The haunting images below were taken inside an abandoned prison in Cuba. It is a very disturbing visual of what life was once like for the inmates living here. Built during the 1920s, this giant panopticon prison held thousands of inmates, all of them with zero privacy from the prying eyes of the guards. But now, the prison is left abandoned.
1. This is the Presidio Modelo Prison (Model Prison) in Cuba. It was built to house thousands of inmates giving them more humane living conditions.
2. Now abandoned, this prison is home to a lot of graffiti. When it was operational, anyone who was sentenced to more than 180 days in jail were housed here.
3. It was closed in 1967 by the government and has sat free of prisoners ever since.
4. It was built in the 1920s, by former president Gerardo Muchado. There were four circular prison towers on the prison property, along with miscellaneous administration buildings.
5. At one point, it was home to Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul. In the 1960s, this prison became overcrowded which caused a lot of riots and also hunger strikes.
6. The prison is also known as a panopticon prison, which means that the cells are in a circle and watched by one large guard tower in the middle.
7. Every part of the prison is able to be seen from this one tower. The idea is to make it so the inmates have no idea if they are being watched at any given point.
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9. Here is a barber chair that was used in the prison.
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12. It now serves as a museum and national monument. The old administration building has been turned into a school and research building.
I don’t know what it is about abandoned buildings that leaves me absolutely intrigued. I would love to know more stories about this abandoned prison and the secrets that the walls could tell.