It used to be one of South America's most fabled tourist attractions.
Celebrated as unique in the world, San Pedro in La Paz, Bolivia, was a prison like no other.
Foreign tourists would pay bribes to enter, gawk, shop, dine and even do drugs.
Many deemed it better value than the Inca citadel Machu Picchu.
A sweeping crackdown has barred tourists from the complex, replaced corrupt guards and challenged bizarre practices which had become the stuff of lore.
If Bolivia's government has its way, San Pedro's unique days are over.
"This was a very original prison, very different from the others," said Juan Gonzalez, 39, a convicted thief, sitting on a bed in his cell.
"It was like a little village. It wasn't so bad. Now all that's at risk."
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On the outside disappointed tourists rued missing the heyday.
Guards in green uniforms had rebuffed them but still they lingered.
"What a bummer. This was one of Bolivia's main attractions," said a British couple, Matt and Linda.
"Well, at least let's take a picture at the gate." San Pedro's fame is set to reach a wider audience with a new film produced by Brad Pitt and starring Don Cheadle.
Based on the book Marching Powder, about the four-year incarceration of a British drug mule, Thomas McFadden, it details how tourists would pay for tours, overnight stays and cocaine-fuelled parties.
After years of turning a blind eye the authorities were forced to act after tourists uploaded a video of a visit on YouTube in February.
Local TV picked up on the story and interviewed foreigners emerging from the jail.
Embarrassed, the government vowed to change San Pedro.
"The most alarming thing was the tourists," said Jorge Lopez, head of the prison service.
"We are now constantly rotating the guards so they do not develop a close relationship with inmates so we can cut off corruption." In addition to expelling tourists the authorities have banned other traits of San Pedro such as inmates renting, buying and selling their own cells, a real estate market which had its own bubbles and
Unable to get official permission to interview and write about correctional officers, Ted Conover, author of the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, “got in" by applying for a correctional officer position. After training, he and his fellow rookies, known as "newjacks," were randomly assigned to Sing Sing, one of the country's most famous -- and infamous -- prisons. Sing Sing, a maximum-security male prison, was built in 1828 by prisoners themselves, kept at their task by frequent use of the whip. Today, the chaos, the backbiting, the rundown building and equipment, the disrespect and the relentless stress that Conover experienced in his year at Sing Sing show, quite well, how the increase of prisons in the U.S. brutalizes more than just the prisoners. Some of the individuals in Conover's entering "class" of corrections trainees had always wanted to work in law enforcement. Others were ex-military, looking for a civilian job that they thought would reward structure and discipline. But most came looking for a steady job with good benefits. To get it, they were desperate enough to commute hours each way, or even to live apart from their families during the work week. Their job consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, hassle and abuse them. Sometimes, the prisoners' requests are simple, but against the rules: an extra shower, some contraband cigarettes. Other times, they are appropriate, but unbelievably complicated: it can take months to get information about property lost in the transfer from one prison to another. Meanwhile, the orders officers give are ignored. Discipline -- even among the officers themselves -- is non-existent. And with the money and benefits of this "good" job come nightmares and family stress, daily uncertainty about one's job and duties, and pent-up frustration that, every so often, explodes in violence -- instigated by staff as well as by prisoners.
In writing the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Conover undergoes a transformation as a correctional officer in order to expose the problems within our prison systems. The reader learns a lot about what is taking place in prisons right now and what it is like to be a guard, but in sum what one must foremost take into account is that this is not how prisons how they have to be. There are social, political, and economic realities that have constructed this system and in order to dispel them it is more beneficial to understand these factors rather than one man’s experience in a place of power at one prison.
Pelican Bay Prison was designed, constructed and finally opened in Northern California in December 1989 at a cost of 217.5 million dollars. It was designed to accommodate 3384 prisoners, of which 2280 may be assigned to solitary confinement and another 1056 to the Secure Housing Unit or “SHU.” These housing numbers however are typically greater and often exceed the designed accommodation by more than 1000. Pelican Bay takes pride in the fact that it was designed to be the most secure, isolated, and intimidating prison in the country. This takes an average of 938 sworn personnel and 460 support staff to accomplish. It was designed to house the most violent convicts and attempts to isolate known gang members from other prisoners and the outside world for 22 + hours a day. Those in the SHU are often the gang leaders and are under constant surveillance by prison staff. The big factors in determining who is placed in the SHU are a history of violence and an affiliation with one of any numerous known gangs.
The 1970s in the United States was a time of incredible change, doubt, as well as reform. The many issues happening throughout the country helped to lead to the discomfort in many prisoners that eventually lead to their e...
