"Inside the World's Toughest Prisons" is a documentary series wherein the show's host goes undercover as an inmate in order to give viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what really goes on in the world's toughest prisons. "We're always, rightly, told that we're safe because the bad guy is locked up, but it is what happens next that is key," host and presenter Raphael Rowe explained to Express about the premise of the show.
But even after serving 12 years, Rowe's not always prepared for the circumstances he finds himself in while working for the show. "When I walked through Tacumbú penitentiary in Paraguay, I could not believe my eyes," he recalled about a prison featured in Season 4. "I've seen inside many prisons and have Âwitnessed all kinds of conditions but I had never seen anything like this." He added, "It was terrifying to see guys sleeping outdoors in the open air, openly using drugs and carrying knives."
There are six seasons of The World's Toughest Prisons. The show first aired back in 2016 and since then it has visited some of the most toughest institutions containing some of the world's most notorious prisoners. Covering prisons in countries across the world. Season one explores; Honduras, Poland, Mexico, and Philippeans. Season 2 visits prisons in Brazil, Ukraine, Belize, and Papua New Guinea. Season 3 covers Costa Rica, Columbia, Romania, and Norway. Season 4 features Paraquay, Germany, Mauritius, and Lesotho. Season 5 explores South Africa, Philippeans, and Greenland. Season 6 covers Moldova, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
There is no official reason why Paul Connolly left as host of Inside the World's Toughest Prisons after hosting when the show first aired in 2016. Paul took the viewers inside the jails, showing them what living conditions are for the inmates, as well as the guards and while season one was popular, it could have been to do with its move to Netflix. There was a huge two-year break between its release and the second season recording.
Speaking to Cape Talk radio station in South Africa, Rowe said: "It's drawing out the realities of life inside prisons for people - which they are before they are prisoners - and how the system treats these prisoners and how they run these regimes. "
In each 50 minute episode, the host spends a week or so actually locked up in a different one of these notorious prisons, not just on a tour. This show, especially the second season, does a great job of giving the viewer a brief introduction to the area or region surrounding the prison, shining a light on how conditions have deteriorated to this current point. The second host, Rowe, was actually wrongfully imprisoned in the UK for 12 years of his life and his experience and point of view give this show an authenticity that many of its counterparts lack.
After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States more than quadrupled during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society.
Rowe, who went on a TV show on Wednesday to promote his series on the toughest prisons around the world, said he realized prison reform efforts were "real" in Cyprus where they do things "very differently."
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