When the prison doors slam shut, following the rules is the key to doing your time,
keeping your privileges, and staying out of solitary.
But no prisoner was expecting pink jumpsuits
or to…pay rent? Here are the weirdest prison rules that actually exist!
Let’s start over in Arizona, with the colorful lawman nicknamed “Sheriff Joe”. Joe Arpaio
was a hard-nosed, tough-on-crime officer who became famous for his brash and often offensive
statements - and his bizarre policies. His prisons were among the strictest in the United States,
banning such perks like coffee and unrestricted television. And this wouldn’t be controversial
if he was dealing with hard-boiled criminals - but most of the people under his watch were in jails,
not prisons, and were either awaiting trial or serving short sentences!
And some of his policies were truly weird.
In prison, you don’t get to choose what you wear. Traditionally, it was the old
black-and-white stripes for convicts. Then it switched to orange jumpsuits. This made sense,
because if a prisoner escaped, it would be much easier to identify them and catch them quickly.
But what reason could Sheriff Joe have to require everyone to wear…pink
underpants? The initial argument was that no one wants pink underpants,
so the inmates wouldn’t steal them from each other. He later claimed that the color has a
calming effect - but anyone who ever tried to give a pink toy to a kid who likes blue probably thinks
that’s bunk. Many people think he had only one reason - to humiliate the people in his jails.
And it wasn’t the only time Sheriff Joe made sport out of his inmates.
The chain gang is one of the most notorious punishments in American prison history - and
it wasn’t even always a punishment! Prisoners were often forced to work to earn their keep,
and that meant breaking rocks in the hot sun or cleaning up trash.
And they were often shackled together to keep them from escaping. But it was a thing of the
past - until Arpaio brought it back and put his inmates to work. He even made them sleep
in tent cities where the Arizona sun could stay in the triple digits. When confronted about it,
his argument was that the soldiers in the desert put up with it, so the inmates can too!
And he even took away one of the few pleasures inmates have.
Prison food isn’t going to win any awards, and it’s usually somewhere between boot camp mess
hall and a high school cafeteria in quality, but inmates still look forward to their daily
burger. Except not in Sheriff Joe’s jails -the ruthless sheriff was an avid cost-cutter,
and decided a good way to do this would be to cut meat entirely. Inmates would be chowing down on
soy burgers and nuggets instead. He also cut meals back from three a day to two a day - but depending
on how the inmates feel about the vegetarian fare, that might not be seen as a negative.
And then he added insult to injury.
Unlike most prisons in the United States, inmates in Arpaio’s Maricopa County jails
didn’t get a free ride on food - everything cost money, including their meals.
A serving of the standard mess hall food would cost 56 cents, and would be taken out of whatever
cash the inmates had on them before they were arrested. It was all a step too far for many
advocates of criminal justice reform - and they eventually got their wish. Arpaio was charged
with criminal contempt of court for violating people’s civil rights in immigration round-ups,
and while he was eventually pardoned by Donald Trump, he was finally defeated for
re-election in 2016 and the era of bizarre rules in Maricopa County came to an end.
But it wouldn’t come to an end in a lot of other places.
Around the United States, many prisons have rules that some might call cruel and
unusual. One of the hardest parts of being locked up is the isolation - being kept away
from friends and family for months or even years at a time. Visiting hours are often limited,
and there are strict rules for anyone who comes to see a prisoner. They’re
either kept behind glass, forced to talk to each other over a telephone feet apart,
or if they’re in a lower-security prison they may be able to sit at a table and talk - but
there will usually be no touching, even so much as a quick holding of hands.
And it’s not any easier when it comes to long-distance communication.
How do you make a cell feel a little more like home? Many prisoners choose to decorate their
cells with photographs from home. Some bring it with them in their personal effects, and others
have photos mailed to them from home. Yet, prisons often choose to limit how many photos prisoners
can have in their cells - in Ohio, the limit is a respectable hundred per cell. But in Arkansas,
they can only have five at a time. The officials also search all mail to make sure photos aren’t
being smuggled in. The reason? According to prison officials, photographs can be a fire hazard.
And even letters can be a problem.
In many states, you can’t even send mail directly to prisoners. All mail has to be
sent to an approved mail sorting facility to scan the mail for any sort of contraband - or
even inappropriate messages that could give them information they shouldn’t have. The problem is,
those mail-sorting companies have to apply for the position with the state, and be carefully
vetted - which means they have to go through an extensive wait period, which can cause equally
massive delays for the mail. In Pennsylvania, there is no approved vendor - which means prison
mail has to go to the state’s contracted partner in Florida, get sorted, and make its way all the
way back to the Keystone state - at which point the prisoner might be up for parole already!
