The BEST episodes of Inside the World's Toughest Prisons
Every episode of Inside the World's Toughest Prisons ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Inside the World's Toughest Prisons!
Paul Connolly goes behind the bars of some of the World's most notorious prisons (the first season ran on Channel 5 UK originally before Netflix has bought up the format).
#2 - Paraguay: The Most Dangerous Prison on Earth
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/29/2020
Raphael Rowe spends a week behind bars at Tacumbu prison in Paraguay, where inmates scrounge in the trash in order to pay their own way.
#4 - Moldova: The Lifers Prison
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/2022
Traveling to Moldova, Raphael Rowe locks himself within Penitentiary 17, a maximum-security prison housing more than a hundred life-sentence inmates.
#5 - Lesotho: Confronting Sexual Violence
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/29/2020
An unnerved Rowe contends with aggressive cellmates at Maseru prison, where a high number of inmates are behind bars for rape.
#10 - Mauritius: The Extreme Punishment Prison
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/29/2020
The tropical Island of Mauritius is home to Melrose maximum security prison, where even the smallest infraction is met with extreme punishment.
#12 - Greenland: Prison in the Ice
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/8/2021
Greenland’s Nuuk maximum security prison houses extremely dangerous prisoners, many of whom grew up alongside the guards now watching over them.
#14 - Costa Rica: Prison on a Knife-Edge
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/14/2018
Though he's no stranger to life behind bars, Raphael Rowe concedes that Costa Rica's La Reforma Prison is certainly among the most intimidating.
#16 - Philippines: The War on Drugs Prison
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/8/2021
Once again, Raphael Rowe volunteers to go behind bars, this time in the Philippines at Manila City Jail, one of the world’s most overcrowded prisons.
#17 - Papua New Guinea: The Breakout Prison
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/6/2018
Raphael Rowe visits the short-staffed Bomana Prison in Papua New Guinea, where near-constant food shortages keep the facility on the brink of chaos.
#19 - Greece: The People Smugglers Prison
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/28/2022
Raphael Rowe investigates one of Greece’s most overcrowded maximum-security prisons, overflowing with some of the country’s most dangerous offenders.
#22 - Mexico
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/25/2016
In a television first, crime journalist Paul Connolly is granted access to El Hongo maximum security prison, one of Mexico's toughest jails from where no-one has ever escaped. Isolated in the barren Baja desert of northern Mexico, El Hongo is a concrete fortress of discipline and punishment designed to contain and control over a thousand inmates including hardened cartel gangsters.
Watch Now:Amazon#23 - Philippines
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/18/2016
Paul spends time in the Rizal City Jail, known for being both overcrowded and housing impoverished prisoners. Here he shares a cell with a murderer and a rapist. He also explores how the Bahala Na gang rules a prison in the country.
Watch Now:Amazon#25 - Cyprus: The Utopian Prison
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/28/2022
The Central Jail of Nicosia in Cyprus has undergone radical transformation over the years. But are these changes for the better?