Hyderabad's Jail Museum opens: Pay to spend a day behind bars
Synopsis
Hyderabad has opened India's fifth Jail Museum — and its most immersive. For the first time in the country, citizens can book a structured 24-hour or 12-hour paid stay behind bars, complete with prison food, discipline, and routines, under the 'Jail Anubhavam' programme. It's correctional awareness reimagined as lived experience.
Key Takeaways
Telangana Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla inaugurated the Jail Museum and ' Jail Anubhavam ' at SICA, Chanchalguda, Hyderabad .
Citizens can book a 24-hour or 12-hour paid prison experience covering food, accommodation, discipline, and routines.
Online bookings available at www.telanganajailexperience.com .
This is the fifth Jail Museum in India , after Andaman and Nicobar, Alipore (Kolkata), Bengaluru, and Goa.
A dedicated section documents inmate labour during the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam construction ( 1961–1968 ).
DG Soumya Mishra said the initiative focuses on education, empathy, and understanding of correctional systems.
Telangana Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla on Tuesday, 13 May 2025 inaugurated the Jail Museum and the 'Jail Anubhavam (Feel the Jail Experience)' initiative at the State Institute of Correctional Administration (SICA) in Chanchalguda, Hyderabad — making it the fifth Jail Museum in India and the first in Telangana. Citizens can now book a structured 24-hour or 12-hour paid prison experience that includes prison accommodation, food, discipline, and regulated routines.
What the Experience Offers
The 'Jail Anubhavam' programme is designed as an educational immersion rather than entertainment. Participants are exposed to actual prison food, living conditions, and daily routines under supervised discipline. The Telangana Prisons Department has launched a dedicated website — www.telanganajailexperience.com — for public visits and online slot bookings. Both the museum and the experience programme are available to the general public through this portal.
According to Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services Soumya Mishra, the initiative aims to foster awareness about prison life, lawful conduct, human values, and the importance of freedom and social responsibility. She clarified that the objective is education, empathy, and a deeper understanding of correctional systems and inmate rehabilitation — not novelty tourism.
Inside the Museum
The Telangana Prisons Museum has been developed as a comprehensive institution of awareness, education, research, and reflection. It traces the evolution of prisons from ancient systems of punishment to modern correctional practices through thematic galleries, recreated jail structures, historical prison artefacts, punishment-related exhibits, and sections on prison reforms and rehabilitation.
Notably, one of the museum's key sections documents the contribution of inmate labour during the construction of the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam between 1961 and 1968, when prisoners worked in an open-air jail established at the project site — a largely forgotten chapter of post-Independence public works history.
DG Mishra noted that an earlier jail museum at Sangareddy had collapsed a few years ago, following which the department took the initiative to revive and expand the concept into this modern, immersive facility at Chanchalguda.
India's Fifth Jail Museum
The Hyderabad facility joins a short but growing list of prison museums in India. The others are located at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Alipore (Kolkata), Bengaluru, and Goa. The Telangana museum is distinguished by its interactive 'Feel the Jail Experience' component, which none of the earlier museums offer in a comparable structured format.
What the Governor Said
Governor Shukla stated that the establishment of the museum marks a
Point of View
Supervised experience can meaningfully convey the psychological weight of incarceration, or whether it risks aestheticising confinement for a fee-paying audience. The Nagarjuna Sagar section is the museum's most underreported asset: it surfaces a chapter of post-Independence infrastructure history where inmate labour was integral to nation-building, a fact largely absent from mainstream historical accounts. If the Telangana Prisons Department can sustain the educational rigour over commercial novelty, this could become a genuine model for correctional transparency in India.
NationPress
5 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Jail Anubhavam experience in Hyderabad?
Jail Anubhavam, or 'Feel the Jail Experience', is a structured paid programme at SICA Chanchalguda, Hyderabad, where citizens can spend 24 or 12 hours in a supervised prison environment, including prison food, accommodation, discipline, and daily routines. It is designed for educational and awareness purposes, not entertainment.
How can I book the Hyderabad Jail Museum or Jail Anubhavam experience?
Bookings for both the Telangana Prisons Museum and the Jail Anubhavam experience can be made online at www.telanganajailexperience.com. The Telangana Prisons Department launched the website specifically for public visits and slot reservations.
Which is India's fifth Jail Museum and where is it located?
The Telangana Prisons Museum at SICA, Chanchalguda, Hyderabad is India's fifth Jail Museum. The other four are located at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Alipore in Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Goa.
What does the Telangana Prisons Museum showcase?
The museum traces the evolution of prisons from ancient punishment systems to modern correctional practices through thematic galleries, recreated jail structures, historical artefacts, shackles, chains, gallows, and audio-visual exhibits. It also features a section on inmate labour during the construction of the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam between 1961 and 1968.
Who inaugurated the Hyderabad Jail Museum?
Telangana Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla inaugurated the Jail Museum and the Jail Anubhavam initiative at the State Institute of Correctional Administration (SICA) in Chanchalguda, Hyderabad, on Tuesday, 13 May 2025.
