8. Guard Mess Hall

This room is divided into a dingy eating space for the guards, and the smoky, rank-smelling kitchen facility that services both guards and prisoners.

Two bare tables, flanked by benches, constitute the guards' amenities. In the kitchen one can usually find hanging cuts of moldy, nearly rancid meat, gritty flour, spoiled vegetables, and the other essential ingredients of prison cuisine.

Two massive cook pots and one smaller kettle each sit over deep, charcoal fire places. The smoke is vented into narrow chimneys running through the prison building walls. The large pots are used to prepare the prisoners' meals while the small kettle is used for the choice cuts, often devoid of maggots altogether, that make up the guards' meals.