---
title: 'Comparing Prisons Around the World'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=rKyNGIaQ7Vc'
video_id: 'rKyNGIaQ7Vc'
date: 2026-07-26
duration_sec: 1069
---

# Comparing Prisons Around the World

> Source: [Comparing Prisons Around the World](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rKyNGIaQ7Vc)

## Summary

This video provides a global tour of prisons, ranging from luxurious facilities in Norway that resemble vacation resorts to brutal, inescapable fortresses in Russia and North Korea. It explores how different countries approach incarceration, rehabilitation, and punishment, comparing costs, living conditions, and recidivism rates.

### Key Points

- **Bastøy Prison: Norway's Island Resort** [00:00] — Inmates live in wooden cabins with private bedrooms, wear their own clothes, and enjoy concerts, tennis, and fishing. The cost is $125,000 per inmate annually, but Norway's recidivism rate is only 20% within two years.
- **Petak Island: Russia's Alcatraz** [02:35] — One of the harshest prisons, housing violent offenders for life. No successful escapes. Psychological destruction is guaranteed after 25 years, with inmates forgotten by society.
- **ADX Florence: US Supermax** [04:21] — Nicknamed 'Alcatraz of the Rockies', inmates are isolated 22-23 hours a day in concrete cells with a 4-inch window. Features motion sensors, gun towers, and razor wire.
- **San Pedro Prison: Self-Governed City** [05:59] — In Bolivia, inmates buy and sell cells, run businesses, and even host tours. 200 children live there with parents. Soccer matches generate $20,000 annually.
- **Bangkwang Central Prison: Thai Death Row** [07:34] — Originally for 1,000, now holds 6,000-8,000 inmates. Iron leg shackles (15 kg) are welded on death row inmates for years. Cells are 7x7 feet with no windows.
- **Guantanamo Bay: Legal Gray Area** [08:51] — US-controlled base in Cuba, holding 15 detainees as of 2025. Three are 'forever prisoners' without trial. Torture allegations and expanded migrant detention planned.
- **La Santé Prison: VIP Wing** [10:18] — France's prison holds former president Sarkozy in solitary with personal officer. VIP cells have private bathrooms, fridges, and TVs. Overcrowded but VIPs get apartments.
- **Cebu Provincial Detention Center: Dancing Inmates** [11:31] — Philippines' prison went viral with 1,500 inmates performing Thriller in 2007. Became a Netflix documentary 'Happy Jail' in 2019.
- **Camp 14: North Korean Labor Camp** [12:39] — Slave labor with 15,000-43,000 people, children born as inmates. Three-generation rule for punishment. UN found crimes against humanity.
- **Aranjuez Prison: Family-Friendly** [13:49] — Spain's prison allows children to live with incarcerated parents in Disney-themed cells. Includes nursery and playground, but children must leave by age 6.
- **Tocorón Prison: Gang Headquarters** [15:04] — Venezuelan prison raided in 2023, revealing baseball field, nightclub, zoo, and Bitcoin mining. Run by gang boss who escaped via tunnel with $5M bounty.
- **Halden Prison: World's Most Humane** [16:28] — Norway's $252 million facility with flat-screen TVs, kitchens, rock climbing, and unarmed guards. Designed to normalize prison life and reduce aggression.

### Conclusion

The video highlights the stark contrast between punitive and rehabilitative prison systems, suggesting that humane treatment may reduce recidivism while harsh conditions guarantee psychological destruction.

