Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons
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Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons
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Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons
Though he's no stranger to life behind bars, Raphael Rowe concedes that Costa Rica's La Reforma Prison is certainly among the most intimidating.
While spending a week inside Bogotá's fortress-like prison, Raphael Rowe must negotiate the oppressive atmosphere and deal with an ominous threat.
Raphael Rowe spends a week at a maximum security prison in Craiova, Romania, where the inmates include rapists, murderers and contract killers.
Many prisons aim to punish and demean inmates. Norway's Halden Prison -- as Raphael Rowe is about to see for himself -- does things differently.
Investigative journalist Raphael Rowe spends a few days -- both as a guard and a prisoner -- inside Brazil's gang-filled Porto Velho Penitentiary.
Ukraine's Zhytomyr Prison is operated with a skeleton crew that allows prisoners to freely roam the grounds -- often with potentially dangerous weapons.
Raphael Rowe visits the short-staffed Bomana Prison in Papua New Guinea, where near-constant food shortages keep the facility on the brink of chaos.
In Belize Central Prison, the inmates are told that rehabilitation comes through God. Raphael Rowe investigates if this evangelical approach works.
Connolly spends a week inside Danlí prison in Honduras, where the toughest inmates are armed and act as enforcers for the overwhelmed guards.
Connolly serves time in Poland's Piotrkow prison, a maximum security lockup where the country's most hardened criminals stay in cells 23 hours a day.
Mexico's El Hongo prison is home to murderers, hitmen, drug bosses and -- for one week -- Paul Connolly, who experiences life among the inmates.
Connolly spends time in two different prisons in the Philippines, where overcrowding, gangs and severe intimidation are a way of life.
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