10 Bizarre Prisons in History

RockedBuzz
By RockedBuzz 15 Min Read

Modern-day prisons are not for the faint hearted, but they are NOTHING compared to prisons from history. Yes, these walls are no stranger to screams of terror, endless violence, and things so awful you cannot even imagine. So get ready to hear tales that’ll make your blood curdle, and haunt your nightmares in the 10 Bizarre Prisons in History…

10 Worst Prisons In History10 Worst Prisons In History

10 Bizarre Prisons in History

1.Pitesti Prison

From 1949 until 1951, this Stalinist Romanian
prison was home to an infamous experiment

known as the Pitesti Experiment.

According to Open Democracy, this experiment
was actually started by inmates of the prison

itself, who had been jailed as anti-Communist
facists. They formed the ODCC, or the Organisation

of Prisoners with Communist Convictions, and
went about “re-educating” other inmates

in the most horrifying ways possible. This
included torturing other inmates by making

them stare at lightbulbs, making them repeatedly
headbutt each other, even electrocution. They

were also kept in squalid conditions on purpose,
and forced to perform humiliating tasks, such

as baptisms involving sewage. This would then
break other prisoners into joining the ODCC

and renouncing their anti-communist tendencies.
It’s worth noting this was fully supported

by the director of the prison itself.

This was eventually stopped in 1952 after
a regime shift in the country, but by that

point over 700 prisoners had been through
the horrific process, 30 of whom died.

2.The Mamertine

Labelling Italy’s Mamertine “prison”
is a bit of a misnomer really, as it was more

similar to a hybrid of a 12-foot deep underground
dungeon and sewage system.

Built in the 7th Century BC, the Mamertine
was essentially two dark, dank cells stacked

on top of each other. There was no natural
light, due to them being subterranean – in

fact the only way to get out or into the lower
cell was via a hole in the ground of the upper

one. Sallust, an ancient historian, described
it as having a fearsome darkness and stench.

Prisoners were often put into the lower chamber
before execution; failing that, they left

them to rot and starve there. This complex
was within a sewage system.

Legend has it that St Peter and Paul were
actually held here, but did not die there

as they were later crucified. For this reason
it’s part of various pilgrimages, and has

since been converted into a church, memorialising
the abject horror the prisoners of the Mamertine

went through.

3. Urga Prison, Mongolia

In 1916, naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews, future
director of American Museum of Natural History,

travelled across Asia. He documented his experiences
in his book Across Mongolian Plains in 1921,

during which he mentions witnessing a prison
he described as “one of the worst in the

world”.

In it, he mentions seeing rooms full of coffins
that were four feet long and two feet wide.

Andrews explains that it was these tombs that
were the prisoners’ cells, which were designed

so that the prisoners couldn’t fully lay
down OR sit up comfortably. There was just

a six inch wide hole in the coffins where
they are given food – that is, to quote Andrews,

“if they remembered to give them any”.
They were also handcuffed and their limbs

would shrivel away due to a lack of use.

While the length of the stay in these caskets
varied, and would often be to hold prisoners

before they were executed, many of them unsurprisingly
died in this horrific captivity.

4.Camp Sumter Military Prison, Georgia

Created during the American Civil War, in
February of 1864, Camp Sumter Military Prison

was the largest Confederate prison in the
whole conflict. Also known as Andersonville,

Camp Sumter was built to hold 10,000 people
– but held over 30,000, which gives you a

hint at the problems it faced…

The prison was supposed to be built rapidly,
but the price of lumber was hugely inflated

at this time, which meant it was never fully
built properly. As a result, there were no

barracks to keep them in, and instead the
prisoners were open to the elements. Some

had shanties made of blankets and bits of
wood, others dug holes in the ground for themselves.

The camp had a creek with water running through
it, but this was soon contaminated with sewage,

making the prisoners extremely vulnerable
to disease. There was also very little food

due to the Confederates losing supplies, and
what food they had was of extremely low quality

with next to no proper preparation.

By the time the prison was closed with the
end of the war, 13,000 inmates had died as

a result of these conditions, and its commander,
Henry Wirz, was executed for their murder.

5.Carandiru Penitentiary

Over 7000 inmates lived within the walls of
Brazil’s Carandiru penitentiary, where there

was only space for a third of that. As a result,
there was one guard per every HUNDRED prisoners,

so things were bound to go wrong.

As soon as prisoners arrive, they are told
to “rent” their cells. Even those lucky

enough to have left the prison still apparently
owed back payments. They actually tend to

have a fair bit of freedom and control and
can get whatever they want through illicit

means, including mobile phones. There’s
even a prison within the prison, called the

“yellow”, as those in there rarely see
sunlight.

However, it’s most famous for the results
of a riot after a game of soccer. 300 police

officers stormed the jail, and killed over
100 of the prisoners. Allegedly this included

prisoners who had surrendered or who were
trying to hide, often at close range. In 2014,

73 of the police officers were convicted,
some of whom were sentenced to 156 years in

jail. The prison was later demolished in 2002.

6.Devil’s Island

Ten miles off the coast of French Guiana lay
one of the deadliest and most notorious jails

in the whole of the French penal colony – Ile
du Diable, or Devil’s Island.

