Tacumbu jail in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, is a place of extremes.
Offering bars, shops selling caramel croissants and luxury laundry services, on one level it looks like a gangster’s paradise.
But drug use is rife and inmates carry knives openly – with murder so common there is a killing every two weeks.
And as most lags do not get a bed, you could easily die fighting for a mattress.
Tacumbu is Paraguay’s most overcrowded jail – with 4,000 convicts and just 35 guards.
And this means it is the convicts who are really running the show.
“Tacumbu was shocking” says journalist Raphael Rowe, who lived there a week for his new series of Inside The World’s Toughest Prisons.
“Prisoners openly use drugs and carry knives. They have to fend for themselves. There are very few guards.
"Hundreds were sleeping out in the open, taking drugs – crystal meth, crack – openly in front of guards and each other.
"In fact, authorities allowed it, almost encouraged it as it keeps the peace. Without it, there would be murderous reign.”
Raphael has a unique outlook on prison life, as he served 12 years in the UK for a murder he did not commit.
In 1988, aged 19, he was given life as one of the M25 Three in a case of mistaken identity.
His wrongful convictions were quashed in July 2000.
While inside he trained to be a journalist
He says: “I was a maximum security prisoner and your liberty and decisions are taken away.
"But in Tacumbu, the authorities don’t run it, the prisoners do.”
Upon arrival, convicts get a quick pat-down before being left to roam the confines.
Raphael was lucky as he got a room in one of the only cell blocks, which he shared with two other men.
But he soon discovered the real danger lurked beyond his cell, especially in the outside space, also known as the “tinglado”.
Raphael says: “If you imagine a derelict place, that’s what it was like.
"People were making sleeping quarters on the outside, on the floor.
"I was taken to a very dark corner of the prison. It was so scary and horrible.
“There was no natural light and it stank. If there had been a fire, everybody would die from the smoke or the flames.”
Raphael got a job, like a true prisoner and even helped to tattoo an inmate.
He says: “This is what I want people to see. How unpredictable it is and how things can turn quite quickly, and how when people don’t know you they treat you differently.
"Slowly but surely, I chip away at these individuals and there is more to these characters than meets the eye.
"If only we as a society could get at these individuals rather than collectively leaving them to their own devices, it can make a difference.”
In Tacumbu, men scavenge through bins to find food, cigarette butts and money. Some collect plastic bottles to sell as plates.
Raphael says: “When you’re scavenging, it’s just so depressing because it’s a reflection of society.
"When I chatted to the guy who was doing it, I asked him if he knew how much he stank.
"Then I asked what he thought people thought about him. Did he ever think about how people perceived him?
“I saw the water in his eyes and somewhere inside himself probably for the very first time was asking himself the same question.
"He may have committed a crime, be a prisoner, but he’s still a human being.”
However, some inmates have started to profiteer off the guards’ lack of control.
Edgar, jailed for drug trafficking, set up his own laundry business within Tambucu and is earning more than he did on the outside – enough to buy his family a new house.
And when his wife comes on visiting days, the pair also operate a restaurant running kitchen-to-cell delivery.
Raphael says: “Edgar turned a bad situation into a good situation. It was a survival mechanism.
"With British prisons, it’s all paperwork in an office. But in these places, they use real money, it’s not contraband and it’s how they survive – by buying or bartering.
“One of the most astonishing things was prisoners had to pay other prisoners or guards for the space they sleep in.
"For those who don’t have the money, they sleep outside and turn to drugs and carry knives.”
The prison even has its own market, where everyone from carpenters to tattoo artists can make a living.
But Raphael quickly learned it was not as safe as it first seemed.
He says: “I was playing pool with a guy called Pablo and talking to him. He was covered in tattoos and had killed his family.
"Then a prisoner ran up and grabbed the balls and started throwing them at me and my crew.
“It was a violent attack and this guy already had blood streaming down his face. So he himself must have just been attacked.
“One of my crew had a camera on his shoulder and the ball hit the camera.
"If it had not hit the camera it would have hit his head and caused serious damage.
“What I learned in this series is that if you treat a person like an animal, they react like an animal.
"It comes down to the environment and the mentality of the country, and how they want their prisoners treated.
“Do you want to lock them up and throw away the key, or do you want to rehabilitate these people?”
- Series 4 of Inside The World’s Toughest Prisons is now available on Netflix
