27 January 2023 - TUOL SLENG MEMORIAL MUSEUM - CAMBODIA

 

TUOL SLENG 

MEMORIAL MUSEUM 

- CAMBODIA -

G'day folks,

This once was the Khmer Rouge's high security prison. 

Tuol Sleng is nestled within in the heart of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. From the outside it looks unremarkable: a multi-story former high school with whitewashed walls and grey shutters. However, inside, Tuol Sleng holds a dark history.

Under the Khmer Rouge, Tuol Sleng was transformed from a school into Security prison 21 (S-21), a place in which some of the most violent atrocities of the Pol Pot’s regime were perpetrated. Originally named Chao Ponhea Yat High School, the complex includes five buildings in total. Several months after the Khemer Rouge took power in 1975, they implemented measures to convert the high school into a high-security facility. Between 1975 and 1979 it is estimated that over 15,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. The prison held between 1,000 and 1,500 occupants along with a large security force.

 

Life within the prison was terrible, and the people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng were treated cruelly. Prisoners were shackled into their cells, forbidden to talk to one another and frequently beaten and tortured by the guards. All prisoners were interrogated during their stay at Tuol Sleng. These interrogations normally included torture: Prisoners were shocked with electricity, burned with irons and water-boarded.

In 2010, Cambodia convicted Kang Kek Iew, the chief of Tuol Sleng Prison, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and died while still in custody in 2020.

 

Today, the former prison stands as a monument to the brutalities of the Khmer Rouge. It is now a museum dedicated to preserving the memory of those who passed through its gates. Several of the implements that were used to torture the prisoners are also on display along with a “skull map,” a map of Cambodia made entirely from human skulls and bones. Rooms that were once used to torture and abuse are now lined with thousands of photographs of those who were incarcerated there.

28 January 2022 - FORTRESS GORAZDA - MONTENEGRO

 

FORTRESS GORAZDA

 - MONTENEGRO -

 

G'day folks,

This World War I fortress is the perfect place to catch a Montenegrin sunset.  

This Austro-Hungarian fortress was used by the Austrians during World War I, as they traded artillery shells with Montenegrin forces. It was originally constructed around 1884-1886. Although the turret guns are long gone, the fortress and all its glory still remain.

 The fortress was later used as a prison during the mid-20th century. Now, it sits completely abandoned on top of a mountain overlooking both the bay of Kotor and Tivat. Although it’s now now covered in graffiti, it remains an amazing place to explore. It’s also an excellent spot to watch the sunset. The views are probably among the best in the entire region.

 

Clancy's comment: Worth a visit I would say.

I'm ...

 

23 June 2021 - FAMOUS PRISONERS HELD IN THE TOWER OF LONDON

 

FAMOUS PRISONERS HELD

 IN THE TOWER OF LONDON

 

G'day folks,

At its very beginning, The Tower of London was to serve as the royal residence of William the Conqueror and become a symbol of the Norman king's power over Londoners. 

 

The White Tower, the first part of the now huge fortress, was completed in 1078 and soon after, in 1100, the first prisoners started to be held in the castle. And although it wasn't its primary role throughout history, the fortress was used as a prison until 1952. In this time, many famous historical figures - queens, revolutionaries, and even major Nazi leaders - were kept there. 

 

Anne Boleyn was condemned to death by King Henry VIII, her husband, at the Tower of London. Other famous people like Sir Walter Raleigh, who was kept there for 13 years, had a more favorable prison stay - Raleigh had comfortable lodgings, servants, and even his family living with him in the Tower. Other famous prisoners committed to the Tower of London include Guy Fawkes, the revolutionary who wanted to blow up the English parliament, and Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s second-in-command.

Clancy's comment: That is quite a list of infamous people.

I'm ...

 

17 March 2020 - Mbala Old Prison - ZAMBIA

Mbala Old Prison 

 -  ZAMBIA -

G'day folks,

This old brick building has held everyone from prisoners of war to freedom fighters during its turbulent history.  

 

This abandoned red-brick building, known as the Mbala Old Prison, was built in 1912 by the British colonial administration back when Mbala (known then as Abercorn) was the seat of the colonial presence in Northern Rhodesia. It is now maintained as a historic building and a Zambian National Monument due to its long and poignant history.

 

 

 When World War I broke out in 1914, the Mbala prison was turned into a defense post for the Northern Rhodesia Police, which was the colonial military. The site was well-suited to repel German attacks over the nearby border from German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania). As the fighting progressed, the Old Prison was used to house German prisoners of war.

 

 

 When the war ended in 1918, the prison was then used to accommodate German Askaris—Africans drafted as soldiers to fight for the colonial powers—until they could be repatriated to their homelands. Later, prominent freedom fighters such as Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, Zambia’s first vice president, were imprisoned here. Today the building stands empty and disused, preserved as a national monument and one of the oldest prisons in Zambia. Its duties as a prison have been taken over by the new Mbala Prison, located next door.

 

Clancy's comment:  Mm ... One can only imagine the harsh conditions the prisoners had to suffer.

