10 Terrifying Prisons Turned Tourist Attractions (PHOTOS)

We've all seen "Escape from Alcatraz," "Shawshank Redemption" and "The Count of Monte Cristo," and romanticized about the heroic prison break. Yet real-life prisons like Alcatraz and Chateau d'If have incredibly dark, frightening histories, which are also important to acknowledge and remember.

Here is the Huffington Post's list of 10 of the most notorious prisons in the world that have now turned into museums and tourist attractions (The Bastille in France is conspicuously absent because nothing of the original building remains).

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Alcatraz, California

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Perhaps the most famous prison in the United States, Alcatraz was the first maximum security-minimum privilege prison in the country. It has housed some of the most notorious criminals of the mid-20th century, including Al Capone, Robert "Birdman" Stroud, and "Machine Gun" Kelly. Located on a rocky island surrounded by the freezing water of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was believed to be inescapable. Of the 36 men that attempted escape, 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed, and 2 drowned. The remaining 5 were never seen again. Today, Alcatraz Island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and is open to tours.

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Perhaps the most famous prison in the United States, Alcatraz was the first maximum security-minimum privilege prison in the country. It has housed some of the most notorious criminals of the mid-20th century, including Al Capone, Robert "Birdman" Stroud, and "Machine Gun" Kelly. Located on a rocky island surrounded by the freezing water of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was believed to be inescapable. Of the 36 men that attempted escape, 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed, and 2 drowned. The remaining 5 were never seen again.

Today, Alcatraz Island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and is open to tours.

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Prison

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

So-so. Spooky!

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Comments

[sheoples]

05:01 PM on 10/21/2010

Frontline did a piece on capital punishment..........

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/death-by-fire/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid

What I got out of this is the impression that people who have an axe to grind will and can use trials to shanghai people onto death row with help of prosecutors who are all too willing to oblige even at the expense of real facts.

38 states in America STILL have CP on the books. It's high time that sanity take over and end this insanity. CP not only doesn't make sense in terms of cost but it doesn't make sense ethically as a culture. The only aspect of it that does work is it gets politicians elected.

Frontline has done an excellent job of highlighting the immorality of capital punishment. It's less a punishment as it is a tool of vengeance by those affected by crime. But as Gandhi said an eye for an eye will leave the world blind. The cliche two wrongs don't make a right.

CP needs to be stopped. First step is the educate the masses about the facts rather than impressions left in their mind by politicians and law enforcement organizations about the need for CP.

[bkochandco]

03:53 PM on 10/21/2010

It's only spooky when the fog is in. I have been on the island on warm, sunny days and it's a great place. I would live there if there was fresh water available.

[NonSequiturArtista]

03:47 PM on 10/21/2010

Hotel Hanoi is where John McCain spilled the beans to his Commie captors.

[backside9]

03:46 PM on 10/21/2010

We couldn't find anyone to give us a tour of San Pedro prison while we were in Bolivia but ran into a couple of people that did get an in. It use to be easier back in the day. Getting a tour of a maximum security prison in Bolivia sounded awesome. Very stranger prison. Its right in the middle of the city across from a park area and we almost didn't notice it.

"San Pedro prison or El penal de San Pedro is the largest prison in La Paz, Bolivia renowned for being a society within itself. Significantly different from most correctional facilities, inmates at San Pedro have jobs inside the community, pay or rent their accommodation, and often live with their families. The sale of cocaine base to visiting tourists gives those inside a significant income and an unusual amount of freedom within the prison walls. Elected leaders enforce the laws of the community, with stabbings being commonplace. The prison is home to approximately 1,500 inmates, with additional guests staying in the prison hotel.[1][2]

The book Marching Powder, written by Rusty Young and published in 2003, describes the experiences of the British inmate Thomas McFadden who became known for offering prison tours to tourists."

[ljmck]

03:24 PM on 10/21/2010

Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, Ireland, a foreboding and infamous jail, is now a museum. Some of its more well known prisoners:


* Robert Emmet ("Let No Man Write My Epitaph") was taken from there and executed in 1803.

* In the famine years of 1845-50, Kilmainham incarcerated men, women, and children for the terrible offense of begging and stealing food.

