Want to know what jail feels like? Hyderabad prison now offers 24-hour stays for Rs 2,000

The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest. Ever since we were born, humans tend to do things that are forbidden. From touching the fire to eating sand, we have done it all. We even park in no-parking zones and enter barricaded areas to see why they have been barricaded.

Interestingly, there is one place where we have stuck to following all the laws and no matter how high the walls around it are, not many have climbed over them to explore- the jail. A place where you can only go if you commit a crime, and then being restricted without autonomy seems scary. However, everyone would be lying if they said they didn't ever wonder about the ins and outs of a jail at least once in their life.

If you have been one of such curious cats, then the Hyderabad jail has decided to fulfil your dreams with a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Chanchalguda Central jail in the city has started a 'feel the jail' offer where citizens can spend 24 hours in a prison cell at only ₹2,000. If some wish to stay for a lesser period of time, then they offer a 12-hour experience for ₹1,000.

'Feel the jail'

A neatly decorated entrance opens into a narrow passage lined with prison barracks. Inside a room, there is a single bed with navy-blue sheets against a plain white wall. Added along are an earthen pot of drinking water and a compact washroom space. Another room has four beds arranged in opposite directions while one more is enclosed within two layers of grilled structures that restrict movements and visibility.

Entry to the Chanchalguda Prison Museum has been priced at ₹10 for students and ₹20 for other visitors, while children below the age of 10 will be allowed free entry. Inside the museum, visitors can see the reminders of colonial-era incarceration through old punishment exhibits, rare artefacts and thematic galleries that document how inmates were once subjected to severe physical and psychological hardship.

The programme has been launched by the Telangana prisons department on May 12, 2026 and offers citizens a chance to live like inmates in specially designed barracks, with prison food, regulated routines and restricted movement in order to provide a realistic experience.

A similar experience was previously launched by the government for a brief period at the Heritage Jail Museum in Sangareddy. As per Telangana Director General of Prisons, Soumya Mishra, after the jail museum in Sangareddy collapsed a few years ago, they decided to revive and expand the concept into a modern and immersive museum at Chanchalguda.

She added that the fee collected from both the prison museum and jail experience initiative will contribute to the prisoners' welfare and development fund.