 

I'm ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 August 2019 - Ruins of the Anchieta Island Correctional Institute - BRAZIL

Ruins of the Anchieta Island 

Correctional Institute 

- BRAZIL -

G'day folks,

The ruins of this Brazilian island prison still bear the scars of the bloody rebellion that closed it down. 

 

 

 

Construction on the island prison that would come to named Anchieta Island Correctional Institute began in 1902, but by 1952 the conditions at the prison had reached a breaking point and a violent riot ensued which left the jail abandoned and crumbling, as it still sits today.

 

 After uprooting the settled and native populations on Anchieta Island, the construction of the prison facility began. 

 

Room was made for guards and their families in addition to the cell blocks which were built to house the criminal element from off-shore Sao Paulo. At first the inmates were the standard variety of offenders, most of whom lived on the site in the fashion of a prison colony, but by the late 1920s more and more political prisoners were being moved to the site.

 

The prison operated fairly without incident until 1952 when the inmates staged a violent rebellion that left countless guards and inmates dead and wounded. After the riot, the remaining detainees were transferred to other facilities and the Anchieta Island prison was closed, leaving the prison buildings to crumble and be retaken by nature.

  Today Anchieta Island is a popular stop for tourists visiting Sao Paulo. The lush nature that covers the island is the main attraction, but the abandoned prison site is also still accessible. In fact the very nature that brings so many visitors to the island is turning the old buildings into picturesque ruins as the plants reclaim the site. The peaceful greenery does little to communicate the violence that the prison site is remembered for. 

Clancy's comment: Mm ... I can only imagine what hell took place here.

I'm ...

26 June 2019 - PRISON GRAFFITI ON SAN LUCAS ISLAND

 PRISON GRAFFITI 

ON 

SAN LUCAS ISLAND 

G'day folks,

Welcome to another infamous prison, but this disused penal colony features prisoner artwork, some sketched in human blood. 

For 120 years, San Lucas Island Prison was home to the most vicious criminals in Costa Rica. Since it was shut down in 1991 the former prison has only housed the remnants of inmate graffiti scrawled across cell walls and even sketched in human blood.

Given that all the artists on the island were prisoners and were provided no proper artistic tools, anything they could find that would leave a mark was used to tag the walls of the prison. Words and pictures expressed their anger and depression, along with their horniness and faith in something outside of the tropical prison.

Although the vast majority of drawings in San Lucas Prison depict naked women, these explicit portraits often share wall space with haloed depictions of Jesus and other symbols of religion. 

Besides the content of the pictures, most visitors are also fascinated by the “ink” used by prisoners, and certain blood-splattered sketches always catch the eye of unprepared tourists and hold the memories of the brutality carried out inside the prison walls.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... Another gruesome hellhole.

I'm ...

 

3 June 2019 - DEVIL'S ISLAND - ABANDONED

DEVIL'S ISLAND 

- ABANDONED -

G'day folks,

Here is an abandoned colonial French prison, notorious for its hellish conditions. 

There have been many names given to the notorious island prison colony in French Guiana to describe the brutal living conditions of the prisoners who were sent there: the man eater, the dry guillotine, or as it is best known, Île du Diable, the Devil’s Island.

The island chain was discovered by French settlers between 1763 and 1765 during the expedition of Kourou, the goal of which was to spread the power and influence of the French colonial empire. It was a huge disaster, as more than 60 percent of the settlers died of fever or hunger. In 1797, the French government gradually transformed Guiana into a penal colony, establishing labor camps inspired by the English model in Australia. There were two goals: emptying the French jails of the worst criminals and building up a workforce to inhabit and develop the struggling colony.  

Originally established for exiled political prisoners, by 1891 it was the toughest convicts who were sent to what became known as Devil’s Island. Usually, a prisoner was sent to the “dry guillotine” if he had tried several times to escape, or after several attempted or successful murders. The island of Saint Joseph became the most feared place of detention of the colony. The prisoners in these cells knew the chance of escape was close to nonexistent: The strong current surrounding the island, hungry sharks, the day and night surveillance were some of the insurmountable obstacles. What’s more, the chances of surviving within the prison weren’t much better.

Prisoners had to follow very strict rules. Detained in dark cells, they were rigorously forbidden to talk, smoke, read, or even sit before nightfall. They were locked up alone in a tiny cell whose ceiling was a grid so that guards could keep a close eye from a raised footbridge above, where they patrolled in slippers to catch them prisoners by surprise). Convicts were expected to maintain complete silence; talking to a guard often ended up in a punishment. Amid dreadful living conditions, one out three inmates died there from diseases inherent to the area, as well as other causes such as hunger and violence. 

These terrible living conditions were eventually exposed to the general public, and the imprisonment system ended in 1938. The penal colony at Sant Joseph island was not closed until after World War II, however, finally shuttering in 1946. There were some attempts to occupy the island after that: a summer camp, a police station, a plant oil factory, and even a shark fishing factory. But all these initiatives failed. The island were finally abandoned and the buildings overtaken by nature. Some of the colonial structures on the island have since been restored, and opened to visitors to explore its dark history.

 Clancy's comment: Obviously, it's been a mean and awful place, but other than that, it looks like a beautiful place.

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