## Transcript

From places so brutal you'd lose your mind in days, to facilities so comfortable you might actually want to check in. Starting with Bastøy Prison, which makes prison seem like a vacation.
Bastøy sits on a small island just 50 miles from Norway's capital city, Inmates here spend their days fishing, playing tennis, I'm not joking.
Inmates live in wooden cabins with their own bedrooms. They wear their own clothes, and a weekly schedule of concerts and events.
Interestingly, though, people who have committed serious crimes. You, you killed somebody.
which we'll get to more on that later. Well, typically, if they are violent offenders, they'll serve part of their sentence in a prison that's a bit more...
But after inmates prove that they can behave and reintegrate they can be transferred to Bastøy to finish out their sentence. the Norwegian government pays over $125,000 a year per inmate.
that's over five times the cost. This is because the Norwegian government believes that the more life inside prison resembles life outside of it,
the less likely an inmate is to reoffend when they get out. If you treat an inmate with respect, he respect you back. Norway has one of the lowest reoffending rates in the world.
Only 20% of inmates are back behind bars within two years of release. where over 50% of prisoners return within three years... The inmates are even in charge of operating the ferry service to
The prison is so relaxed that most of the guards actually Inmates are trusted to take care of themselves. to which they said, "You are free, but you're not free."
they would immediately be sent back to a prison much harsher than Bastøy. are we locking people up to punish them or to actually fix the problem?
the rest of the world hasn't. let's switch gears and talk about Petak Island in Russia. This prison is often called the Alcatraz of Russia due to being
This is one of the harshest prisons in the entire world. Inmates are sent here only after committing some of the most violent this prison was exclusively dedicated to only housing inmates
they'll never walk out and they spend the rest of their lives there. The guards commute to work by driving over the single bridge connecting As you can imagine,
and so far has proven to be exactly that. Nobody has ever successfully escaped from Petak Island. One notable inmate who is currently behind bars at Petak Island,
Russian serial killer and cannibal who claimed to eat the hearts and livers of his victims. Since the prison is in a remote part of Russia and visitation is strictly limited,
most inmates never talk to anyone outside of the prison walls and are forgotten by the rest of their families to spend the rest of their days in this cold, The prison psychologist documented that after three to four years,
After 25 years, she, she said psychological destruction is essentially guaranteed. where every prisoner knows that they will never step foot in
we've heard about a luxury prison in Norway and one of the Let's see what the most secure prison in the US looks like. ADX Florence has been nicknamed the Alcatraz of the Rockies because of its
location in Colorado and it's the only federal supermax in the United States. And a supermax means that the people inside are so dangerous that they so they are watched very closely and kept away in remote
This prison has had multiple people that were on the FBI's most wanted who ran one of the biggest crime rings in the world. who was an FBI agent who was secretly working for Russia.
and the reason we have to remove our shoes when going through TSA. But let me tell you how they're treated now. cells for 22 to 23 hours a day.
desks and stools are all concrete and impossible to move, Each cell has one 4-inch window that is designed to make it harder for inmates
to learn the layout of their prison or even where their cell is located. concrete bed and this is the window with the red concrete bricks behind it.
The prison is surrounded by 12 gun towers, motion sensors everywhere, attack dogs, razor wire just in case you make it far enough. There's even wires strung across the top to make sure helicopters can't
land on top since they've been used to escape at other prisons. Next, we have San Pedro Prison in Bolivia, which is a self-governed inmate city. There's roughly 3,000 inmates that are running the prison on the
Inmates buy, sell and rent their cells They have cramped multi-person rooms,
and city views of the La Paz neighborhood. There's even 200 children that live here with their incarcerated parents. And some of them even go to school in the prison and play in the courtyards.
How does someone even become a children's teacher inside of a prison? this place was even a tourist attraction and they would give people tours And sometimes they would even spend the night.
And there's reports saying that they ran up to 50 tours daily until someone posted it on YouTube and the guards were forced to crack down on it. Coke products were exclusively sold inside the prison and local
chairs and umbrellas. They even have their own soccer matches and betting ring that generates up to $20,000 a year with star players being bought and traded between cell blocks.
There was a book called Marching Powder by Rusty Young that That's Illegal!" And they wouldn't be in there. this prison in Thailand is like none of the other prisons
It's called Bangkwang Central Prison and it was originally but now there's 6,000 to 8,000 inmates and a lot of them are on death row. Two hundred women in here?
every inmate that came in had to wear iron leg shackles for three months. And death row inmates had their shackles welded on for years and they could only And these shackles weighed 33 pounds, 15 kilograms for my non-American viewers,
by 7 foot windowless cells, which means there was barely enough room to even lay down. And they would go to extreme lengths just to escape for a little bit.
With one inmate smearing toothpaste all over his body to cause blisters just so he could go to the hospital and escape solitary confinement. this prison was a tourist attraction for years and visitors could request
to visit a prisoner and bring them food and cigarettes. What is it with people wanting to visit these prisons and turn it into a vacation? You've probably heard of Guantanamo Bay,
