst criminals in the country and they certainly endure a great deal of punishment for this.
• 22:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: The average condemned inmates spend around 22 years living on death road during which they are locked alone inside a solitary cell, often for 23 hours a day.
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: While the more well-behaved inmates are sometimes allowed small luxuries like radios, TVs, and books, those amongst Ann Quentin's 3200 strong total populace who break the rules can find themselves locked up and what's known as the Adjustment Center.
• 23:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: This adjustment center is designed to house inmates who are two dangers to be elsewhere in the prison and is locked down so heavily that even the guards can't come and go as they please.
• 23:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: They get led in at the start of their shift in the lockstay locked until it's time to leave, all to ensure the state's most dangerous inmates never escape.
• 23:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: The adjustment center inmates themselves mean while are kept behind heavy cement doors and are often seen with leg restraints all to minimize risk to the staff.
• 23:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the small amount of time allowed outside their one-man-cells, adjustment center prisoners spend almost all their time inside cramped cages, even for outdoor exercise and group therapy sessions.
• 23:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Geast, I'm about feeling trapped.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: In March 2023, Governor of California, Gavin Newsom announced plans to close the death row at San Quentin and transform the prison into a rehabilitation-focused facility.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The move doesn't reduce the prisoner's sentences, but aims to provide inmates without parole opportunities to access educational courses, work assignments, and recreation time in the prison's outdoor areas, all in response to claims that the prison's current setup is inhumane.
• 24:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether that's the right choice, I'll leave up to you, either way this new approach is inspired by prison seen in countries like Norway.
• 24:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Norway have one of the lowest crime rates around the world but also the lowest rate of former prisoners returning to jail after release.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many believe this is due to Norway's prison system prioritizing and made rehabilitation over punishment with a focus on reintegrating them into society after their sentence is complete.
• 24:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we've seen most prisons throughout history have and continue to work on the assumption that harsh punishment is the only way to deter a crime.
• 25:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: But countries like Norway are starting to show that there might be other ways to make the world a safer place for everyone.
• 25:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: All I know is I sure is how it all never want to end up in prison, especially not one that includes a selection of the worst elements we've seen today.
• 25:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: How am I good boy officers?
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I swear!
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing?
• 25:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me go!
• 25:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm innocent!
• 25:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the podcast.
• 25:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you again next time.
• 25:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: You'll want to be amazed.