Netflix documentary Inside the World's Toughest Prisons goes to some proper hell holes. The Lesotho episode stood out from what I have watched. There's facilities like Kylmäkoski in Finland, or the weird hotel prison of Greenland, and then there's places like Maseru in Lesotho.
It's a country in the middle of South Africa. The rundown prison looks like it's bombed and almost everyone is a convicted rapist who don't really care about the age of their victims. Usually the host spends five days inside and gets accustomed to the prison conventions and rules. In Lesotho however, he bails quickly. Can't blame the guy! Sharing a dirty 16m2 room with 13 rapist might not be the best idea. Mattresses are swarming with bed bugs and the inmates blame Devil for their crimes. At the end, there's an interview of a guy who had just stabbed four children with his wife and is waiting for the trial. They committed the crimes under an influence of potion from local witch doctor. When the police came for arrest, they beat his wife to death. To man's fortune, a section of the law notes it as a mitigating circumstance if a witch doctor has misguided the perpetrator. The episode serves as a disturbing depiction of a society that is sick from top to bottom.
The journalist, Raphael Rowe, is not the best. I disliked his way of moralizing the inmates. It's one of the biggest mistakes if you want to get close to your subjects. His backstory is interesting though, as he spent 12 years in prison himself for a murder, before he was found not guilty and set free.