besides it constantly being mentioned in the news? but is controlled and operated by the United States and has been open since
2002 and has only held a total of 780 people from 48 different countries. And as of January 2025, there are only 15 detainees there. threats to the United States.
and then send them to the maximum security prisons. Three of those 15 have been cleared for release, so they are classified as forever prisoners and they are held without being
Many of the detainees have been reportedly tortured at CIA black Because it sits on a US Navy base in Cuba, Guantanamo was a legal gray area,
protections for the detainees. President Trump signed an executive order to expand the camp's separate migrant operations center to be able to hold up to 30,000 immigration detainees.
It's a tough place to get out of. Which would be a brand new use for the facility and a big change for a legal The Guantanamo. We'd like it to be empty.
Did you know that there's a prison in France that's specifically And it's even holding the former French president. It's called La Santé Prison, and in October 2025, for the first time,
And he brought earplugs, sweaters, a biography of Jesus, There's a block of cells that are considered the VIP wing,
where the cells are 10.4 by 10.4 ft, with a private bathroom, landline phone, Inmates can even rent a fridge for €7.50 a month and a TV for €14.15 a month.
The former president is being kept in solitary because the guards believe And he's also accompanied by a personal officer anytime he leaves his cell.
France's prisons are the third most overcrowded in the EU. it still runs at double its rated capacity. the VIPs basically get an apartment to themselves.
Do you think it's fair that this former president gets special treatment? This prison in the Philippines became popular for a very weird reason, The Cebu Provincial Detention Center went viral on YouTube because in 2007,
a security advisor uploaded a video of 1,500 inmates performing Michael Jackson's Thriller in their jumpsuits as part of an exercise rehabilitation program.
why don't I convert that march into a dance number? Hey, maybe they were onto something This video has gotten over 58 million views and was one of
They've also done performances of YMCA, Grease Lightning, It even inspired a Netflix documentary in 2019 called Happy Jail.
So, I guess if someone has to go to jail, but is also into TikTok, that's an option. disconnected from the world with super strict laws and policies.
prison which is called Camp 14. This isn't really a prison and more so slave labor where unfortunately children are born as inmates and never even know what freedom is.
Reports estimate that there are 15,000 to 43,000 people in the coal mines, and satellite images from 2021 show that it's expanding. North Korea has a three-generation rule where the regime imprisons not only
which in North Korea could be almost anything if they feel like it, Most people say that most of the inmates were born inside and don't even
The UN commissions found that crimes against humanity were taking place here, People make funny videos about traveling to North Korea,
you need to follow their rules because they make and enforce the US State Department issued a travel ban that prohibits American citizens
in, or through North Korea due to these risks. there's a prison designed specifically so entire families are able to It's called Aranjuez Prison and is located 25 miles south of
There are walls painted with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other Disney characters. Cells include a double bed, a crib full of toys,
Both parents must be inmates and then the child can live in the prison And if the parents aren't out by then, The prison even has a nursery school with an outdoor playground so the
That's a big difference from the prison in North Korea. The inmates do appreciate getting to be with their children and see them grow up. The prison makes couples go through a two-month observation period to prove
these inmates getting to see their kids grow up helps them to realize This prison was another one that people thought of more as a vacation
but has been overtaken and transformed. Tocorón Prison in Venezuela was raided by 11,000 Venezuelan soldiers on September of 2023 and they were shocked to find a professional baseball field,
swimming pool, a children's playground, a nightclub with DJ booth, a steak restaurant, betting parlors, and a private mini-zoo with monkeys, They also seized sniper rifles, explosives,
motorcycles and Bitcoin mining machines which if they sold it today, And that's because this prison was overrun and being run by a gang
It became the headquarters for the gang boss to run his transnational empire And he was doing that inside of a prison. I guess if you're already there, they can't put you somewhere else.
The boss was tipped off about the raid that was incoming and he escaped through tunnels and still hasn't been caught with a $5 million bounty for information. The prison ran for about 20 years until it was raided and shut down.
And authorities rescued the flamingos and rehomed them to a public park in Caracas. The last prison brings us back to Norway where we have what's considered the world's most humane prison and a luxury alternative to Bastøy.
It costs $252 million to build and opened in 2010. Cells have flat-screen TVs, mini fridges, en suite bathrooms, National Academy of the Arts.
Inmates get to cook their own meals with real knives, record music in top-of-the-line studios, and have access to rock climbing walls, you think of high security and the guards are ready for something
But here, the guards are unarmed. We talk to the guys. That's our weapon. And roughly half of them are women, and that's by design.
They believe that the guards being unarmed and women reduces aggression and is more friendly to the point where guards will eat lunch and There's even a section for inmates to host their families for overnight visits,
that includes a kids' play area, kitchen and two bedrooms. but this place holds some violent criminals, But as we talked about earlier,
The 20-foot perimeter wall has a rounded top to make it look not as hostile. But if you want to hear some of the craziest prison escapes,
click the video on the screen here.