Initially used as a leper colony, soon political
prisoners were sent to the island too, during

its use between 1852 to 1953. The prison was
pretty much the only building on the whole

island, surrounded by shark infested waters,
which were often the downfall of any seafaring

would-be escapees. The convicts were forced
to provide labour in all conditions while

shackled – some were even exposed to the elements
all the time with no roof on their very small

cells. This meant they were open to being
attacked by animals on the island too, like

vampire bats and rats. Solitary confinement
was also often in complete pitch black.

Devil’s Island saw 80,000 prisoners come
and go, though the vast majority never got

to leave the island as thousands upon thousands
died of various diseases as well as the poor

diet. The general public can visit other islands
in the penal colony, but venturing to Devil’s

Island is strictly taboo.

7.HMS Jersey

It’s the late 18th century in America, at
the height of the war for independence against

the British, who were occupying New York City
at the time. Prisons of war or rebels had

to imprisoned by the British somewhere, as
they numbered by the thousands, so the British

used warships that were docked at shore to
keep them on, as prison ships. The worst of

these was the ship nicknamed “Hell” – the
HMS Jersey. It transpires that name is horrifyingly

suitable.

This ship kept more than 1000 prisoners onboard,
where they were tortured, starved and exposed

to a deadly combination of diseases. The ship
was meant for 400 sailors. The prisoners had

nowhere to even sit or lie. Since the vast
majority of the prisoners were kept below

deck, there was no sunlight and little ventilation.
In the summer it was deathly warm; in the

winter, unspeakably cold.

Those onboard the ship were actually given
a choice – one way out was to betray their

country and join the British Army. But the
many thousands that died clearly didn’t

take or weren’t even given that choice,
as the number of people who died onboard the

Jersey and other prison ships was almost three
times the amount of patriots who died in armed

combat.

8. Hoa Lo Prison, Vietnam

Hoa Lo Prison was nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton
during the Vietnam War, but it was anything

but luxury. A prison camp for American Prisoners
of War, the conditions at Hoa Lo deteriorated

rapidly with the increase of prisoners. The
Vietnamese government used extreme methods

of torture in order to extract military secrets
from the US soldiers, including rope bindings,

beatings, and solitary confinement.

As well as this, prisoners’ legs were often
strapped in irons or stocks that were left

from the French Colonial era of the prison.
These were so tight, that they often cut into

the skin, causing lacerations, and infections.
They were also forced to defecate where they

lay, and left to rot with the rats and cockroaches.
Prisoners were rarely fed as starvation was

used as a form of torture, and when they were
fed, they were often given watery soups with

faeces and rocks.

George McKnight, a 6ft2 US soldier, was forced
to lay in a 4ft trench with his hands tied

behind his back for 34 days, as torture for
trying to escape Hoa Lo.

The Vietnamese Government still denies the
wrongdoings to these POWs to this day.

9.Tadmur Prison, Syria

Built by the French in the 1930s, Tadmur Prison
is located in the heart of the Syrian Desert,

and was the place that Syrian Prime Minister
Hafez-al Assad sent thousands of political

dissidents to be humiliated, tortured, and
executed between 1971 and 2000.

The prison is best known for it’s 1980 massacre.
After a failed attempt at assassinating Assad,

members of the Defence Brigade flew to Tamdur
and their soldiers went from cell to cell,

shooting prisoners with machine guns. An Amnesty
International report estimates that up to

1000 people were murdered in just minutes,
most of which were supporters of the Muslim

Brotherhood. Their bodies were dumped in a
mass grave outside of the prison.

Cells had windows covered with barbed wire
and prisoners were under permanent surveillance

and not allowed to make eye-contact with each
other.

On arrival, new inmates were thrown a “reception
party”, where they were whipped mercilessly,

forced into car tyres and beaten. Some prisoners
never even made it through that reception.

When inmates would cry out for medical help
for dying prisoners, they were told “only

call us to collect bodies”.

10. Holmesburg Prison, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
USA

Holmesburg Prison was opened in 1896, to help
relieve overcrowding at the nearby Moyamensing

Prison. Much like other entries on this list,
this prison was no stranger to torture, corruption,

and murder.

In 1938, over half of inmates went on a hunger
strike, because the food was that bad. Twenty-five

of these were identified as leaders of the
strike, and taken to a building called the

Klondike – a narrow cell block lined with
radiators and steam pipes which, in the peak

of an August heatwave, peaked at nearly 200
degrees. Four of these men died with injuries

pertaining to severe beatings and being boiled
alive.

The prison has also been the setting of many
murders, including that of the warden and

his deputy in 1973, and a bloody riot in 1970,
in which prisoners were armed with meat cleavers

and boning knives. During a lawsuit that followed,
attention was drawn to the filthy and overcrowded

conditions and severe beatings that inmates
had to endure.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, prisoners
were also subjected to medical experiments,

where Dr Albert Kligman exposed participants
to herpes, staphylococcus, radioactive isotopes,

chemicals that caused skin blistering, psychoactive
drugs, and carcinogens.

 

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