Beyond Bars

California Medical Facility is a male-only state prison medical facility located in the city of Vacaville in Solano County, California. It includes Level I ("Open dormitories without a secure perimeter") housing, Level II ("Open dormitories with secure perimeter fences and armed coverage") housing, Level III and IV ("Individual cells, fenced perimeters and armed coverage") housing. As of April 30, 2020, CMF was incarcerating people at 101.5% of its design capacity, with 2,396 occupants. Among many notable former inmates Charles Manson (in 1983-4 he made some recordings at CMF that were later released), Jim Gordon (drummer, member of Derek and the Dominos, who murdered his mother in 1983 and died at CMF in March 2023) and Timothy Leary (psychologist and LSD enthusiast who served time at CMF in 1973–1974 "for possession of marijuana and escape from a minimum-security prison at San Luis Obispo).

38.329°N 121.980°W (photos from Apple maps)

Founded in 1961 on the former 501st Gulag site, FKU IK-3 is located in Kharp, Russia, which looks like a town made of prisons (top): it's also the location of FKU IK-18 "Polar Owl". FKU IK-3 (middle) currently hosts the russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Kharp is located about 25 km north of the Artic Cirlcle and 3.067 Km from Moscow (bottom).

66°49′07″N 65°47′44″E

HM Prison Low Newton (top) is a closed prison for female adults and young offenders in Brasside, County Durham, England. Low Newton is also home to the 'Primrose Project', designed to treat women with 'Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorders', the only women's prison in the United Kingdom with such a unit. The prison is next to HMP Frankland, the Category A adult male prison (bottom). It is currently housing Lucy Letby, serial killer of infants while working as a neonatal nurse (source: Wikipedia)

54°48′17.8″N 1°33′21.09″W

Low Newton on Wikipedia

There has been a prison on this site since 1911, although the present center was opened in 1967. The two round structures (bottom picture) are individual yards.

Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Prison, it was the site of the first execution by electric chair in 1890 and the namesake of the "Auburn system," a correctional system in which prisoners were housed in solitary confinement in large rectangular buildings, and performed penal labor under silence that was enforced at all times. The prison, located at 135 State Street Auburn, New York, was renamed in 1970 and is among the oldest functional prisons in the United States.

(Photo: Google Earth)

Ognenny Ostrov ("Fire Island") is a small lake island in the central Russian Vologda region. A Russian Orthodox monastery since 1517, it was converted into a jail after the 1917 Revolution. Today it hosts a high security prison ("Correctional colony No. 5") for prisoners serving life sentences and those formerly sentenced to death (following the 1996 moratorium on the death penalty in Russia). The facility, located approximately 460 km from Moscow, holds 193 inmates (according to Wikipedia).

Al-Ha'ir Prison

Saudi Arabian maximum-security prison located approximately 25 miles south of Riyadh. It is the largest prison complex in Saudi Arabia and houses both men and women. Reportedly, a number of members of al-Qaeda are held in this facility. According to the Washington Post "the al-Hair high-security prison looks remarkably like a hotel". Images from Google Earth.

Wikipedia

Kumla

Sweden's biggest prison. The alien looking building at top (with triple walls) should be the Maximum Security section . The "super bunker" opened in 2009, "has been designed to house the most dangerous criminals in the country and those considered most likely to attempt an escape. Among the inmates already placed in the facility are members of organized crime gangs Bandidos and FFL (Fucked for Life)". (source The Local.se, photos Google Earth)

Wikipedia

The Goulburn Correctional Centre, (also known as The Circle, top) is an Australian supermaximum security prison for males. The facility was opened on July 1st 1884. In 2001 a High-Risk Management Correctional Centre was added (middle). The structure incorporates a massive hand-carved sandstone gate and façade based on designs by the colonial architect James Barnet (bottom, picture by Matilda from Wikimedia Commons). The complex is listed on the Register of the National Estate and the New South Wales State Heritage Register as a site of State significance.

