Several governments and intelligence agencies are operating secret prisons. The fact that these facilities do not officially exist means they are well-protected from the prying eyes of human rights agencies and the courts. Torture is often the norm in these places, and detainees are kept in inhumane living conditions.

Various world governments don’t want you to know about the following secret prisons. Some were closed down before or after they were exposed, while others remain unconfirmed, with the governments in question denying their existence.

10 Salt Pit
Afghanistan

The Salt Pit is a secret CIA-run prison in Afghanistan. It is one of the several prisons set up by the CIA after the 9/11 attacks and was intended to hold people suspected of having links with terrorists. Torture was par for the course at the Salt Pit, and prisoners were often subjected to inhumane punishments and conditions, including mock executions.

The Salt Pit used to be a brick factory before it was turned into a black site. Its cells are small and without windows or toilets. All that the prisoners have to relieve themselves is a bucket. Inmates are stripped naked and made to sleep on cold concrete floors. CIA operatives always keep loud music playing as a form of psychological torture.

Dr. Ghairat Baheer, who was held at the prison for six months, revealed that CIA interrogators tied him to a chair and sat on his stomach. Another, Gul Rahman, who later died in custody and remains the only verified death at the prison, experienced more violent punishments. He was stripped naked with his hands chained over his head while he was repeatedly beaten and drenched with buckets of water.

Rahman died of hypothermia on the morning of November 20, 2002. He was half-naked. The CIA did not return his body to his family or inform them of his death.^[1]

9 Camp 7
Guantanamo Bay

While the prison at Guantanamo Bay is already infamous and controversial in its own right, it also has its own secret prisons, which are even more controversial. One such place is Camp 7, which was built in a hidden location, away from the main prison. Camp 7 was so carefully hidden that no one knew of its existence for two years after it opened in 2006. The few who did never talked about it.

When its existence was revealed, journalists were not allowed to visit. The Red Cross was allowed in, on the condition that it never publicly speak about what it saw. Camp 7 was home to 15 prisoners the CIA considered “high value detainees.” One was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who is fingered as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

The CIA has been accused of torturing prisoners at Camp 7. During a tribunal hearing, one of its inmates, Ramzi Bin al Shibh, complained that his cell always vibrated and made some strange noises. The US military denied all accusations of psychological torture and claimed Shibh was just hearing things.

In 2014, Pentagon confessed that Shibh was hearing real noises but said it was the result of the prison falling apart. It claimed Camp 7 was originally constructed as a temporary structure and asked Congress for $49 million and $69 million to work on its drainage and foundation. Congress refused to allocate the funds.^[2]

8 Penny Lane
Guantanamo Bay

Penny Lane was another secret prison at Guantanamo Bay. Opened in 2003, the prisoners held there enjoyed a life of luxury. They lived in cottages, complete with a very comfortable bed, kitchen, patio, shower, and television. They could also request for additional luxuries, including pornography.

The fact that the inmates held in Penny Lane enjoyed a life of luxury shouldn’t be very surprising. The place was exclusively reserved for confirmed terrorists undergoing training as double agents. After their training, they were released and allowed to return to their terrorist cells, where they sent inside information back to the CIA.

This information was used to prepare drone strikes against targets of interest. In exchange, the CIA gave the terrorists millions of dollars in payment. The program was not a total success. Some of the terrorists rejoined their cells and never reported back to the CIA.

Some also became unwilling double agents after the CIA threatened to harm their children. Al-Qaeda itself knew the CIA would attempt to turn some of its people taken prisoner into double agents and had reservations about members released from Guantanamo Bay. The double agent program ended in 2006.^[3]

7 The Resort
North Korea

The Resort is the Penny Lane of North Korea. Its inmates are not terrorists but blacklisted relatives and officials of the North Korean oligarchy. It is not located on a remote island, either, but close to a town called Hyanghari, just 50 kilometers (30 mi) away from the Chinese border.

The Resort is believed to hold around 1,000 people. It has so many inmates because prisoners will often move in with their families. While heavily guarded, it does not look like a prison but more like a small town. Prisoners do not attempt to escape, since the living conditions aren’t bad. They don’t perform any hard labor or endure any additional punishment and get free cooked meals everyday.

Kim Song Ae is one of the people suspected of being held at the Resort. She used to be the second wife of the late president, Kim Il Sung. Another suspected prisoner is an aunt of the current president, Kim Jong Un. She is the wife of Jang Song Taek and was taken to the Resort after her husband was executed in December 2013.^[4]

6 Cat’s Eye
Thailand

Also called Detention Site Green, Cat’s Eye was a secret CIA prison in Thailand. For all we know, the site could still be in operation, since no one knows its precise location. Some say it is outside Bangkok, while others say it’s in Udon Thani. However, all agree that it is in Thailand, even though the CIA and the Thai government deny its existence.

Cat’s Eye was exposed in a 2014 US Senate report in which its location was listed as “Country [REDACTED].”

The prison was hurriedly set up in 2002 to hold Abu Zubaydah, a mujahideen fighter suspected to be one of bin Laden’s henchmen. Abu was picked up in Pakistan in March 2002, and the CIA was confused on where to keep him. They wanted a place far away from US jurisdiction and the Red Cross.

Abu was heavily tortured at the prison. For several months, he was the only inmate held there, and his torturers had lots of time to spare with him. He lived inside a box that was no bigger than a coffin and was continuously waterboarded until he fainted. The CIA used him to test out several of their “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which is just a fancy name for torture.

