Top 10 Most Secure Prisons In The World

The most notorious and violent offenders need a secure prison where they cannot continue these violent offenses or in a place, they cannot escape. Such offenders include:

• Drug lords.
• Cartels.
• Sex offenders.
• Terrorists.
• Serial killers
• Those who manage to escape from the prisons.

Facilities that hold such individuals must have very high security. Ideally, these facilities have a particular way of dealing with such individuals. This kind of jails guarantees that the most dangerous offenders can no longer be a threat to the state or community. Authorities guarantee that they do not represent a danger to security or peace and order by keeping them inside.

Below are the top ten facilities that have had and still can assure society of no harm from these categories of offenders once they are inside the facility.

1. ADX Florence, United States

The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility is in Florence, Colorado. Shockingly, it is America’s only federal supermax facility.

Hence that makes it the most secure prison in the United States of America.

Initially, the purpose of this facility was to hold criminals who the United States Courts consider dangerous. Additionally, the facility was to hold high-profile criminals with violent conduct for ordinary imprisonment. Moreover, 95 percent of the inmates in this facility were due to transfers from other security facilities.

The facility detains inmates in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day; however, inmates can have a one-hour out in a large hall with arched ceilings for leisure. The windows in that hall are a four-by-four inch skylight view. The purpose of this design is to keep the inmates from knowing where they are. In addition to that, the guards fully supervise this one-hour leisure time. Inmates who conduct themselves properly to appease the management may receive more time on their one-hour leisure time. In addition to that, inmates may receive a transfer to a less secure facility.

The facility does not allow inmates to contact other inmates at any time or anywhere on the premises, especially for the new arrivals who have not been in the facility for at least three years.

The only cell furnishings are a desk, a stool, and a bed, made of ballast concrete. The toilets and showers have timers and are intended to shut off if they are clogged. Inmates have mirrors, lights, radios, and, in rare cases, TVs in rooms. Moreover, the management utilizes them as privileges depending on conduct and how the inmates use them.

The guards hand-deliver meals to each prisoner; there is no dining hall in the facility. The facility has motion detectors and cameras around the jail and 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, and 12-foot high barbed wire fences. Laser beams, pressure pads, and attack dogs patrol the region around the prison’s outer fences as an additional layer of protection.

The jail employs a sensory deprivation and isolation approach. Hence, they leave the Inmates alone with their thoughts, leading to hallucinations, memory loss, and irritability.

2. La Santé Prison, France

The French Prison Service of the Ministry of Justice operates La Santé Prison, situated at 42 Rue de la Santé in the Montparnasse neighborhood of the 14th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is one of France’s most notorious prisons, featuring VIP and high-security wings.

The prison features a hub-and-spoke design. The complexes have cell wings spreading in a semi or full circular array from a central tower, from which guards monitor the facility at all times. Peepholes let guards watch inmates without inmates noticing them, while rectangular apertures in the cell wall allow prisoners to deliver food and work supplies. To reduce the chances of prisoners communicating with one another, La Sante has a simple flush toilet for each cell with separate pipes going to a common sewer. Each cell has a single light source, which might include skylights or windows.

Despite its central position, the prison’s design and security methods are so basic and effective that escaping is impossible. The management only allows a four-hour a day to inmates. However, those with prison jobs work from their cells. Following the prison’s renovations, the facility is currently one of the most secure prisons in France and globally. The facility is a nightmare for anyone with an escape plan, a high-security unit, and all-sealed doors and tunnels. There have been three escapes since its opening in 1867.

• One individual in 1927, after obtaining a fake order of release.
• Another was murdered while attempting to escape in 1978.
• Michael Vaujour in 1986, through the rooftop helicopter, with the assistance of his wife, Nadine.

3. Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, United States

The Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) in Lancaster, Massachusetts, is a maximum-security prison. The SBCC is yet to a single break-in since its establishment in 1998, earning it the distinction of the world’s most technologically advanced and secure prison.

Despite the facility having fully armored security guards, the whole operations are under the watchful eye of a robotic overlord. Moreover, two graphic interface computer terminals control everything in the facility, from doors, vehicle gates, public speaker system, and water.

Additionally, the facility has a perimeter of 370 HD cameras, under watch 24 hours a day. Also, the facility has a taut wire ad a microwave detection system on the perimeter wall.

A firm concrete and tool-resistant steel make almost every part of the facility. This is to prevent those inmates who want to escape the old fashion way.

4. Qincheng Jail, Beijing, China

Qincheng Jail is a maximum-security prison in Xiaotangshan in the Changping District of Beijing, the People’s Republic of China. The jail has four three-story brick structures with slanted roofs. For exercise, the space in front of each building is enclosed with brick walls, creating a separate yard. A wall in the center of each exercise yard divides it into two parts, with a guard patrolling and watching both areas. Each level of the structure is split into many halls with a wall on each side. In addition, the security guards lock them with a padlock. Each cell is about 20 square meters in size 220 sq. ft.

Each cell’s wooden door has two iron plates between them. The cell has two peepholes: one below the toilet and the other above it. A rectangular window for delivering food is located around a foot above the ground. Each cell has just a bed that is about a foot above the ground. The designer smoothens every sharp edge within the cell has been for safety and security reasons. There are also special suicide watch cells with rubber walls so that inmates can’t commit suicide by rushing into them.

Each low-ranking inmate cell has a window about one square meter in size, two meters above the ground with three layers: a screen, an iron fence, and white-painted glass. The windowsill is inclined upward, and the window opens upward toward the outside. Nonetheless, the inmates are unable to open the window. There are two windows in the cells for high-ranking inmates, but the topmost layer is sandblasted glass rather than white glass. The 3.5-meter-high (11-foot) ceiling has a 15-watt light bulb with sandblasted glass covered by iron mesh, and guards regulate the dull light through a switch outside.