Adams’ research into the Angola prison has given insight to the different races inside prisons. Through her exploration, it has become evident there are more people of color behind bars, than white people (Adams, 104). Analysis of execution has proven that more men than women are executed. Adams’ highlighted in her research that when the museum at Angola opened its showcased eight six mug shots of men and only one of a woman who were executed (Adams, 101). Over her research of the prison and the rodeo, Adams’ reveals that the large inequality of economic power within the prison system. Investigation on the inmate cowboys’ winnings and profit from their “hobby crafts”, show that it is funneled back into the prisons economy, when prisoners purchase cigarettes, food, and gifts for their family (Adams, 97). Over the course of the article there were many interesting facts and images shared with the readers. Adams’ in depth account of the rodeo as well as the execution chambers were interesting. However, what stood out the most in the article was how the inmates desired to take part in such a gruesome event. Prisoners explained that being apart of the rodeo offers a moment of freedom from their sentence (Adams, 99). The idea of the rodeo being a release for inmates is an interesting notion. The time spent in the right is not only providing entertainment for outsiders, but also fosters an environment where those who are held captive can achieve a brief moment of freedom. Although many of the inmates endure physical pain in their time in the ring, they believe it eases their mind from their sentence. Questions that may arises during and after reading Adams’ article are: Do all prisons in the United States suggest and advocate a social order similar to Adams’ findings in Angola? By critiquing the way that prisoners are treated as subordinates to outsiders, and
The Island of Alcatraz started construction in the 1850’s and in 1861 the first unlucky prisoners stepped onto the island. The island was now a fully functional high security prison. In 1868 the prison was designated for military convicts and soon the worst offenders were sentenced to life on the island. The island was surrounded by frigid waters and sharks in the bay helped prevent ideas of escape. Some escape plans were put into motion but none fully succeeded. Many convicts found that Alcatraz ended their career in crime, while some found that Alcatraz was the end of their lives. Although the prison was the most secure and safest place to keep these convicts, the prison was shut down in 1963, after over 100 years of service, due to high maintenance costs of bringing materials and sustaining human life on the island. Ever since the prison opened, unexplained occurrences have been reported and no explanation has ever been confirmed.
They were all charged with armed robbery and burglary, told their legal rights, handcuffed, and shoved into a police to be taken to the police station. There the suspect went through the entire system. According to Zimbardo in his journal, they were booked, warned of their rights, finger-printed, identified, taken to a holding cell and blindfolded until they were transferred to the mock prison. There, each prisoner is brought in to be greeted by the warden one at a time. Being strip searched and then issued a uniform. The uniforms consisted of a dress, and heavy chain for the ankle, sandals, and stocking caps, each crucial to the emasculation and reality of the prison. In addition, prisoners were stripped of their real world identification and given numbers to be identified as. Combined with a disgracing uniform, this made prisoners lose all individuality, especially after having their heads shaved.
make working in this type of environment very frightening for guards and other staff and could
Through two metal, cold doors, I was exposed to a whole new world. Inside the Gouverneur Correctional Facility in New York contained the lives of over 900 men who had committed felonies. Just looking down the pathway, the grass was green, and the flowers were beautifully surrounding the sidewalks. There were different brick buildings with their own walkways. You could not tell from the outside that inside each of these different buildings 60 men lived. On each side, sharing four phones, seven showers, and seven toilets. It did not end there, through one more locked metal door contained the lives of 200 more men. This life was not as beautiful and not nearly as big. Although Gouverneur Correctional Facility was a medium security prison, inside this second metal door was a high wired fence, it was a max maximum security prison. For such a clean, beautifully kept place, it contained people who did awful, heart-breaking things.
Robert states that it was the Americans that invented the prison. "The history of prison in America is the history of a troubled search for solutions." Before we had prisons in America, criminals where dealt with in a swift and brutal manner. Many prisoner where dealt with by corporal or capital punishment. Jails did exist in this time but they were "primarily for pretrail detention" stated Pray.
Many myths surround penal institutions and the prisoners constituting them. The mass media portrays priso...
...k to any one that wants to learn about the bandits because this book has good information about them, really went into detail, and it made everything easy to understand about them. According to Frazer, “Therefore, the elites relied on extraordinary decrees, practice that began during the first republic. The first and most stringent of these laws target bandits on the highway from Veracruz to New Mexico” (32). One strength was that the elites had influence on the laws to go against the bandits and the weakness is that the bandit did not have any one to help them out. Until this point the Mexican bandits continue to cast a shadow now in the present time with the narco-traffickers, robbers, and murders.
Potter, George Ann. “Is the War on Drugs Bringing "Dignity" to Bolivia?”TheWashington Report on the Hemisphere. Vol. 19.11. July 30, 1999.
The first solitary confinement penitentiary, Western Penitentiary, was founded in 1826 with two-hundred solitary cells. Soon after the development of this penitentiary, the penal reformers decided that solitary confinement wasn’t
... an issue now because the government is trying to fight crime as well as a war with drug cartels and during the last three years they have arrested more than 67,000 criminals. The inmates that are incarcerated are from different gangs and once there inside the same walls it creates these riots, which means another war inside the prisons (Ellingwood). And in 2009, there was another riot in which 20 died and 15 were wounded was due to drug cartels in Juarez (CNN). This is happening a lot and it will continue to happen as long as the drug war keeps being a problem in Mexico. The more criminals that are taken in from different gang the more riots it will cause inside the prisons. Beside all the riots and deaths that are caused from overcrowded prisons another alerting issue that needs to be look into is the spread of infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.