Cat’s Eye’s second prisoner was Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, who arrived there in November 2002. Both prisoners were frequently slapped, stripped naked, and deprived of sleep. They were also slammed against walls in an aptly named punishment called “walling.” Cat’s Eye was reportedly shut down in December 2002, after the CIA moved the inmates to another black site in Poland.^[5]

5 Temara Interrogation Center
Morocco

The Temara interrogation center was a secret prison jointly operated by the CIA and the Moroccan government. Located in Temara, near Rabat, the facility originally opened as a CIA-run secret interrogation center following the September 11 attacks. However, the CIA soon turned it into a prison. The Moroccan government joined in but was more interested in detaining political prisoners.

Zakaria Moumni, a French-Moroccan citizen who was held there for four days for political reasons, said his Moroccan interrogators told him he was in a slaughterhouse and would leave in pieces. Another, Oussama Boutahar, who fought with a Bosnia-based Islamist militia group in the 1990s and in 2003, said the Moroccans told him they were torturing him because the Americans told them to.

A report by the US Senate revealed that the CIA knew Morocco was torturing prisoners at the facility. The CIA complained to the Moroccan intelligence agency, but the complaint only destroyed the relationship between the CIA and the Moroccan government. The CIA also planned on abandoning the Temara site for another prison but later changed its mind. Morocco denies all accusations of torture.^[6]

4 Camp Lemonnier
Djibouti

Djibouti is a small country. It is located in the Horn of Africa alongside several other nations, including the Al-Shabbab- and pirate-ridden Somalia. It is also close to Yemen, which is presently experiencing a disastrous civil war.

The strategic location of the small nation is the reason the US established a military base on its soil. From the base, called Camp Lemonnier, the US launches drone strikes against targets in Somalia and Yemen.

There are also unconfirmed claims that the CIA operates a secret prison at the base. The US Congress reportedly has information about the existence of this facility but has refused to declassify it. Congress is also said to be aware that some of the prisoners held there are innocent.

Mohammed Abdullah Saleh Asad was one of the inmates supposedly held at the prison. He said he was tortured there before he was transferred to another black site in Afghanistan, where he was also tortured.

Mahdi Hashi, another supposed former prisoner, said he was taken to the prison after he was kidnapped by CIA agents in Mogadishu, Somalia. He claimed he was arrested because he refused to spy for British intelligence.^[7]

3 Unnamed Gay Prisons
Chechnya

Chechnya is a Muslim-majority autonomous region of Russia. It has been involved in series of wars with Russia in an attempt to become an independent nation. To end the recurring wars, Russia granted it autonomy. Today, Chechnya has its own head of state, Ramzan Kadyrov, who Russia leaves to do as he wishes.

Kadyrov has been accused of running secret prisons where gay men are tortured to death. Russia and Chechnya do not tolerate gays. While Russia has introduced laws to keep gays in check, Chechnya prefers abducting them and keeping them in secret detention centers where they are repeatedly tortured, sometimes to death.

Some journalists who reported the existence of the secret prisons in Chechnya have been murdered. Novaya Gazeta, the first paper to report the kidnappings, detentions, and killings, has seen at least six of its journalists killed. Some of its living journalists are still being threatened, and others have even fled the country.^[8]

2 Unnamed Prisons
Ukraine

Between 2014 and 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) operated a secret prison in Kharkiv. The site was used to hold people the agency suspected of supporting or sympathizing with Russia during that nation’s military intervention in Ukraine and the consequent annexation of Crimea.

At the time, the SBU denied the existence of any secret prison and dismissed the accusation as Russian propaganda. The SBU and Ukrainian military launched independent probes into the existence of the facilities, but both closed their investigations without reaching a conclusion.

Mykola Vakaruk was held at the secret prison for about 600 days, during which he was repeatedly tortured. When he arrived, one of his interrogators told him he would receive a blow to the chest for every incorrect answer he gave.

Vakaruk received repeated blows and was kept in a 2-square-meter (22 ft²) cell which was so cold that water turned to ice. This culminated in him losing a kidney. He was taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove the damaged kidney before he was returned to the prison. He said he was forced to confess that he supported the Russian-backed fighters.

Vakaruk was let go when Ukraine started a mass release of the prisoners due to pressure by human rights groups. He received a paltry 100 hryvnias ($3.80) as compensation, and he and other detainees were threatened never to disclose their experiences to anyone.

The secret prison in Kharkiv was one of the several clandestine facilities operated by the SBU. Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch accused the agency of maintaining other secret prisons in Kramatorsk, Izium, and Mariupol. The Russian-backed fighters were also accused of operating secret detention centers.^[9]

1 Black Jails
China

The black jails are independent secret prisons illegally operated by various Chinese provinces and local governments. Because of the governmental structure in China, citizens are expected to report any grievance to their local and provincial governments.

If they do not get justice, they are allowed to report to the central government at Beijing. The central government itself uses the number of reports it receives to determine the effectiveness of the local and provincial governments.

To avoid getting into Beijing’s black books, the local and provincial governments employed over 10,000 people to hunt, kidnap, detain, and torture citizens who travel to Beijing to make reports. The prisons are usually unoccupied homes, psychiatric wards, and guesthouses.

In 2009, it was suspected that the provinces operated 73 black jails inside Beijing. The central government initially denied the existence of the black jails but later confirmed that they were real.^[10]

Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, the sociopolitical doctrine of communism claimed its first state. Despite a massive military intervention in 1918 which featured soldiers and sailors from the British Empire, the United States, France, Serbia, and Belgium,^[1] and despite the Japanese occupation of Siberia and Sakhalin Island that lasted until 1925, the communist government in Moscow managed to survive.

Following World War II, communism spread beyond Russia’s borders to Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America, and East Asia. Although not all communist states were alike, each were totalitarian dictatorships, and almost all of them had in place “reeducation” systems that subjected political prisoners, criminals, and everyday citizens to horrific physical and mental abuse. Some of these penal systems, such as the Soviet Union’s gulags, are well-known in West. Others have been all but forgotten, and in some communist states today, camp horrors still exist.

