Spending a night in jail in Telangana, tourist-style

‘Besides promoting tourism, spending a night in jail could educate people on how tough life is behind bars’


Reuters September 09, 2016
PHOTO: REUTERS

SANGAREDDY, INDIA: A 200-year-old former jail in southern India offers tourists the chance to live a day in the life of a prisoner.

Visitors to the colonial-era Sangareddy District Jail in the state of Telangana receive a prison uniform, basic bedding, soap and eating utensils before being taken to their cell for an overnight stay that costs Rs500 ($7.50).

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Besides promoting tourism, spending a night in jail could educate people on how tough life is behind bars, said Vinoy Kumar Singh, the state's director-general of prisons. "We wanted to get a message across to the people, that they should avoid crime at any cost," Singh said.

Intended as a cavalry barracks after being built in 1796, the buildings were later converted into a prison. That was closed in 2012, and is now a museum displaying paintings and other artifacts related to crime and prison life in India.

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