Karosta Prison, Liepaja, Latvia
It's billed as 'unfriendly, unheated and uncomfortable,' and considering guests receive verbal abuse by uniformed guards and a single piece of stale bread for dinner, Karosta delivers as advertised. The Nazis, Soviets and Latvians used the property as a military detention facility, where wardens specialised in breaking the human spirit right up through 1997. Today's lodgers get the full treatment: cold damp cells, rusted water taps, thin mattresses and flimsy blankets that must be made to military standards (or else punishment ensues). It's all play acting, but still creepy knowing for others Karosta was no game.

Napier Prison Backpackers, Napier, New Zealand
As New Zealand's oldest prison, the facility locked up convicts from throughout the country including mass murderers, drug barons, gang members and the criminally insane. Inmates had the special opportunity to attend Rock College, i.e. they were marched to the quarry next door and forced to break the stone and build the walls that kept them imprisoned. Guests nowadays can tour the hanging yard (where locals used to pay a shilling to watch executions take place), sleep in converted cells and get a mugshot taken as a memento of their time in the clink.

Ottawa Jail Hostel, Ottawa, Canada
Formerly the Carleton County Jail, a maximum security holding facility for 110 years, this place is infamous as the site of Canada’s last public hanging. Patrick James Whelan was convicted of murdering journalist and politician Thomas D’Arcy McGee, and was strung up from the onsite gallows in front of 5000 spectators. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, Whelan maintained his innocence to the bitter end. That's why his spirit remains restless, they say, and roams the jail, often startling current guests in their barred-door cells by perching at the end of their beds.

Breakwater Lodge, Cape Town, South Africa
The original prison housed long-term male convicts who were put to work constructing Table Bay's breakwater (hence the lodge name). Little remains from the former hard-core joint, other than the building's imposing turrets and the Treadmill displayed onsite. No, the latter is not part of the facility's gym. Rather, it was a nasty punishment consisting of a staircase that rotated when prisoners stepped on it. If they slacked off, the machine's revolving planks lacerated their shins. No worries about such hardships now — the modern hotel is entirely un-slammer-like, located where the wardens once lived.

Malmaison Oxford Castle, Oxford, England
It may have been a stark Victorian prison between 1870 and 1996, but the days of bread and water are long gone. The owners have returned the property to its regal roots (the jail was once a castle owned by William the Conqueror more than 900 years ago), and swaddled it in mod, boutique-hotel luxury. Each current room occupies the space of three former cells, providing a bit more elbow room than the inmates got (they were sardined three per cell). They also missed out on the satellite TV, power showers and DVD players.

Langholmen Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden
Langholmen is the name of a 1.4km-long by 400m-wide island in the middle of Stockholm where Sweden's largest prison was plopped. Initially a spinning-house (the lock-up for naughty women), it soon welcomed criminals of all types into its thick walls. Guests today sleep in the original cells, but they're now bright and airy, sans bars. Groups wanting to get in the convict groove can pay extra to role-play a stint in jail, complete with striped uniforms, a series of tasks to undertake and guards to bribe to win freedom (celebrated with drinks at the local pub).

Celica Hostel, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Celica means 'cell,' and this was indeed a former military prison abandoned only after Slovenia's independence and the departure of the Federal Yugoslav Army. The barbed wire and graffiti-covered exterior look intimidating, but it's all vibrant, hip hostel inside. More than 80 Slovenian artists transformed the first-floor cells into individual works of art, designing each room in its own theme ranging from traditional Slovenian to modern Finnish to meditative to Hollywood. Bars still slam shut in front of the doors and block the windows, so you never forget where you are.

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Lonely Planet Bluelist

Jailer's Inn, Kentucky, USA
This wee county jail did its time from 1819 through 1987. Now converted to a B&B, the 76cm-thick stone walls come in handy as noise buffers. Five of the six rooms are flowery, four-poster-bed, claw-foot-bathtub types. The sixth room, The Cell, provides the novelty of sleeping in a pair of prison bunk beds while Elvis (via a poster) watches protectively over you. Breakfast is served in the courtyard where prisoners worked crushing limestone. It doubled as the county gallows, which is why some guests claim the place is haunted and hear strange footsteps thumping about.

Lowengraben Jail Hotel, Lucerne, Switzerland
For the felons confined here through 1998, the magical Alps backdrop must have softened the blow of being in the Big House. The simple rooms retain their barred windows and original chunky wooden doors, complete with food-tray slots, from their former lives as cells. The onsite Club Alcatraz draws Lucerne's good-time seekers. After a few drinks, it's fun to devil mom with a call of 'Hi. I'm in jail," and mean it but without needing bail money.