10 S-21

In 1960, Saloth Sar and Nuon Chea, two ethnic Khmers from Cambodia, formed a small cadre of Mao-inspired communists. Officially called the Communist Party of Kampuchea, this group is better known by its French name, Khmer Rouge (“Red Khmers”). Its leader, Saloth Sar, would later rename himself Pol Pot.

From 1960 until 1975, the Khmer Rouge led a guerrilla campaign against the Kingdom of Cambodia, the latter of which had backing from the United States and France. The “Red Khmers” had support from Ho Chi Minh’s communists in Vietnam, but these two groups would later have a serious falling out that would lead to a full-scale Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979.

Much of this of this falling out was due to the sheer brutality of the Khmer Rouge’s regime. Beginning in 1975, as part of the “Year Zero” policy, two million urban dwellers in Phnom Penh and other cities were forced to toil as agricultural laborers in the countryside. All of this was done in order to turn Cambodia into a rural, egalitarian society. Therefore, the Khmer Rouge banned money, markets, schooling, private property, religion, and other aspects of traditional Khmer culture. In order to force compliance, the Khmer Rouge established reeducation camps throughout the country. The most infamous of these camps was S-21.

Following Vietnam’s invasion, prison guards at S-21, which was located in Phnom Penh, fled the scene. Left behind were thousands of photographs and letters from prisoners. In total, it is believed that some 30,000 prisoners were held at S-21, 12,000 of whom were killed.

Duch, real name Kaing Guek Eav, would later tell an international court all about the type of torture methods used at S-21. These methods included beatings with sticks, electric shock, suffocation via plastic bags, and a crude form of waterboarding that used a towel and water. Electrical wires were also used to whip inmates, while female inmates were singled out for rape and sexual assault.^[2] Some former Khmer Rouge members have admitted that although the point of torture was to extract confessions, most of the time, it was done for personal enjoyment.

In total, between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot’s regime murdered between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians. Pot himself died in 1998 at the age of 72.

9 Vietnam’s Reeducation Camps

Despite removing the awful and genocidal Khmer Rouge from Cambodia, the communists of Vietnam should not be labeled as great humanitarians. Indeed, following North Vietnam’s successful takeover of South Vietnam in 1975, the communists established brutal reeducation camps throughout the country.

It has been estimated that between one and 2.5 million people entered the camps in 1975 alone under the new government’s promise of a quick “reeducation” in communist dogma. The camps themselves were divided into five different levels. The level one camps were study camps that indoctrinated inmates with Marxist-Leninist thought. These inmates were allowed to go home every night. Level two camps had the same purpose, but inmates could not return home for three to six months. Approximately 700,000 people were forced to attend both level one and level two camps.

The level three camps, or socialist reform camps, contained about 50,000 inmates. Level four and five camps, like the level three camps, were designed to force inmates to work long, hard days under primitive conditions. In these camps were those deemed less susceptible to socialist ideology, including intellectuals, Roman Catholics, teachers, legislators, and judges. Even as late as 1987, some 15,000 of these inmates were still incarcerated.^[3]

It is believed that as many as 165,000 Vietnamese people died in these camps between 1975 and 1990. The number might be much higher, however. Also, given that the first reeducation camps were started in North Vietnam in 1961, it is possible that over one million Vietnamese people died in communist-run camps in both North and South Vietnam.

8 The Xinjiang Camps

The Xinjiang region of far-western China has been a hotbed of violence for centuries. In 1775, the Qing Empire, an ethnic Manchu dynasty that ruled all of China from Beijing, began the liquidation of the Dzungar people, or ethnic Mongols who lived in Xinjiang, following a rebellion against Qing rule. In total, between 480,000 and 500,000 Dzungars, or 80 percent of their population, were killed by Qing soldiers and their allies. The remaining 20 percent were forced into slavery.

It is another minority people, the Muslim Uyghurs, who are currently facing a government crackdown in Xinjiang. As we speak, roughly one million people are held in internment camps in China. A large portion of these inmates are Uyghurs. It is claimed that ten percent of the entire Uyghur population in China is currently being detained in one of the many reeducation camps in Xinjiang.^[4]

The purpose of these camps is to “reeducate” Uyghurs and to get rid of their ethnic and religious identity. Uyghur inmates are forced to speak Mandarin and reportedly must say, “I’m not a Muslim,” on a daily basis. These same punishments are forced on other minority groups, including Hui Muslims, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmen, and even non-Muslim minorities.

In 2018, Uyghur activists told Radio Free Asia, a US-funded radio station designed to counter communist propaganda in East Asia, that the reeducation camps in Xinjiang are filthy work camps where inmates are forced to praise Xi Jinping daily, sing communist songs, and publicly confess to such “crimes” as attending a mosque or traveling outside of China. One former inmate, an ethnic Kazakh named Kayrat Samarkand, told the American media that he experienced grueling interrogation sessions that lasted for multiple days. Samarkand also stated that he was tortured one day by being forced to wear a metal suit that weighed over 23 kilograms (50 lb).

The Chinese government officially legitimizes this practice by highlighting Islamist terrorism inside of China itself and high Uyghur participation in the Syrian Civil War and in Afghanistan on behalf on groups affiliated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. (Both accusations are true.)

7 ‘Farewell To The World’

Very few outside of the Ethiopian diaspora have ever heard of the Derg. The Derg, which was officially known as the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia, came to power in 1974. It would hold on to power until 1987. In that time, several humanitarian crises rocked the country, including a massive famine, an economic collapse, and military defeats against the armies of Eritrea and the Tigray people. The worst of it all occurred between 1984 and 1986, when two years of drought caused a famine that affected 5.8 million people. This famine was then followed by locust and grasshopper plagues in 1986. Overall, the famines and plagues killed 1.2 million people.

