00:00Here are images that historians don't show you.
00:02Get ready to discover the most extreme and inhumane prisons of the time.
00:06Tuol Sleng.
00:07Converted from a school, Tuol Sleng S-21 served as the Khmer Rouge's main interrogation center from 1975 to 1979.
00:15Out of 17,000, 20,000 detainees, only about 12 survived.
00:19Prisoners endured horrific torture to extract confessions before execution at killing fields.
00:25Methods included waterboarding, electrocution, and medical experiments.
00:28It symbolizes the Cambodian genocide's brutality.
00:32Karandiru Penitentiary.
00:33Severely overcrowded and gang-dominated Karandiru Penitentiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil saw thousands die from violence, disease, and riots over
00:42decades.
00:43Conditions included squalor and unchecked brutality, and overall deaths numbered in thousands.
00:49It was the 1992 police invasion where police killed 111 unarmed inmates in a massacre that led to its demolition
00:56in 2002.
00:56Phu Quoc.
00:58Built by French colonials and later used during the Vietnam War, the Phu Quoc or Coconut Tree Prison in Vietnam
01:04held up to 40,000 prisoners in barbaric conditions.
01:08Torture methods like tiger cages and nail extractions caused massive deaths from starvation and beatings.
01:14The exact toll is unknown, but in the tens of thousands.
01:17Hoa Lo Prison.
01:19The Hoa Lo Prison was originally built as a French colonial-era prison and was notorious for guillotine executions and
01:26torture of Vietnamese nationalists.
01:28It later became notorious for holding American POWs, but the deadliest phase pre-1954 targeted independence fighters with extreme cruelty,
01:37including forced labor and medical neglect in humid, disease-ridden conditions.
01:42Jarbukir Prison.
01:43In 1980s post-coup era, Jarbukir Prison targeted Kurdish prisoners with systematic torture, including sexual mistreatment, beatings, waste immersion, and
01:52electrocution.
01:53Dozens died directly, while others from self-immolation, protests, or long-term trauma.
01:58Overcrowded with prisoners, the prison symbolized state oppression of Kurds, with guards enforcing Turkification through humiliation and violence in freezing,
02:07unsanitary conditions.
02:08Camp 22.
02:09One of North Korea's secret political prison camps, Camp 22 held tens of thousands of prisoners.
02:15Defectors reported forced labor, starvation, executions, and medical experimentation.
02:20The camp reportedly closed around 2012 following the uncountable death toll, though abuses within North Korea's prison system continue.
02:27Camp 22 exemplified the extreme cruelty of the country's gulag network.
02:32Mamertine Prison.
02:33The Mamertine Prison was an underground detention site used in ancient Rome for state enemies.
02:38Prisoners were confined in dark, damp chambers with no sanitation or light.
02:42Many died from starvation or disease as captives were often held for years before death.
02:47The prison served as a place of final punishment rather than long-term incarceration.
02:52Chateau d'If.
02:53Chateau d'If was a fortress prison used between the 16th and 19th centuries to isolate political and religious prisoners.
03:01Poor inmates were confined to damp, windowless cells with little food and harsh conditions, while wealthier prisoners could pay for
03:07modest comforts.
03:08The prison's brutal reality inspired Alexandre Dumas' fictional portrayal in The Count of Monte Cristo.
03:14Gildani Prison.
03:15Gildani Prison became infamous after videos leaked in 2012 showing guards torturing and sexually mistreating inmates.
03:23Prisoners were beaten, humiliated, and subjected to inhumane treatment in overcrowded cells.
03:29Several deaths were linked to systemic abuse and neglect.
03:32Gildani exposed deep corruption and human rights failures within Georgia's post-Soviet penal system before major institutional changes followed.
03:40Andaman Cellular.
03:41The Andaman Cellular Jail was built by British authorities to imprison Indian independence activists.
03:47Prisoners were isolated in solitary cells to prevent communication and resistance.
03:52Forced labor, flogging, malnutrition, and disease caused numerous deaths.
03:57The jail became a symbol of colonial oppression and sacrifice in India's freedom struggle and now serves as a national
04:03memorial.
04:03Pitest Prison.
04:05Pitest Prison was the site of a brutal communist re-education experiment between 1949 and 1951.
04:12Prisoners were forced to torture fellow inmates through beatings, humiliation, and betrayal.
04:17The goal was total ideological submission and destruction of identity.
04:21The Pitestis experiment remains one of the most extreme examples of systematic abuse in Eastern European communist history.
04:28Black Dolphin.
04:29Black Dolphin Prison is one of Russia's most severe maximum security facilities, holding serial killers, terrorists, and mass murderers serving
04:37life sentences.
04:38Prisoners are kept in near-total isolation, escorted blindfolded, and confined to small cells under constant surveillance.
04:45The prison's name comes from a black dolphin statue at the entrance, unseen by inmates themselves, Tadmor Prison.
04:52Described by Amnesty International as designed to dehumanize inmates, this remote desert prison was infamous for systematic torture and executions.
05:01The most horrific incident was in 1980, when soldiers massacred hundreds in retaliation for an assassination attempt on President Hafez
05:09al-Assad.
05:09It reopened after brief closure and remained brutal until destroyed in 2015.
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