warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

t’s the strangest prison on Earth – an overcrowded penitentiary in the heart of a South American city where the prisoners run the show. Inside Bolivia’s San Pedro Prison, there are no guards and a hardcore population of violent and dangerous criminals, many of whom live with their wives & kids. There are drug factories and a brutal code of justice.

There are also restaurants, schools, barber shops and, believe it or not, even a booming real estate trade. 15 years ago, Australian author Rusty Young went undercover in this complex community to expose the corruption and violence. Now Rusty returns to take Denham Hitchcock inside the gaol they can’t shut down.

This story originally aired in 2015.

it’s been 12 years since  rusty young was in bolivia. he’s giving us a tour og la paz,the city sits in the peaks  of the andes.

the funny thing about la paz is that  the wealthy people live down in the bottom of the bowl  and the poor people that live in the slums up in the mountains with what we  would consider to   be million dollar views.

it’s unique  for many reasons.but the main one is this. it ‘s a city within a city.

like any jail cameras are not  welcomed.they are shooting  from inside  a hotel room acroos the street.it’s really reminiscent of any shanty down in south america the only difference of course the 15 metre high walls all area around.

but the prison  occupies an entire block  in the dead center of la paz ,so it’s quite surreal. it doesn’t seem like a prison at all. during the day it’s quite peaceful,but it’s the night time that the prison really becomes a lot more dangerous.

dangerous ,because the prison is run by the inmates…

prison rules. prison justice.there are no guards inside the prison at all .the prison have completely free reign inside.

they throw them in there and they beat them and they beat them and drown them electrocute them. stab them. and then just kick them until they’re dead.

the prison celll itself is awash  with drugs.got some of the country’s best cocaine. cooks.

things can turn violent very quickly…

where  prisoners rule

back in 2000 rusty  bribed his way into the prison.

so  amazed by what he saw .rusty lived inside san pedro for four months to write a book.

the book called marching powder.was a best seller.

but it exposed the prison and the children.the corruption the drugs and he had to flee bolivia.

and he had to flee bolivia.

rusty had enemies so we’re planning for you to step back inside those walls.

we plan to enter san pedro prison with a pocket -sized  camera.helping us is marting who knows  the guards at the front gate.

a second camera team will secretely shoot through the hotel window.

we have no  idea how the prisoners  would react to  us or  to rusty.his book could have made things better but they could also be worse.rusty fants to found out but he knows once we pass through  these gates the guards  can’t help us.

it’s been more than a decade but rusty  is spotted within minutes….

james olu was a relatively new inmate when rusty was there and at that time  he was recently well  spoken.fit helthy.he used to go to the gym and he’s happy friendly guy.

12 years later ,he’s obviously become  addicted to cocaine and his speech is incoherent . he looks completely unhealthy and it’s just not the same person.

news that rusty  is inside the jail is spreading and the inmates reaction is unpredictable. so martin,guides him into  a nearby cell where he can’t be  seen.

in san pedro the locks are on the inside .

let’s be honest . it’s a risk for rust y to  come here .

rusty   is still a little bit nervous about being seen .everyone knows about the book.his just worried about how the prisoners  will take it and then if word gets back to the authorities that he is in here. what they’ll do . there could be  repercussions.

then james and martin then take us on a bizarre tour-.the world of san pedro prison…

…the city within a city.

one of the most remarkable things about this place is that  entire families are living here.

if the husband gets sentenced .he comes to prison. the family’s on the outside without an income so, the family comes in.

this placeis owned by eric. and  he has a wife and two childre here. the children are eight years old and 13 years old.

not only are  entire families here .but if you want a place to call your own just like in the real world you have to buy it. eric pay 8,400 us dollars and he owns it. when he leaves he will sell this place like property.like real eastate in a prison.

there are sections in the prisons . like a hotel from one star to four star.

there are eight different sections inside the prison,everyone has to buy their own prison cell.

and they’re obviously of varying quality so depending on how much  money you have that would  determine which particular section you go into.

they’re almost  like small suburbs  and  the inmates have  invented a  rating system so you have  anything from zero stars up to five and a half stars where the really  really rich drug traffickers and politicians live.

