From High-Security Barracks to Dark Cells: Experience Life Behind Bars for Rs 1,000

Hyderabad: Those who wondered how it feels to be inside a prison now have the opportunity to voluntarily lock themselves inside a prison cell, including those meant for dreaded criminals, for a full day, eat prison food, sleep on a simple cot and experience the very same life behind the bars at the newly-launched ‘Feel the Jail Experience’ facility at Chanchalguda Central Prison here.

Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla inaugurated the facility, organised by the prisons department and the Prisons Museum, here on Tuesday.

Set up in a partition within the prison premises, the ‘Feel the Jail Experience’ or ‘Jail Anubhavam’ allows visitors to spend either 12 hours or 24 hours as inmates by paying Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000, respectively. The experience will include prison accommodation, prison food, discipline, routines and regulated activities. Online bookings have been opened for the public through the website www.telanganajailexperience.com⁠

The prison experience includes three recreated prison cells, one for women and two for men. Among them is a high-security double-protection barrack similar to those used for housing dreaded criminals, Naxalites, or terror accused. The cells are stark and containing only a bed, a bedsheet, a blanket, a plate, a glass, a water pot and a partially covered open bathroom, offering visitors an unsettling but also a realistic feel of that imprisonment.

Adding to the experience, the museum features a dark isolation room for those who want added adrenaline rush. Inside, a human-shaped structure crouches with its head between its knees. Once the door closes, the room is dark. Visitors are allowed to remain inside for as long as they wish, experiencing the psychological discomfort associated with the prisoner’s confinement.

The museum itself is a visual narrative of prison history and reform. Visitors are greeted with galleries containing old shackles, chains, fetters, gallows, recreated barracks and prison artefacts. One striking installation features a massive upside-down tree trunk painted artistically in earthy shades, with exposed roots emerging upward, symbolising suffering, survival and transformation.

The museum also features models of prisons which no longer exist. Among them is the old Secunderabad jail, site of the Gandhi Hospital, and the Kalapani jail, which was located near the Srisailam highway in the dense Nallamala forest. Inspired by the Andaman Cellular Jail, the prison earned the name Kalapani as the prisoners either died consuming contaminated water or disappeared into the forests and fell prey to wild animals. Arya Samaj leader Pandit Narendraji was also imprisoned there during the Nizam rule.

Addressing the gathering, Governor Shukla said prisons had transformed from centres of punishment into institutions of correction, rehabilitation and human dignity. He said the museum presents society with a realistic understanding of prison administration and inmate life. Governor also said, “I too was lodged in a jail while I was part of a student union and spent almost 19 months. It was different back then, and transformed to something meaningful now, giving hope and a change in life.”

Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services Dr Soumya Mishra said the museum was developed as a centre for awareness, education and reflection after the earlier Sangareddy jail museum collapsed. She said the initiative aims to promote empathy, lawful conduct and understanding of correctional systems among the public.

DG Mishra added, “This will help the citizens understand the social responsibility and the reality faced by prisoners. While this place is mostly viewed as a place of confinement, it is a place for transformation and rehabilitation.”

Chanchalguda Prison Museum is the fifth jail museum to host such a facility, after the ones by the Alipore Jail Museum in Kolkata, Bengaluru Central Jail Museum, Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Goa Central Jail Museum.