And say goodbye to other little pleasures as well.
In prison, recreation options are limited. Any TV has to be shared with the other inmates, so
recreation time is often a little more old-school. But why would any prison choose to ban…board
games? Surprisingly, many US prisons have in the last few years - and it doesn’t have anything to
do with a riot over a game of Monopoly. No, the culprit is the guest no one wants to come to the
party - Covid-19. The fast-spreading virus was seen as a risk when it comes to people handling
the same dice and tokens. Now that it's known the virus spreads primarily through the air,
this would seem to be less of a risk - but no word on the return of Candy Land any time soon.
This next rule might make more sense - but it could also backfire.
Being in prison is stressful no matter what, but imagine being in prison while also trying to
quit smoking cold turkey. That was the position Pennsylvania inmates were put in during 2019,
as the state banned all tobacco products in their prisons. This not only included cigarettes,
which can spread second-hand smoke, but products like chewing tobacco as well.
This was good for the health of the inmates, of course - but it was happening in one of the most
challenging places to kick a habit. The state offered alternatives like nicotine patches,
but the odds are the detoxing inmates were more likely to get into fights while kicking the habit.
And even the library isn’t safe.
The prison library may be the biggest saving grace for many prisoners.
Not only is it a relatively safe haven - it’s a lot less dangerous to get clubbed in the head by
a book than a barbell in the weight room - but it’s a chance for inmates to better
themselves. Many even continue their education at the prison library, taking remote college classes.
Some have even used the access to computers to earn their law degree and advocate for other
prisoners after their release - or in rare cases, challenge their own conviction from behind bars!
So why are prison officials cracking down on the library?
Many states have laws restricting what prisoners can read in their custody, and the Supreme Court
ruled that if a book is deemed to be detrimental to the security or discipline of the institution,
it can be banned. Of course, some states take that further than others - banning tens of thousands
of books! Texas banned economics tutorial Freakonomics and the classic Dante’s Inferno.
But why did Arizona ban E=MC2: Simple Physics? Maybe they were afraid that prisoners would use
it to create explosive science experiments or learn the breaking point of the prison walls.
But some states take it even further.
How do prison libraries actually get stocked? They used to be stocked primarily by donations,
but increasingly states are only purchasing books from their libraries that come from
approved vendors - which means that the state is essentially deciding what
prisoners are allowed to read. A few years back, the Governor of New York tried to ban
all books that didn’t come from their approved list, and banned humanitarian
groups from sending donations. Even family members were banned from sending imprisoned
loved ones some reading material. The outcry was so big that the order was pulled quickly.
And every item a prisoner has is subject to the judgment of the officers.
Cells are subject to search at any moment with no warning - that isn’t a shock. After all,
prisoners largely give up the right to privacy when they’re locked up.
But what’s surprising is just how many things can get classified as contraband.
There is a general rule against altering any item in a prisoner’s possession. On some items,
like electronics, it makes sense for security reasons. A small thing could become a weapon or
escape tool if altered. But this even applies to things like decorating an item in your cell
to pass the time. And most of the time, once an item is confiscated, the inmate is never
seeing it again. The same goes for when an inmate leaves prison - it’s generally impossible to give
an item to another inmate before leaving, and so many important items just wind up in the trash.
And even the prisoners’ bodies aren’t fully their own.
There are certain situations where people give up the right to bodily autonomy to
a degree - like in the military, where there are strict rules on what kind of
hairstyle soldiers can have and what they can wear. Of course, in prison,
your clothing is usually strictly determined - but in many prisons, there are similar hair
and facial hair restrictions to the military. This has caused no small amount of controversy,
as some religions require people to keep a beard or certain parts of their facial hair intact.
Most states do allow religious exemptions - but it won’t be easy to get one.
And then there’s the regulation of that most personal of affairs.
Prisons don’t really look kindly on relationships within their walls. Prisons are usually
sex-segregated, and fraternizing between inmates and guards is strictly forbidden - especially
after several high-profile cases where guards or prison workers were convinced to aid in escapes.
But relationships between two prisoners are usually banned as well. Ostensibly, this is
because a breakup behind bars could get violent very quickly, and the prison wants to minimize
risks. But that often leaves inmates sexually frustrated - which makes it all the more shocking
that many prisons have a ban on masurbation! Maybe that one was on behalf of the laundry team.
But some US prison rules are even more intense.