5. Fuchu Prison, Japan

Fuchu Prison is one of Japan’s biggest prisons, with about 2,000 prisoners. It is located in Fuchu, western Tokyo. This facility houses almost all male foreigners serving sentences in Japan, with 300 to 500 people. This prison is 22.6 hectares in size with a 1.8 kilometer long and 5.5-meter high wall.

The jail is built with long, low-rise barracks that are entirely concealed by the wall. Even getting a glimpse of the prison’s representative entrance building is impossible because it is behind apartment blocks for prison staff and thus out of bounds.

In this jail, prisoners must adhere to a rigid schedule. The management plans every minute of the inmates. They must seek approval for every personal necessity. They must, for example, ask the guard in charge for permission to use the restroom during working hours.

There is no lingering in the courtyard during off-hours, and some minor offenses may lead to the guards denying the inmates permission to watch. The facility even has a way in which inmates have to move around the corridors of the facility. On the other hand, the rigorous administration in this prison prevents the formation of prison gangs. Inmate violence is almost non-existent, as is guard violence.

6. North Branch Correctional Institution, United States

The North Branch Correctional Institution (NBCI) is a high-tech, maximum-security prison in Maryland, with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services operating it. NBCI is one of the modern security facilities in the world with modern security technology.

Its inverted fortress design prevents inmates from illegally getting out or individuals illegally getting in. It has a master control tower in the middle of the complex, where two policemen manage and monitor the movements happening around the housing units. Moreover, the glass of the tower is bullet-proof.

Each cell made of slightly above 60 feet ensures that it removes any potential for prisoners to hide contraband via holes in the structure. The windows and doors are of Ballistic-resistant glass. Hence, it improves the visibility of the guards. Correctional officers and prisoners may communicate via micro-perforations in the doors. The cell doors also have small apertures that open to provide food to inmates. Also, to shackle prisoners before they depart.

The bed of the facility has its bolts facing upwards directly to the concrete. This means that inmates cannot unscrew the bolts. The design includes stainless steel toilets and sinks instead of porcelain to prevent prisoners from using porcelain shards as weapons. The walls of each cell are high-quality epoxy-coated. In addition, around the perimeter, there are fifteen miles of spiral razor wire and motion sensors, as well as regular patrols and fence inspections.

7. Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh, United Kingdom

Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh is a Category-A men’s prison in Thamesmead, south-east London, England. Her Majesty’s Prison Service runs it. This facility has only existed since April 1991. It serves the Local, Central Criminal, and Magistrates Courts in South Eastern London and Crown and Magistrates’ Courts in South West Essex.

The facility has a High-Security Unit that houses up to 48 inmates, most in danger of escaping, terrorism, radicalizing other inmates, or continuing organized crime inside the jail. That also includes; KGB spies, al-Qaida militants.

The prisoners in this facility do not interact in any way with the general population of the facility. Hence, the management provides the inmates in this unit with their exercise yard and gym. Inmates live in single or double segregation cells.

8. Tadmor Military Prison, Syria

Tadmor Military Prison in Syria, built as a military barracks by the French Mandate troops in the early twentieth century, is regarded as one of the most challenging prisons to live in due to its heinous human rights abuses deplorable living circumstances. The facility is located in a desert 200 kilometers north of Damascus, Syria’s capital, in terms of breaking out. Furthermore, the only route in or out of jail is via a single tunnel down which you must crawl. Which is, of course, is heavily guarded by the Syrian Military.

Moreover, the facility uses Laser beams to guarantee that anyone who attempts to flee will be unsuccessful. In addition to that, Prisoners remain in thick chains once inside. Hence, even when you can escape the facility, you will eventually die in the wide-open empty Syrian Desert.

9. Camp Delta, United States

The Guantánamo Bay detention camp is a US military prison located on Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, inside the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. At any one moment, a single prisoner may be under the supervision of up to 12 guards. The complex also includes security towers with two always-present troops and a high surrounding wall with razor-sharp barbed wire. If you manage to get out of the prison center, you’ll walk straight into the military base.

The facility is constructed at the center of a military training base belonging to the US Government. Hence, inmates can never even think of an escape plan. The facility has had human violations and torture cases since the Military uses the facility to detain and interrogate individuals of high interest. That includes the terrorists, International Spies, and treason offenders.

10. India’s Arthur Road Jail

The Mumbai Central Jail, commonly known as Arthur Road Jail, is Mumbai’s biggest and oldest prison, established in 1926. It holds the majority of the city’s inmates. Apart from the deplorable jail conditions and blatant human rights violations, no prisoner has ever managed to escape, and no outsider has ever been able to get access. The two-acre jail was designed to be an impenetrable fortress.

The structure is constructed of concrete with steel frameworks. There are additional high-security barracks and cells. Those individuals awaiting conviction are put in barracks hence they cannot move freely, form groups, disrupt the law, or congregate in large groups.

Each barrack is a single- or multi-story building that serves as a separate unit inside the jail, with toilets, washing places, and sleeping available. The prison’s design is so that the fans are at the ceiling at a height that is out of reach of the inmates; hence, inmates cannot use them to commit suicide. Moreover, each barrack has its courtyard, which its inmates may use throughout the day.

While a typical barrack cell may hold up to 10 prisoners, specialized barracks such as Barrack 12 at feature chambers can only hold one person; for housing high-profile or particularly dangerous inmates, most of whom are facing terror accusations.