For the past five years, a mock prison facility in Hongcheon, South Korea, has been locking up paying “inmates” for brief stays in simple cells where mobile devices are prohibited, talking with other participants is not allowed, and no clocks can be found. Kim Hong-Ji, a photographer with Reuters, visited “Prison Inside Me” recently, reporting that it has hosted more than 2,000 inmates since 2013, “many of them stressed office workers and students seeking relief from South Korea’s demanding work and academic culture.” Noh Ji-Hyang, a co-founder, was inspired by a comment from her husband, a prosecutor, who said that he’d rather spend time in solitary confinement than go back to a 100-hour workweek: “After a stay in the prison, people say, ‘This is not a prison, the real prison is where we return to.’”
A Weekend in a Prison Cell to Escape Modern Life
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Park Hye-ri, 28, a start-up business program manager, places her mobile phone outside a cell of Prison Inside Me, a mock prison facility in Hongcheon, South Korea, on November 10, 2018. "This prison gives me a sense of freedom," Park said. "I shouldn't be here right now, given the work I need to do. But I decided to pause and look back at myself for a better life." #
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters -
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