* Thomas Francis Meagher, held there following the Young Irelanders rebellion in 1848, was transported to Tasmania, escaped to the U.S., led the Irish Brigade in the U.S. Civil War, and was later governor of Montana.

* The Fenians of 1867 were held there.

* Charles Stewart Parnell, a leader of the Land League and a Member of (the British) Parliament, was imprisoned there.

* Following the 1916 rebellion, fourteen men were executed by firing squads in the Stonebreakers Yard at Kilmainham Gaol, including Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, and James Conolly.

* Ireland's long time Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, was held at Kilmainham Gaol.

Still standing and open for business (tourist, not prison), the building is one of the more moving exhibits in Dublin.

[LaPlacaRifa48619]

03:24 PM on 10/21/2010

Here's a few prisons that are currently in use, but once closed will join the ranks of their bretheren:

01) San Quentin State Prison, California (the next-to-most-dreaded prison in the Golden State, home to California's "Condemned Row")
02) Folsom State Prison, California (Johnny Cash gave a concert here in the early 1970's)
03) Marion Federal Penitentiary, Illinois (The "Alcatraz Of The Heartland.")
04) Walpole State Prison, Massachusets ( The "Hellhole Of New England")
05) Sing-Sing Correctional Facility, New York (The most famous of New York State's "Big Three," the others being Auburn Prison and Greenhaven)
06) Lefortovo Prison, Moscow (where the KGB held it's prisoners, and carried out it's tortures and executions)
07) Fresnes Prison, Fresnes, France (major holding center for French Resistance and Allied POWs).
08) Strangeways Prison, London (In 1965, this is where the last hanging on UK soil was carried out)
09) La Mesa State Prison, Tijuana, Mexico (Considered the worst in the Mexican Penal System)
10) Parchman State Prison, Parchman, MIsissippi (One of the last of the Southeastern "Plantation System" prison farms left in the United States)

--RKJ

[lightist]

03:11 PM on 10/21/2010

"Imagine"

[duuwanye]

01:50 PM on 10/21/2010

ahhhhh Auschwitz

[MNTom]

01:23 PM on 10/21/2010

I would love to plan a "Haunted House" of some sort at one of these site. It would be a great place to have one.

[William Branan]

01:20 PM on 10/21/2010

I'd add Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, mostly because of its original philosophy of keeping prisoners isolated to allow for contemplation. Apparently, many went insane.

[VegetableMan]

05:06 PM on 10/21/2010

been there. al capone's cell is a trip!

[choo-chew]

01:20 PM on 10/21/2010

Good stuff. Another good one is the Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio. They have Halloween tours this time of year. Parts of the Shawshank Redemption were filmed there. The prison closed in 1990 and had what is still the largest free standing steel cell block in the world at six tiers high.

[DaveyRocket]

01:04 PM on 10/21/2010

Um, you forgot Kilmainham jail in Dublin, Ireland...

[bmxking28]

02:46 PM on 10/21/2010

Quite possibly the best tour in all of Ireland, omitting it is a shame

[WA1223]

01:01 PM on 10/21/2010

Kilmainham Jail in Dublin chilled me to the bone. It has been used in lots of movies, very effectively.

[DJlaysitup]

12:54 PM on 10/21/2010

Not a prison per se...but the "Old Slave House" in Southern Illinois is a sad and frightening place. It's a little north of Cairo (the southenpost part of a free state during slavery). It's supposed to be seriously haunted and I don't doubt it one bit. We saw the attic cells on a class field trip with the markings/writings dug into the wooded walls still there (some likely by fingernails). Gives one the chills.

What would happen pre-civil war was, many runaways would work their way towards the north enduring all sorts of hardships. Most were caught before reaching Illinois soil. Of the ones that made it, many were illiegally caught (kidnapped) and chained up in the attic cells of the house while the proprietor negotiated rewards with their owners down south. If they couldn't reach a deal, they just smuggled them to a slave state and resold them. Imagine going through all it took to reach freedom..the joy... only to be illegally captured and returned to bondage. Many committed suicide by any means they could.

The place is still there...google it.

[dwill123]

12:42 PM on 10/21/2010

What no Siberian Gulags