The UNILAD Team
As crime documentaries continue to dominate Netflix, viewers have been astounded by one prison in particular.
Appearing on Inside the World's Toughest Prisons, the streaming service has delved into life behind bars, sending Raphael Rowe inside the dangerous cells and revealing why some prisons are the most brutal places on Earth.
Tacumbu prison in Paraguay is perhaps the most notorious example of this. Rowe spent a week inside the prison, and revealed the alarming aspects of life for the inmates locked in there.
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In Tacumbu prison, on average there's a death every two weeks. In 2019 alone, at least 18 inmates died while incarcerated.
Gang violence is said to be rife within the Paraguay prison, and more than half of those who die do so in fights, while the rest die from natural causes.
Former director of Tacumbu prison, Jorge Fernández, told InSight Crime suggested loyalty was key among prisoners, too, as 'the prisoners remain quiet, they never say who was to blame or that it was a fight'.
Fernández also spoke about the drug problems inside the prison, saying: “We have found marijuana, cocaine and crack. Controls are currently being stepped up, but we don’t have the necessary infrastructure to confront the whole situation.
“We now have a new administration that is looking at a way to obtain the necessary technology to detect drugs."
Fernández said the prison allows four weekly visits, "On a Tuesday or Thursday, 850-900 people enter but that climbs up to 2,000 on Saturday or Sunday. So [with inmates plus visitors], there are between 6,000 and 7,000 people here on weekends."
Elsewhere inside the prison stands a shrine called The Virgin of Mercy, which honours the guards who have lost their lives while working at Tacumbu.
One guard spoke about colleagues who were killed in a riot, while another was killed in an ambush during an escape attempt, and another died in a fire started by prisoners during a riot.
In 2011, for example, 120 inmates rioted inside the prison and took two guards hostage. In 2020, nine inmates carried out a hunger strike and sewed their mouth shuts in protest of the prison’s squalid conditions.
Meanwhile, prisoners are said to rummage through bins to find plastic bottles to sell in an effort to make some cash.
Journalist Rowe told The Express: "When I walked through Tacumbú penitentiary in Paraguay, I could not believe my eyes.
“I’ve seen inside many prisons and have witnessed all kinds of conditions but I had never seen anything like this.
"But in Tacumbú, the authorities don’t run it, the prisoners do."
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