there are people wh o have died of exposure just because they couldn’t  afford a prison cell. literally died in the corridors.

one of the sad things about this place is that it was built to hoyse 250 people there are now  more than 3,000.if you got money , you’re in a apartment but if you don’t. you’re on the concrete.

in  here  it all comes down to one thing .money.

there are shops all the way through here.the government does provide watery soup and basically often the money goes missing .so the actual quality of the food and the amount of nutrition in the soup is so poor that the inmates decide to feed themselves.

if you are here as a prisoner you get one meal a day but if you don’t like  the prison food .you can go to the resturants.there’s dozens of them.

once prisoners go into the prison.they need to support themselves financially.

there are mesengers earning one or two bolivianos in order to call visitors to the gate.

there are people shining shoes, there are cooks,there are people doing woodworks.

there’s  dentist in there, a doctor in there , who’d been in prison for  stabbing his wife   52 times.

everyone in san pedro has to have som kind of job.forget  everything you know about prisons.this system as inconceivable as it is has been endorsed by the government the cost may have something to do with it .

the inmate look after themselves.so, it’s scheap to run.

when you get a father  and a mother and quite often they put both of them in jail at the same time. who looks after the kids? they are  sfer here much safer here then  on the streets on their own ,offending for themselves. said martin.

so many kids.is it right that there are  children inside a prison.

this is quite simply an extraordinary  place there are no guards here. this place is run by the inmates.no guards  means no protection we are on a tour like  no other.

dan  moriaty worked in san pedro as a missionary for five years . he heard their confessions provided comfort.he knew the inmates.better than anyone.

the inmates are overwhelmingly from impoverished backgrounds.the kids are  seeing nothing in the prison that they don’t see in the neighborhood they came from.

having both the children be near their parents and the parents continue to nurture and care for their  children. dan  think is  the best thing  for both of them.dan moriarty said.

there is a dark  side to it and particularly in the poorer sections when they take drugs at night time,this  is not a place for little children – said rusty young.

it’s a huge issue for two reason most  people are there.and it’s readily available inside.

this is one of the paradoxes of this place

80 % of the people that are in here ,they’re in here for drug offences.but even so, this place at times has produced a lot of cocaine from inside the prison.

you’ve got some of the country’s best cocaine cooks living inside there .you’ve got people who  export cocaine .so , pretty much all they talk about and all that they know is drug trafficking. so, that’s one of the main industries inside the prison.

let’s be  honest ,there are drugs in every prison around the  world and the guards  are usually complicit in allowing them in but in this case it’s absolutely rampant.

in all the sections you can buy drugs very very cheaply cheaper that on the outside.

when you have people not sleeping and strung out on cocaine base for three or four days drinking, things can turn violent very quickly.

drugs are in most cases the first  problem  and the last.

prison guards are at the gate and on the walls.

but not on the inside. so, the inmates determine the punishment and it can be severe.

it takes place in a small pool  called the well.

the greatest violence is perpetrated against  sex offenders.rapists and child molesters who are brought in.are not  segregate from the main population.

for this community to function. the innocent must be protected.

as a warning ,rapist and pedophiles are beaten on arrival. there is no second chance.

a big lynch mob forms . they carry them through the corridors. and there’s in one of the sections there’s a sort of a well and they  fill it  with water and throw them in there and they beat them .drown them. electrocute them. stab them.

and then just kick them until they’re dead.

this prison code is uncompromising but it’s not perfect.

the children are sometimes in actual phyiscal danger  . there have been a number of cases of young girls.one girl who was six who was raped and killed inside the prison when the mother was off partying and only two years ago a 12 year old girl was found to be pregnant.

children return from school flooding  the corridors of the jail. women and children can come and go as they please.

as light begins to fade we are told our visit has some of the inmates agitated.both james and martin insist we need  to leave immediately.

is this prison something that needs to be shut down?

if it were better supervised i would say that potentially it would be a very progressive model but  the way that’s  executed at present .it’s actually extremly damaging. rusty said.

the dignity that the inmates are allowed  by the freedom that  they’re given and the fact that they have their families with them …

…that is a model for sure. dan moriarty said.