Besides these “natural” disasters (which were really the result of government villagization and oppression), the Derg was responsible for a massive campaign of terrorism known collectively as the Red Terror. The Red Terror, which was announced after the Derg took power in Addis Ababa, saw military troops and communist militiamen invade homes and villages in search of “counterrevolutionaries.” As many as 50,000 people were killed during the Red Terror.^[5]

Many of the Red Terror’s victims wound up as inmates at the Alem Bekagn (“Farwell to the World”) prison in Addis Ababa. Already made infamous during the Yekatit 12 massacre, where Ethiopian intellectuals were murdered by Italian fascists, Alem Bekagn saw torture and mass executions under the Derg. In 1990, Argentine forensic experts uncovered several mass graves at Alem Bekagn. One of the worst atrocities at the prison, the Massacre of Sixty, saw Derg officials execute 60 former members of Emperor Haile Selassie’s government. Others executed at the prison included Ethiopian teenagers, suspected anti-communists, and intellectuals. The African Union believes that 10,000 were executed at the prison, while thousands more died due to overcrowding and disease.

6 Lenin’s Gulags

Many Soviet apologists will claim that Vladimir Lenin, the first communist ruler of Bolshevik Russia, was not a genocidal maniac a la Stalin. However, this is false and overlooks how Lenin’s regime expanded the old Tsarist system of Siberian prison camps and turned them into the “gulag archipelago.”

By 1920, there were some 84 work and prison camps in Russia, all of which were designed to “rehabilitate” enemies of the Soviet system. By 1923, the camp system had expanded to over 300. At that point, the total inmate population in Russia stood at a staggering 70,000. As early as 1918, in a letter penned by Leon Trotsky, the Soviet state sought to use the gulags as a way to modernize Russia on the backs of slave labor. In the letter, Trotsky stated that inmates, whom Trotsky calls “vermin,” must experience “thousands of forms and means of practical reckoning by the communes themselves.”^[6] In practice, this translated to inmates being worked to death in order to build railroads and factories.

Lenin’s dreaded secret police, the Cheka, also ran their own camps. In 1920, 100,000 Russian citizens were convicted in Cheka courts and sentenced to work camps. The Cheka camps of 1920 were only built to house 40,000 to 60,000 inmates. At these camps and all over camps during Lenin’s regime, unsanitary conditions led to thousands of deaths due to disease, while starvation, overwork, and executions claimed all other lives. Lenin’s gulags were also thoroughly corrupt, with career criminals given freedom in the camps to prey upon their fellow inmates.

5 The Belene Labor Camp

The Belene Labor Camp is often called a “concentration” camp by Western sources. The use of this word, which is most closely associated with the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, should tell you all you need to know about how awful this Bulgarian prison really was.

Operated off and on from 1949 until 1989, the camp on Belene Island housed thousands of male and female political prisoners. Housed alongside political prisoners were hardened criminals, whom the communist guards encouraged to “terrorize” the political offenders. During the 1950s, hundreds of inmates died from malnutrition and exhaustion because they were forced to cut down trees, harvest vegetables, and do other kinds of manual labor with very little food or water. Those convicted of breaking camp rules were often used for target practice by the guards or sent adrift at sea in order to freeze to death.

The camp was formally closed in 1959, following the anti-Stalinist purges directed by the Soviet Union. However, during the 1970s and 1980s, Bulgarian Muslims and ethnic Turks who opposed the assimilation campaigns run by the communist government were detained on Belene Island and held in squalid conditions for months to years.^[7] Such religious persecution was not unique, as earlier during the 1950s, Christian pastors were frequently sent to the camp as “spies.” One of those inmates, Haralan Popov, wrote a book outlining all the ways in which camp guards and wardens tried to convert religious inmates to atheism. Those who resisted were often tortured for days on end.

4 Castro’s Concentration Camps

The term “concentration camp” was born on the verdant island of Cuba in the late 19th century. Originally, the term denoted Spanish-run camps that housed supporters of Cuban independence. The United States later used these camps as justification for the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Decades later, Fidel Castro’s communist state reintroduced concentration camps to the Cuban people. Under the unassuming name of Military Units to Help Production (UMAP), Castro’s government began forcing all those suspected of “counterrevolutionary” activity and attitudes to these camps in November 1965. At the UMAP camps, humiliation, torture, and rape were common. So, too, was suicide, as many inmates killed themselves rather than die by starvation or disease.^[8]

The purpose of these camps was to “reeducate” Cubans to the wonders of socialism. Religious Christians, rock and roll fans, men with long hair, and those deemed too ideologically close to the United States and the West were forced to perform hard labor. Another group singled out for incarceration were homosexuals, whom the Cuban government recognized as a “scum” not worthy of the same rights as heterosexuals.

Like the better-known concentration and extermination camps of Nazi Germany, the UMAP camps often featured slogans such as “Work Will Make Men Out of You.”

3 Laogai

Laogai can be roughly translated as “reform through labor.” These camps were modeled after the Soviet gulags under Joseph Stalin and first opened their doors following Mao’s ascension to absolute power in 1949. Although they have been renamed, hundreds of laogai camps are still in operation today throughout China.

One survivor of the laogai system, Harry Wu, has said that during the height of Mao’s power, some 40 million Chinese people were interned at these labor camps. Wu, who now lives in the United States and runs the Laogai Museum after spending 19 years in a laogai, claims that these reeducation camps forced inmates to work for hours on end under dangerous conditions. Food and water were rarely given to the inmates, thus forcing them to steal from each other. Inmates at these camps were also used for the harvesting of organs, a process that is still going on inside China right now.^[9]

According to Wu, one of the more gruesome torture methods used by these labor camps is the tiger chair, which is a bench where prisoners have their hands tied behind their backs, their mouths gagged, and their legs bound tightly with rope. Bricks are then placed underneath the legs, thus elevating them. Prisoners tied to the tiger bench are shouted at by guards and are forced to hold these uncomfortable positions for hours and sometimes days.

