Browse all episodes of Behind Bars: The World's Toughest Prisons

A prison with guards on the outside but not on the inside because they fear for their lives. On the inside, the prisoners are in control: murderers, violent offenders, drug bosses. This is the prison city of San Pedro in La Paz, Bolivia, where the inmates rule and anarchy prevails. Money, violence and power. Only the strongest survive this lawless place, and they rule over the weak, demand protection money, rent for sleeping areas and determine what rights and obligations the prisoners have.

San Pedro Prison — La Paz, Bolivia

Carcel Distrital, Bogotá, Colombia – Part One

Carcel Distrital, Bogotá, Colombia – Part Two

Colony 100, Kharkiv, Ukraine

South Cotabato Jail, Philippines

El Hongo, Tecate, Mexico

Armavir Prison, Armenia

La Mesa, Mexico

The pre-trial prison Urso Branco is one of the worst jails in all of Brazil. Riots have been taking place here almost every year since 2002. Gangs battling for control of the drug business are also fighting it out behind bars. They use every opportunity to eliminate rival gang members. In the past 20 years, more than 100 people have died in riots behind the walls of Urso Branco. A sad record for Brazil.

Urso Branco, Brazil

Colony Eight – one of the toughest and most notorious prisons in Ukraine. It is said that no one has ever managed to escape from here! Over eight hundred prisoners are behind bars in Colony 8 under maximum security. Until twenty years ago, the guards even carried out death sentences at this prison. Not any more – the concept is now a different one. Plenty of “freedom” on the one hand, draconian punishment and military drill on the other. Combined with permanent supervision: Around seventy cameras in the buildings ensure that anything moving gets noticed.

One section of the prison is particularly notorious – the wing for the one hundred and sixty lifers: If you end up in this wing, you have absolutely nothing to lose. Because in Ukraine, life imprisonment means: literally being behind bars until you die.

Access to this wing is specially secured. To gain entry, the guards must go through a multi-level security system of mechanical and electronic locks. Escape: impossible.

Colony 8, Zhytomyr, Ukraine

Maafushi Central Prison is a high-security prison covering an area the size of ten football pitches. Surrounded by six-meter-high walls, and the sea, the facility houses up to 800 criminals under the strictest security measures. All-round sureillance by a myriad of cameras, strict rules and daily searches are the key components in the success of this prison in the middle of a vacation paradise.  The prison comprises a total of nine different units: The largest of these – Unit 9 - a star-shaped building, houses prisoners with higher security level. Units 5 through 8, which surround it, are for inmates with lower security level – and those soon to be released. The women’s wing is located at the other side of the prison.A workshop area is also available, where inmates with good behavior may be allowed to work.

Maafushi Central Prison, Maldives

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

New Bilibid Prison is one of the most notorious prisons in the Philippines. Originally designed to hold 1500 offenders, there are currently more than 8000 incarcerated there.

New Bilibid Prison

The toughest and most heavily-guarded prison in Croatia. The country’s 500 most dangerous criminals serve their sentences here – and every day the struggle for survival begins anew.

Lepoglava, Croatia

Taichung Men’s Prison is the biggest and toughest in Taiwan, housing some of the country’s most dangerous criminals and operating a system of ‘progressive correctional treatment’.

Taichung Men’s Prison, Taiwan

These are some of the toughest prisons in the world. Prisons so tough, even gang bosses and killers learn the meaning of fear. Across four continents, six different prisons, the series takes us beyond the gates, walls, barred windows and cells into an unknown world, a world we know exists, but a world nobody wants to think about.

All Episodes of Behind Bars: The World's Toughest Prisons

Browse all episodes of Behind Bars: The World's Toughest Prisons

Season 1

San Pedro Prison — La Paz, Bolivia

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/3/2016