Wikipedia

Located in one of the most remote parts of Italy, the maximum security Casa Circondariale di Sassari Giovanni Bacchiddu (top) is one of the harshest prisons in the EU. Among other notable inmates (organized crime heads, foreign and domestic terrorists) is anarchist militant Alfredo Cospito, who is on the 100th day of hunger strike protesting prison conditions. He is subject to the 41 bis regime, known in Italy as Carcere Duro, hard prison (the European Court of Human Rights has criticized 41 bis). Due to its location on the island of Sardinia (bottom) it's practically impossible for families to visit inmates. Moreover, "visits are allowed only once per month and visitors can only communicate by intercom through thick glass".

Alfredo Cospito 41 bis prison regime

The Casa circondariale dell'Aquila, also known as carcere delle Costarelle, is perhaps the highest security prison in Italy. The jail, which has less than 200 inmates (male and female), is among those where the controversial 41-bis regimen is enforced:

The system was essentially intended to cut inmates off completely from their original milieu. Measures normally include bans on:

all personal belongings including photos;

the use of the telephone;

all association or correspondence with other prisoners;

meetings with third parties;

receiving or sending sums of money over a set amount;

receiving parcels (other than those containing linen) from the outside;

organizing cultural, recreational or sporting activities;

voting or standing in elections for prisoner representatives;

taking part in arts-and-crafts activities, etc.

as well as restrictions on visits from members of the family (once per month, visitors are only allowed to communicate by intercom through thick glass).

Among many notable inmates is Matteo Messina Denaro, a 30 year fugitive mafia boss caught yesterday.

42°21′50.9″N 13°17′31.93″E

The Twin Towers Correctional Facility is a 1.5 million square foot (140,000 m) complex in Los Angeles, California, operated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The facility consists of two towers, a medical services building, and the Los Angeles County Medical Center Jail Ward. Security at the facility centers on a panoptic design that allows deputies and officers in a central control room to look through secure optical devices to see into all areas of the facility.

34.05905932°N 118.23157174°W

The Otay Mesa site (top), located south of San Diego (CA) and about 2.4 km north of the US-Mexican border, is home to six different correctional facilities (second pic to bottom):

1: East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility 2: George F Bailey Detention Facility 3: East Mesa Adult Detention Center 4: Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility 5: Richard J Donovan Correction Facility: Menkes Alan DO 6: Federal San Diego Correctional Facility, aka Otay Mesa Detention Center (privately operated by the Corrections Corporation of America).

32.5846°N 116.9334°W

Gohardasht Prison (Persian: زندان گوهردشت), also known as Rajai Shahr is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km (12 miles) west of Tehran. Rajai Shahr is regarded as one of Iran's harshest prisons because of its many reported cases of torture, rape and murder. Many of the recent executions of young protesters were carried out in this facility. The BBC reported yesterday that "Dozens of people demonstrated outside Rajai Shahr jail overnight amid reports authorities were preparing to execute another two anti-government protesters."

35.8681°N 50.9789°E

As of 2017, Cook County operated the third-largest jail system in the United States by inmate population after Los Angeles and New York City. Located on 96 acres (39 hectares) in South Lawndale, Chicago (top left), this prison complex has 7 active and 3 inactive divisions. Division XI (top right and bottom), opened in 1995 is, according to the Cook County Sheriff's website, "a state of the art 640,000 square foot, medium-security facility. Consisting of central core surrounded by four housing PODS, Division XI can house 1,536 male individuals in custody of all security level classifications. All activity is controlled and monitored by a touch screen security system."

41.8390°N 87.6930°W

Auckland Prison, also known as Paremoremo Prison, is a prison facility consisting of medium security and maximum security compounds (top) in Paremoremo, Auckland, New Zealand. The two compounds are separate but located close together in a rural area (middle). Within the maximum security prison, the section formerly called 'D Block' (probably bottom left) has a harsh reputation. Conditions are very restrictive and there are around three prison officers per inmate. The facility also includes the medium-security Auckland West division, a minimum security work and pre-release unit called Te Mahinga and a 60-bed special treatment unit for child sex offenders, called Te Piriti. These units should be the three almost identical square buildings within the compound (bottom right). If you look closely you can see two persons playing tennis. Screenshots taken from Apple Maps and Google Earth.

36°45′29″S 174°38′41″E

Johannesburg Prison, also known as Sun City Jail, in Sun City, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. The four modules are identical in design but different in size. Photo Apple maps.