Such inhumanity should not be shocking. After all, the architect of these camps, Mao Zedong, oversaw the Great Chinese Famine (1958–1961), which may have killed 30 million people out of a population of 650 million. The famine was caused by the Great Leap Forward, which was an attempt rapidly modernize China into an industrial society. This mass starvation was followed by the Cultural Revolution, which saw radicalized college students (“Red Guards”) publicly denouncing their teachers and family members as “counterrevolutionaries.” Through show trials and struggle sessions, in which the accused were forced to confess to a litany of anti-communist crimes, counterrevolutionaries were sentenced to labor camps or were executed. The total number of deaths during the period (1966–1976) is not known, but most estimates say that somewhere between 1.5 and 7.7 million people died.

2 Stalin’s Gulags

No communist leader is more infamous than Joseph Stalin. During his lifetime, Stalin was credited with turning the mostly agrarian Russia into an industrial powerhouse. However, Stalin did so by killing millions of his own people through overwork, starvation, and execution. During the Great Purge, when all those suspected of disloyalty to Stalin and his forced labor system were imprisoned and executed, 20 million people were killed by state authorities. Collectivization, whereby peasants were forced to produce food in order to meet unrealistic government quotas, killed millions more. For instance, in Kazakhstan between 1930 and 1933, collectivization led to a famine that killed 1.5 million people. The Holodomor, a forced famine designed to punish independent peasants in Ukraine, claimed about three million lives between 1932 and 1933, with an estimated 28,000 Ukrainians dying of starvation daily.

Stalin’s government expanded Lenin’s gulag system in order to house those deemed antagonistic to collectivization. Gangsters and serious criminals were also housed in these camps, and guards encouraged them to brutalize the political prisoners. Those inmates without connections (i.e. in good with the guards) typically worked 14-hour days. Jobs included cutting down and hauling lumber, digging ditches for hydraulic dams, and mining for ore and coal. Prisoners were kept on starvation diets, with many dying from malnourishment, dehydration, exhaustion, and lung diseases stemming from the inhalation of ore and coal dust.

Survivors of Stalin’s gulags, including writers Varlam Shalamov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote books about the inhumane and barbaric conditions of the gulags, where murder and robbery were commonplace among starving inmates. A more graphic depiction of gulag life can be found among the sketches of former camp guard Danzig Baldaev. For decades, Daldaev worked as a gulag guard, and during that time, he sketched pictures of what he saw. These stark images include depictions of forced feeding, gangsters urinating on beaten and bloody inmates, decapitations, the insertion of soldering irons into vaginas and anuses, and the institution of female and child sex slavery within the camps.^[10]

1 The Pitesti Experiment

What happened in Romania between 1949 and 1951 was so horrific that it turned the stomachs of hardened Soviet officials. Known collectively as the Pitesti experiment, these reeducation experiments were conducted inside the Pitesti Prison. The ultimate monsters in charge of these experiments were Ana Pauker and Eugen Turcanu. On the surface, these two could not have been more different. Pauker came from an Orthodox Jewish family and was a lifelong leftist, with former membership in both the Social Democratic Party of Romania and the Socialist Party of Romania. Turcanu was an ex-con and a former member of the anti-Semitic Iron Guard.

Together, Pauker and Turcanu used Pitesti Prison as a laboratory to build new communists out of the ashes of old Romania. Their subjects included former members of Ion Antonescu’s regime, members of the Iron Guard, landowners, diplomats, Orthodox and Catholic priests, intellectuals, Jews accused of being “Zionist,” and other members of the bourgeois. These inmates were dubbed “enemies of the people,” and all manner of torture was meted out to them by Turcanu, Pauker, and their minions.

Examples of torture included: forcing prisoners who did not renounce their Christian faith to take a “communion” consisting of fecal matter, forcing prisoners who did not confess to anti-communist activities to put their hands in chamber pots full of urine, forcing inmates to spit into the mouths of suspected spies, and forcing prisoners to mock Christ’s nativity on Christmas day. Survivors claim that Turancu was especially creative with priests and devout Christians. Every morning, these inmates would be “baptized” with urine and fecal matter. Their heads would be held inside the putrid buckets almost to the point of drowning.^[11]

The point of the experiments was to force people to confess to the fact that they deserved all of this punishment because of their past anti-communist activities. The experiments also sought to destroy any individualism within the inmates. In order to accomplish both, physical torture was coupled with long periods of solitary confinement. Torture, which was almost always carried out by other inmates (most of whom were students sent to the prison because they had belonged to non-communist political parties), included forcing prisoners to eat with their knees on the floor and their hands tied behind their backs. Often, the food they were forced to eat was each other’s excrement. On Easter morning in 1950, prisoners were forced to kiss a phallus-shaped piece of insect-repellent paper, while on most other days, they were encouraged to commit suicide. This latter activity was usually stopped by guards, who simply wanted to prolong an inmate’s torture. One prisoner, Turcanu’s former friend Bogdanovici, died after other inmates jumped up and down on his stomach and chest for days, thus crushing his internal organs.

The experiments came to an end when Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, successfully lobbied Stalin to purge the Romanian Communist Party of Pauker and her supporters. Specifically, Pauker was accused of being a “Zionist” and of having “nationalist” attitudes toward Jewish immigration to Israel.

As for Turcanu, he and his handpicked guards stood trial for their crimes in 1954. On December 17, 1954, Turcanu was executed by firing squad. After Turcanu’s death, the Romanian Communist Party tried to say Turcanu and Pauker were responsible for all the crimes at Pitesti, but most scholars today believe that the party encouraged the experiments.

