Inside the World's Toughest Prisons Episode Rating Graph

Many prisons aim to punish and demean inmates. Norway's Halden Prison -- as Raphael Rowe is about to see for himself -- does things differently.

At the Rove maximum security prison, many of the inmates serve time for sexual offenses while navigating grim conditions and extremely limited resources.

Raphael Rowe spends a week behind bars at Tacumbu prison in Paraguay, where inmates scrounge in the trash in order to pay their own way.

At Finland's Kylmäkoski prison, Raphael meets violent offenders in the general population wing and bonds with the inmates, while a newcomer is attacked.

Surrounded by many inmates who struggle with crystal meth addiction, Raphael enters the Pilsen prison and discovers that some habits are hard to break.

An unnerved Rowe contends with aggressive cellmates at Maseru prison, where a high number of inmates are behind bars for rape.

Raphael gets a rare look inside Bangli prison, where drug offenders are forced to join a rehabilitation program and isolation is used as punishment.

Paul Connolly heads to Honduras, the murder capital of the world, to spend a week living as a prisoner inside one of the most dangerous prisons - Danli Prison.

In Belize Central Prison, the inmates are told that rehabilitation comes through God. Raphael Rowe investigates if this evangelical approach works.

Mexico's el Hongo prison is home to murderers, hitmen, drug bossess and -- for one week -- Paul Connolly, who experiences life among the inmates.

Connolly spends time in two different prisons in the Philippines, where overcrowding, gangs and severe intimidation are a way of life.

Schwalmstadt, a 12th-century fortress surrounded by a moat, houses some of Germany's worst offenders, many of whom attend intense therapy sessions.

Investigative journalist Raphael Rowe spends a few days -- both as a guard and a prisoner -- inside Brazil's gang-filled Porto Velho Penitentiary.

Ukraine's Zhytomyr Prison is operated with a skeleton crew that allows prisoners to freely roam the grounds -- often with potentially dangerous weapons.