Comments on: Do private prisons like the one depicted in the movie Oldboy actually exist?

Question: Do private prisons like the one depicted in the movie Oldboy actually exist?

Ndwright — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 06:59:36 -0800

Do private prisons like the one depicted in the movie Oldboy actually exist?

I've seen Oldboy a few times over the years (excellent film, highly recommended) and now I'm beginning to wonder if anything like the facility he spends the first 15-20 minutes of the film in actually exists. For those who haven't seen the movie, the facility consists of a floor of windowless hotel-rooms, each sealed with an iron door. A contractor rents out the "cells" to whoever has a person they need to store for a length of time (weeks/months/years). I can see how criminal organizations might need a service like this, detention facilities that operate outside of the legal system. Has anyone heard of anything like this happening in real life?

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 07:05:30 -0800

Not strictly the same, but people traffickers forcing illegal immigrants to work imprisoned in brothels once they reach their destination country is not uncommon.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 07:19:39 -0800

In the USA I doubt whether such a facility could exist.

A prime directive in a criminal conspiracy is to keep the number of people in the know to a minimum.

What happens if one customer gets busted and the detention location gets revealed? Then everybody that uses that facility gets busted.

By: StrikeTheViol

StrikeTheViol — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:26:09 -0800

Oldboy-style prisons would be too inefficient. If it's expedient to keep someone alive and harmless, much better to take a page from the Soviet playbook: a psychiatric hospital can keep patients drugged, monitored and isolated much more easily.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:23:37 -0800

I think the CIA uses these don't they?

By: luriete

luriete — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:39:35 -0800

Hasn't recent news shown us that a number of such prisons exist worldwide, usually run by contractors or deniable / off-the-books ex soldiers? I thought a couple of mercenaries in Afghanistan were arrested over something like this back in January. Most of them seem to be paid for with American tax dollars, or perhaps by American-directed Afghani drug money.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:40:58 -0800

Criminal organizations might have need for keeping people alive, if only to induce others to do stuff for them. In the U.S.A. such a system would be so traceable that it would soon end.

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:59:44 -0800

There are a number of facilities where you can pay to have your child kidnapped and brought to a "boot camp" (prison essentially) until they turn 18. They've been discussed many times on metafilter.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:21:06 -0800

I doubt something like this could exit in the US with the intention of releasing people later on. The mob might have facilities they use to beat information out of people before killing them.

But I can't imagine running a private, non-governmental prison in the US.

By: desuetude

desuetude — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 13:15:51 -0800

I think that it would be difficult to organize something like this, as the "clients" would have to trust the prison operators, who have no real enticement to stay honest. For this to work, it would have to be run by people connected to the "clients." So a mob-owned situation would be the most likely.

Second problem with a facility is that it's pretty hard to keep prisoners truly isolated and without means of communication. It would likely be more practical to keep kidnapped people in separate places, to minimize the possibility of the prisoners figuring out where they were or who was keeping them.

By: Subcommandante Cheese

Subcommandante Cheese — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 13:25:50 -0800

Actually, the largest private prison corporation in America, CCA, got their start doing this, but with undocumented migrants with a government contract. It was temporary, but yeah, they bought up an old motel and "prisonized" it. So I suppose that the idea of it being non-governmental doesn't hold, but there are systems that have so little oversight that situations similar to that exist.

http://www.correctionscorp.com/ccahistory.html

By: smallerdemon

smallerdemon — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:38:12 -0800

Why keep someone in prison for 10 years instead of just killing them and disposing of the body.

Well, as far as the plot of OldBoy is concerned, that would sort of defeat the purpose. :)

My only gripe with it in OldBoy was that it was in the middle of the city. Isolated and in the country I imagine it might could exist, but in the middle of a large city I found it more difficult to believe.

By: desuetude

desuetude — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:50:44 -0800

I thought it made more sense in the middle of a city, where comings and goings are largely ignored. My neighbors would have to be shrieking louder than usual for anyone to even notice, let alone care.