This Indian jail offers tourists to experience a night in the cell

SANGAREDDY, India: A 200-year-old former jail in southern India offers tourists the chance to live a day in the life of a prisoner.

Visitors to the colonial-era Sangareddy District Jail in the state of Telangana receive a prison uniform, basic bedding, soap and eating utensils before being taken to their cell for an overnight stay that costs Rs. 500 ($7.50).

Besides promoting tourism, spending a night in jail could educate people on how tough life is behind bars, said Vinoy Kumar Singh, the state´s director-general of prisons.

"We wanted to get a message across to the people, that they should avoid crime at any cost," Singh said.

Intended as a cavalry barracks after being built in 1796; the buildings were later converted into a prison.

That was closed in 2012, and is now a museum displaying paintings and other artifacts related to crime and prison life in India.