For most inmates, imprisonment means being kept in one building for a determined number of months or years. Staring at the walls of a square cell each and every day. Listening to other prisoners scream, shout, fight, and even die. When prisons eventually become abandoned, the memories tend to hang around, permeating the atmosphere and releasing a stark chill in the air.

After viewing these ten images of abandoned prisons, you’ll likely agree.

Related: 10 Ghastly Prison Practices Of The 19th Century

10 Old New Mexico State Penitentiary

Hardcore criminals engaged in two riots in the Old New Mexico State Penitentiary before it moved in 1956. By the ’70s, the prison was severely overcrowded, and a newly instated “snitch system” enraged a large number of prisoners. On February 2 and 3, 1980, the inmates overran the prison building in a terrifying riot during which 12 guards were taken hostage, and 33 inmates were killed by other prisoners. Some of these inmates were tortured before being murdered in revenge for their snitching to prison wardens. The guards’ lives were spared, but seven of them were severely injured after being beaten and raped.

It took 36 hours for the police to regain control of the prison. Part of the building was shut down shortly after, and the inmates were moved to another prison. Today, the Old New Mexico State Penitentiary (Old Main) is mostly abandoned, with some parts used to store movie props. After all the horror, it is not surprising that many who visited the building after it closed reported seeing shadows and hearing unexplained noises emanating from the empty cells.^[1]

9 Sinop Prison

Sinop Prison is one of the oldest prisons in Turkey. It is located within the Sinop Fortress and was established in 1887. In 1939, a building with nine halls spread over two floors was added to hold juvenile prisoners.

Conditions were harsh inside the prison due to its location. By being so close to the sea, the air was always moist and cold, making it difficult to even light a match. Sinop is also well known for holding many intellectuals, including journalists, politicians, teachers, and poets.

The prison was abandoned in 1997, and the inmates moved to a new prison in Sinop. Today the prison is open for sightseeing, with plans in the works to convert the inner fortress into a maritime and justice museum.^[2]

8 Her Majesty’s Prison Pentridge

HM Prison Pentridge was established in 1851 in Coburg, Victoria, with the first prisoners incarcerated the same year. The building was split into several divisions using letters of the alphabet. For instance, A was for long- and short-term prisoners who displayed good behavior, B was for prisoners who displayed bad behavior, G was for psychiatric problems, and so on. By the time the prison shut down in 1997, it housed over 1,000 inmates. Australia’s most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, was also imprisoned at Pentridge, and his remains were found in a mass grave at the prison in 2009.

While some parts of the abandoned building have been turned into housing developments, some of the old divisions remain and are used as a venue for ghost tours.^[3]

7 Candido Mendes

Ilha Grande is an idyllic island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro that draws thousands of tourists to its white sand beaches and tranquil waters. What some may not know, however, is that the island is also home to an abandoned high-security prison.

In 1886, Lazaretto Hospital opened on the island. The hospital was meant to keep patients with contagious diseases away from the rest of the public. It took only a few years for the wards to become overcrowded and the island to become overpopulated. A small prison was constructed to house troublemakers, and at the same time, Lazaretto morphed into a military prison. During wartime, it closed down and reopened in 1930. In 1942, Lazaretto was renamed Colonia Candido Mendes and was declared a fully functional prison. It was here that dangerous gangs established roots and planned to overthrow the wardens.

Gang violence escalated to the point where police couldn’t maintain control over the prisoners, and the prison was closed down in 1994. But one inmate stayed behind. Julio de Almeida was serving a 28-year sentence for murder, theft, and attempted escape but was released in 1994 for good behavior. He had nowhere to go and chose to stay at the prison, creating a unique home for himself.^[4]

6 Carabanchel Prison

Carabanchel opened in Spain in 1944 and saw its busiest time during the Franco era. Political prisoners built the panopticon-designed building and knew full well that it was inescapable. The prison became known for brutal practices, and few of those imprisoned there left their cells alive. There were rumors of executions, abuse, and torture aimed at unionists, terrorists, and those who identified as gay.

The prison was decommissioned in 1998, and its 2,500 prisoners moved to other prisons. Shortly after, the building was looted, and all doors, railings, and metal were taken. After becoming a shelter for drug addicts, undocumented immigrants, and homeless people, the old prison was eventually torn down in 2008.^[5]

5 Goli Otok Prison

Goli Otok was a political prison built on an uninhabited island in Croatia when the country was part of former Yugoslavia. It operated between 1949 and 1989. The political prisoners held here included Stalinists and just about anyone who exhibited sympathy toward the Soviet Union. Inmates were forced into manual labor regardless of the weather on the island, which sometimes reached temperatures of 40°C (104°F). More than 400 prisoners were murdered, committed suicide, or died because of exposure to the harsh conditions.

When the prison was abandoned in 1989, it was left to rot. These days it serves as housing for shepherds and as a tourist attraction for those looking to find the ghosts of the prison’s turbulent past.^[6]

4 Napier Prison

Napier Hill in New Zealand was the location of the Napier Prison between 1862 and 1993. It is the oldest prison complex in the country and the site of four hangings that occurred during the 19th century. The old prison hanging yard is depicted in this photograph.

The prison building was restored in 2002 and utilized as a backpacker. Currently, it offers the Escape Room Experience and Self-Guided Audio Tours, as well as the opportunity to get yourself locked up in solitary confinement or a padded cell before venturing into the hanging yard and visiting the graveyard.