Most prisoners are in medium-security or standard maximum-security prisons. They face
average restrictions, including a general lack of privacy and the risk of punitive segregation
if they step out of line. But for high-profile federal inmates like drug kingpins, terrorists,
and serial killers - or those inmates who keep killing people behind bars - there’s
Supermax prison awaiting them. And if they thought other prisons were strict,
they haven’t seen anything yet. Supermax prisons are designed to be long-term prisons - if you
go in, you’re probably not coming out - and have some of the best security in the world.
And that means that Supermax prisoners face the most extreme rules in the country.
In most prisons, solitary confinement is a punishment - often called “The Hole”. When you
cross the line, you’re tossed in a cell and left there for at least twenty-three hours a day with
few opportunities for activities or interaction. But in Supermax, that’s the standard status quo.
Prisoners largely spend their entire day in their cell - which is heavily guarded - and are only let
out for an hour of supervised recreation in what often looks like an outdoor cage with little to do
but walk around. This is partially for the safety of everyone involved, but the authorities also
assume that anyone who is in a Supermax prison probably did something to deserve it. Few of the
activities or amenities in your average prison are allowed for these inmates, although they can
get limited literature or correspondence passed through the door of their cells.
But these crazy rules are nothing compared to what the rest of the world has waiting.
Usually, when prisoners work out during recreation time, they’re lifting weights or jogging. But in
the Philippines Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines, the
warden has a very different idea of workout time - and it looks a lot more like a
dance party! The prison, overseen by the progressive Warden Byron Garcia,
has large groups of inmates participate in choreographed dance routines to popular
dance songs. Like most things in prison, participation is mandatory - but the viral
footage of the prisoners dancing away didn’t look like anyone was objecting.
And surprisingly, not all prison rules are bad.
Having company in prison is a rare thing - but even rarer is having a roommate who hasn’t been
sentenced there for a crime. In Aranjuez Prison, low-risk inmates with families have a unique
opportunity. If they have young children, they can live with their parent in prison in well-furnished
family cells that allow the inmate to gain parenting skills under careful supervision.
The inmate is less likely to repeat their crimes if they have a good relationship with their child,
and this continues until the child turns three - around the time they
would start asking questions, like “Daddy, what’s a shiv?”.
But no prison has a more unusual work study program than this next one.
Prison jobs are usually basic stuff - peeling potatoes in the mess hall,
doing laundry, or working on factory products on work release. “Gourmet chef” isn’t part of
that description - except in Fortezza Medicea prison in Italy, where the prison is attached
to a high-end restaurant and staffed entirely by prisoners! And this isn’t a minimum-security
prison - everyone at the high-security prison is serving at least seven years. Despite this,
the restaurant has gained a reputation as one of the best in Italy - but to get there, you’ll
have to undergo a security and background check before you can hobnob with the culinary cons.
It might not be as pretty, but this next prison has a unique method for solving conflicts.
Cereso Chetumal Prison in Mexico is one of the country’s better prisons,
with a reputation as the safest jail in the country and the one with the most amenities.
Prisoners can even sell their crafts to the public through an art program.
But the prison’s most notable for not having any violence for at least ten years - at least,
nonconsensual violence. When the prisoners want to fight, they’re taken to the boxing ring,
given gloves and instructed on the rules, and let loose on each other! They pummel each other
safely, work out their frustrations, and get back to business - and surprisingly,
it’s worked like a charm. Maybe this is a solution for dealing with the office lunch thief.
And speaking of the office…
If you passed through Justizzentrum Leoben in Austria, you might think it was a corporate
office. The only difference is, that its workers don’t go home at the end of the day.
It’s actually a minimum-security prison, and its modus operandi is to give low-risk inmates
as smooth a transition from prison life back to normal life as possible. As such,
they wear their own clothes, spend most of their time in common areas, and even
cook their own food. It resembles a low-security rehabilitation facility more than anything - and
the country hopes it’ll reduce wwhen these convicts finally go home from the office.
And one prison tries to not just do right by its inmates - but by the world
At Bastoey Island Low Security Prison in Norway, the inmates are part of a bigger plan - reducing
the facility’s carbon footprint. This isn’t always fun - prison jobs include working on an
all-natural compost project. Mmmm, just smell that environmental sustainability. The prison
also gets all its power from solar panels, but if you’re envisioning a dreary green commune,
think again - the prison allows its inmates to go horseback riding and swimming, leading
many people to describe it as more like an island summer camp you can’t leave for a couple of years.
