Inside the World's Toughest Prisons poster

TV series

Inside the World's Toughest Prisons

2016TV-MA7 seasons7.1 / 10

Crime journalist Raphael Rowe goes behind the bars of some of the world’s most notorious and toughest prisons. Immersing himself in maximum security facilities around the world to live as a prisoner, he encounters the inmates locked up for their crimes and meets the men and women on the right side of law tasked with keeping the criminals behind bars.

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Checked Jul 22, 2026

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Synopsis

Crime journalist Raphael Rowe goes behind the bars of some of the world’s most notorious and toughest prisons. Immersing himself in maximum security facilities around the world to live as a prisoner, he encounters the inmates locked up for their crimes and meets the men and women on the right side of law tasked with keeping the criminals behind bars.

Season 1 episodes

Watch options above are for the show and may vary by season or episode.

Episode 1

Honduras

Paul Connolly heads to Honduras, the murder capital of the world, to spend a week living as a prisoner inside one of the most dangerous prisons - Danli Prison.

Episode 2

Poland

Connolly serves time in Poland's Piotrkow prison, a maximun security lockup where the country's most hardened criminals stay in cells 23 hours a day.

Episode 3

Mexico

Mexico's el Hongo prison is home to murderers, hitmen, drug bossess and -- for one week -- Paul Connolly, who experiences life among the inmates.

Episode 4

Philippines

Connolly spends time in two different prisons in the Philippines, where overcrowding, gangs and severe intimidation are a way of life.

Episode information updated Jul 22, 2026