Napier Prison is still considered to be one of the most haunted places in New Zealand, with many tourists reportedly seeing the ghost of the mass murderer Roland Edwards and experiencing ghostly occurrences such as disembodied faces floating before them and unexplained footsteps sounding in the dark.^[7]

3 West Virginia Penitentiary

The gothic-style West Virginia Penitentiary is still being used as a filming location for scary movies, and it also holds a museum. The prison was in operation between 1876 and 1995 and was constructed by the inmates. There was no rest for the prisoners here as they also had to work in a carpentry shop, paint shop, stone yard, blacksmith, bakery, and even a hospital within the prison grounds to help sustain the prison. The prison also received revenue from its very own farm and coal mine, which ended up saving the state around $14,000 a year.

While conditions were fair initially, it deteriorated to the extent that it became one of the most violent prisons in the U.S. A “designated” room within the prison known as “The Sugar Shack” was used for raping inmates, fighting, and gambling. In total, 36 murders took place within the walls of the prison. In 1983, Charles Manson filed a request to be moved to the West Virginia Penitentiary to be closer to his family. This request was denied.

At the end of its lifespan, the prison was overrun with riots and escapes. By the time it was abandoned, 94 executions had been carried out, adding to the ominous atmosphere inside the prison. Visitors can experience the prison cells for themselves during a guided visit and even stay overnight—should they wish to do so.^[8]

2 Holmesburg Prison

The Terrordome, as the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia was known, was decommissioned in 1995. During its heyday, however, it was the site of controversial pharmaceutical, biochemical, and dermatological testing on inmates. In 1938, 23 prisoners embarked on a hunger strike and were placed in an isolation cell. The cell, known as the Klondike, reached temperatures of nearly 93.3°C (200°F) because of radiators and steam pipes, which led to the deaths of four prisoners who were basically boiled alive.

In addition, there were several riots in the prison in the 1970s. In one instance, 100 prisoners armed with knives and table legs destroyed the dining hall and attacked their fellow inmates and guards. It is believed by many that poltergeists now inhabit the building and that the ghosts of dead inmates charge at you when you’re not paying attention while inside.^[9]

1 Garcia Moreno Prison

In its more than 140-year history, the Garcia Moreno Prison in Ecuador held both petty thieves as well as politicians and ex-presidents. It is also the place where a jealous prisoner strangled his wife to death in front of their two children. The prison was abandoned in 2014 when its 2,600 inmates were moved to other prisons. Garcia Moreno was designed to hold only 300 inmates, so to say it was grossly overcrowded is a massive understatement.

The prison is now a tourist attraction, its creepy murals and messages left behind by the inmates, open for all to see.^[10]

The recent release of Brittney Griner from a Russian penal colony on the morning of December 8, 2022, was hailed by some and criticized by others. The same day, Sarah Krivanek, a U.S. citizen ordered deported by a Russian court due to a domestic dispute, left Russia too. Unlike Griner, though, Krivanek was not a part of a prisoner swap that saw Griner exchanged for Viktor Bout, on whom the 2005 Nicholas Cage film Lord of War is based. Many people are also aware of a third prisoner, Paul Whelan, a former Marine and corporate executive who was convicted of espionage and, as a result, is serving a 16-year sentence.

What many people don’t know is that these three people are a small group of the many other people currently detained in non-U.S. prisons. This article lists just 10 of these individuals, but there are many more.

10 Airan Barry and Luke Denman (Venezuela)

In August 2020, a Venezuelan court sentenced Airan Berry and Luke Denman, two former U.S. Army Special Forces members, to 20 years in prison after the two men attempted to help overthrow President Maduro. The two men were convicted of conspiracy charges, illegal arms trafficking, and terrorism. Both men admitted to participating in Operation Gideon, an unsuccessful attempt to remove Maduro from office. It was part of a plan organized by Silvercorp USA, a private security firm based in Florida. Operation Gideon led to the death of at least eight soldiers and the jailing of another 66 individuals.

Both Berry and Denman were arrested in the fishing village of Chuao. The two men were represented by a public defender after the lawyers hired to represent them were not told about their hearing. The two men were then used by the Venezuelan media to suggest that the United States wanted to overthrow Venezuela’s government. The United States denied any participation in the alleged coup.^[1]

9 Majd Kamalmaz (Syria)

In 2017, Majd Kamalmaz disappeared on a trip to Syria and is believed to have been placed in a Syrian jail. The 63-year-old with diabetes, who is also an American citizen and psychotherapist, arrived in Damascus on February 15, 2017. From this point, Kamalmaz traveled to Syria’s capital after the death of his father-in-law to inquire about elderly relatives. Kamalmaz is believed to have been arrested at a checkpoint on February 16, 2017. Family members have expressed wonderment over why the man was arrested because he is not involved in politics. The family has also worked with the State Department to try to find Kamalmaz and help get him released from prison.

A Czech ambassador later confirmed that Kamalmaz was held because he was seen as a symbol of U.S. interest in Syria after civil war erupted in the country. While the trail has gone cold about Kamalmaz, he is still believed to be alive. Kamalmaz is a humanitarian interested in international disaster relief and worked in Kosovo as well as Indonesia after the tsunami in 2004. In 2012, Kamalmaz became concerned about the growing conflict in Syria and helped various refugees by opening two mental health clinics in Lebanon and Jordan.^[2]

8 David Lin (China)

David Lin is a pastor who has been detained in China since 2006. U.S. efforts to have Lin released finally achieved results in 2022 following a meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in Bali. This meeting saw the reduction of Lin’s life imprisonment—lowered to 24 years. This means that Lin will be released from prison in 2030. It remains uncertain if Lin will be able to survive until this date, though. Since 2018, Lin has been in poor health.

David Lin served as an economist who advised California and Iowa state officials. Lin’s wife was a Christian, who persuaded Lin to pursue the religion. In the 1990s, Lin began taking trips to China to promote Christianity and help local churches. Lin later registered as a Christian minister in 1999. In 2006, Lin was stopped by law enforcement and placed under house arrest for having illegal religious propaganda. Months later, Lin was arrested formally.