And from the most comfortable prisons out there, to the least..,
Today, the Squirrel Cage Jail in Iowa is a tourist attraction, but the local lockup in Council Bluffs
was once one of the tightest lockups imaginable - a rotary jail, where only one jailer could keep
track of a whole group of inmates. That’s because the inmates were kept in tiny,
pie-shaped cells in a large contraption that rotated in a large cylinder-like cage.
The jailer controlled the turning of the prison, and only one cell could be accessed at a time.
This also meant that if an inmate was trying to escape and the jail moved at the wrong time,
their arm could get caught in the moving contraption and get ripped right off. It’s
a popular historical curiosity - but maybe not the most sensible way to keep inmates contained.
But at least they’re better off than in this next place.
Aw, look at that friendly dolphin! What kind of place called Black Dolphin Prison could be
that scary? But the rules at this Southern Russian prison are not to be taken lightly - the place was
originally designed for those serving a life sentence at hard labor, and today it houses
the worst of the worst Russian criminals. Much like in Supermax, these prisoners spend almost
twenty-three hours a day in their cells and are only briefly let out to exercise in a cage - but
that’s only the beginning. The prisoners are not allowed to sit on their bunks during the day
and are required to stand at attention. They must respond with “Yes, Sir” every time they are given
an order, they’re only fed soup, and the security doesn’t even decrease when they’re out of their
cells. They’re blindfolded when they arrive, and every time they’re taken from one building
to another, they’re bent over at the waist as their hands are held behind them. This keeps
them from gaining any momentum for an escape. It’s no surprise it’s the most feared prison in Russia.
And over in Thailand, things are almost as rough.
Thailand has many prisons, including those for short-term inmates. But for those who wind up at
Bang Kwang Prison in northern Bangkok, abandon all hope ye who enter here. This prison is for
the worst of the worst, including the death row inmates in this tough-on-crime nation. The
prison fears violence so much that for the first three months of their stay, all the inmates wear
shackles around the clock. That’ll put a crimp in any escape plans. But for those on death row,
who are never expected to leave, the prison cuts out the middleman - and simply welds
the irons on their legs shut! While most of the inmates are locals convicted of murder or other
serious crimes, it’s also a common place to find foreign inmates who made the mistake of
trying to smuggle drugs out of the country - and likely wound up with a very harsh culture shock.
But what about a prison with no rules at all?
Welcome to the prison with the strangest rules in the world - San Pedro Prison in La Paz,
Bolivia. With a population of three thousand inmates,
many of them dangerous, the culture shock begins as soon as you check into the prison,
because it doesn’t feel like a lockup - it feels more like a miniature city. With large open areas,
you’ll find a soccer pitch, a hospital, churches, and even a hotel for visitors.
As you walk along the street, the inmates are selling goods including games and food - much
of which includes goods that you wouldn’t expect them to be allowed to have in prison.
Because at San Pedro Prison, the inmates are running the show.
There are guards at this prison, but they’re not responsible for keeping order or enforcing rules.
Rather, they have exactly one role - keeping the prisoners inside. Prisons like San Pedro
are often nicknamed “Warehouses” because the judicial system just drops the prisoners off
and doesn’t particularly care what happens to them after that. So the prisoners have a lot
more autonomy - but the prison can also quickly descend into complete disrepair as the strongest,
nastiest inmates turn the place into their own private empire.
And that’s exactly what happened at San Pedro.
The most powerful inmates at San Pedro live like kings, primarily off selling stuff to outsiders
who come to visit. San Pedro isn’t just a prison - it’s a major tourist destination in the city,
but those who come there aren’t just looking to rubberneck. Many come to
buy cocaine in a place where the sale of it is far more open than anywhere else.
Inside, the prison has its own elected legislature, and they set the policies
for the society. It’s even common for the wives of imprisoned men to choose
to live there full time - usually under the protection of powerful people in the prison.
But for those who come in, there will be one big surprise.
To stay at San Pedro Prison, you’ve got to pay your way. Unlike just about every other prison
in the world, you’re not guaranteed three hots and a cot. You’re not even guaranteed a cell - unless
you can pay for it. Most inmates start out by working at the market stalls and making a pittance
that allows them to buy a share of a small cell with roommates. However, for those who work their
way up - or bring a lot of money in, they can purchase large suites with private bathrooms and
kitchens. Some of the top rooms even have cable TV or internet access. Which means many of the
prisoners are likely keeping the same businesses that got them locked up going on the outside.
And as long as they keep it to themselves and don’t try to escape,
the guards are just fine with it.
Want to learn more about one of the most brutal and bizarre prisons in the world?
Check out “Why You Wouldn’t Survive Supermax Prison”, or watch this video instead.