What Daily Life Is Like Inside Latin America's Toughest Prison (17 pics)
- Category: Pics |
- 30 Nov, 2015 |
- Views: 7978 |
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La Modelo is the most notorious prison in Nicaragua and also the most brutal in Latin America. Trying to survive a day in here is truly like trying to survive a day in hell.
Brutal life: Boxing matches on the wings are a way of passing the time - and also entertainment for all the inmates
Drugs: What appears to be marijuana is bagged up by prisoners. The drugs trade is the backdrop to their incarceration
Ingenious: Drugs smugglers go to great lengths to get the prisoners their fixes, hollowing out a banana and using the soles of shes
Sweltering: The inmates spend their days in the un-air conditioned wings, where they sit in their different gang affiliations. The crowds have gathered to watch television
Break from the boredom: Prisoners gather round a television for some entertainment
Highs and lows: On the left, a prisoner left brutalized and wounded in a beating. But they also find ways to relax, with one man (right) making a reptile his pet
Squalid: All life is on the wings, including drying the washing. Washing is done using water from the same hole in the floor which acts as a toilet
Gang affiliation: Gang signs and tattoos are used to delineate which group men are members of
Tedium: Each 15ft by 15ft cell is packed with eight men, who have to spend hour after hour banged up alongside each other
Recreation time: When they are let out of their cells, life takes place on the wings. Designed in the 1950s as - literally - a model prison, La Modelo has become a byword for violence
Audience: Prisoners gather to see a boxing match between two other inmates. Violence is part of everyday life
Visiting time - and an unexpected guest: Families wait outside to see the men, while inside the wings is a more surprising spectacle
Outside time: The hard-packed earth of the exercise yard offers some view of the outside world. The prison is close to the Nicaraguan capital
Friends: A group of men pose for the camera smuggled into prison to record conditions there
All is not as it seems: A 'cake' send into an inmate turns out to be a device to bring in contraband - most likely drugs
Light relief: It looks like a bare knuckle fight but in fact the prisoners are break dancing for amusement on one of the wings
Squalid: Food is prepared in the same part of the cell as where the washing is done. Inmates complain it bears little resemblance to proper cooking