Lin was charged with “contract fraud” as well for helping Chinese nationals enter into contracts for premises designed for non-authorized church usage. A few years later, Lin received a life imprisonment sentence. Lin later stated that he viewed his imprisonment as a mission from God and a chance to promote religion to his fellow inmates. In 2018, however, Lin sent his loved ones in the United States his bible, his prized possession. Lin later urged his loved ones to request his release because he was in bad health and not receiving adequate care while in jail.^[3]

7 Kai Li (China)

Kai Li, an American citizen, was detained in China in 2017 following an espionage conviction. In the summer of 2016, Li transported his son from their home in New York to Harvard University before traveling to Shanghai. Kai Li, who was born in Shanghai, returned to the city for a ceremony commemorating his mother’s death. When the plane landed, Li was met by security agents. In 2018, Li was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for espionage. The Li family argues that these charges are politically motivated. The case involves state secrets that Li and his lawyer claim are freely available online.

Born in 1962, Li later moved to America to study and then became a U.S. citizen. Li opened two gas stations on Long Island and also acted as a buyer and distributor of solar cell technology for U.S. aerospace firms. During these years, Li visited China several times a year.^[4]

6 Paul Overby (Afghanistan)

Paul E. Overby Jr. is a 79-year-old writer from Massachusetts who was abducted in May 2014 in the eastern Khost province of Afghanistan. At the time he was kidnapping, Overby was headed to interview the head of the Haqqani network, an infamous Taliban network. Before disappearing, Overby suggested that he planned to cross into Pakistan.

Overby was in the country at the time to write a book about the war in Afghanistan. Additionally, Overby is reported to have had health issues that require medical care. In the 1980s, Overby fought beside Afghans against Soviet forces. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has offered a $1 million award for information leading to the return of Overby.^[5]

5 Mark Swidan (China)

In 2012, Mark Swidan was arrested and imprisoned in a Chinese detention center. Swidan was accused of being part of a drug conspiracy while in China for business; he was sentenced to death. Swidan’s mother says he was wrongfully convicted, and she fears she may never see her son again. She has not spoken to him since 2018.

The United Nations Human Rights Council and other human rights organizations have requested Swidan’s release. Despite these requests, Swidan remains in prison. While in prison, Swidan is reported to have little food and to be experiencing deteriorating health; he has reportedly lost about 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Swidan’s mother is heading efforts to get him released and has even started a GoFundMe campaign, so Swidan has money to buy necessaries at the commissary.^[6]

4 Austin Tice (Syria)

Journalist Austin Tice is a 41-year-old man who went missing in Syria in 2012. The last that anyone in the United States heard from Tice was a video released the same year. Tice disappeared in Syria in 2012, at which time he was covering the Syrian civil war. In 2018, Tice’s parents commented that they have new details that lead them to believe Tice is still alive.

In addition to being a journalist who contributed to The Washington Post, McClatchy, and CBS, Tice is also a Marine veteran and an Eagle Scout. Those who have sought details about Tice in recent years have not found any information. President Joe Biden has referred to Tice as a “journalist who put the truth above himself.” Tice’s parents continue to push the administration to secure TIce’s release.^[7]

3 Marc Fogel (Russia)

Marc Fogel is a 61-year-old U.S. citizen and teacher who was arrested after he entered Russia at the Sheremetyevo Airport in 2021 while in possession of medical marijuana. Fogel was carrying less than 20 grams of cannabis at the time of his arrest. The drug was prescribed to Fogel in Pennsylvania for medical purposes.

Fogel has taught history at various high schools in countries like Venezuela, Oman, Colombia, and Malaysia. At the time of his arrest, Fogel was working at the Anglo-American School, which is located in Moscow. The school is an elite private school tasked with teaching the children of international political figures and American diplomats. Fogel also has a history of chronic pain in his spine and was correspondingly prescribed marijuana by his medical doctor.

Fogel was subsequently sentenced to a 14-year prison sentence in a Russian penal colony on the charge of large-scale drug trafficking. Fogel’s sentence was later reduced to nine years. Fogel is reportedly not receiving adequate medical attention while in prison.^[8]

2 Emad Shargi (Iran)

Emad Shargi is an Iranian-American businessman who was arrested in Iran in 2020. Shargi has since been sentenced to a decade of imprisonment as a result of a trial that Shargi did not even attend. Shargi was arrested on espionage charges, which Iran often brings against dual-citizenship holders and foreign nationals. Shargi was first detained in 2018, though. Later released on bail, Shargi was still not allowed to leave the country. He was re-arrested in 2020.

Shargi’s family has expressed worries about his mental state and begged the United States to secure his release. During his time in the infamous Evin prison, Shargi has been allowed to make brief phone calls to his family.^[9]

1 Shahab Dalili (Iran)

Shahab Dalili is a 59-year-old man who was arrested and later imprisoned while in Tehran in 2016 for his father’s funeral. Dalili’s family had recently immigrated to the United States and chose to settle in Virginia at the time Dalili was arrested. Dalili is a legal United States resident with a green card but not a citizen. Dalili has been charged with “aiding and abetting” the United States. For several years following his imprisonment, Dalili’s wife chose not to speak about his arrest out of fear that it might jeopardize his release.

Under the Levinson Act, which was passed in 2020, the United States government must work with both U.S. citizens as well as green card holders who are viewed as “United States nationals.” As a result of this law, the United States has more power to get someone like Dalili out of prison. Further helping matters are two of Dalili’s former cellmates who were released in 2019 and have requested that President Biden not agree to any deal with Iran without securing Dalili’s freedom. One of these men was a United States citizen who was arrested while performing research in Iran as a graduate student at Princeton University.^[10]