World Prisons
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Iran

Qezel Hesar Prison

Low
Verified 29 May 2026
Fresh · 0d ago

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Photograph of Qezel Hesar Prison

Background

Ghezel Hesar prison is the largest state prison in Iran. As of 2011, it was holding about 20,000 prisoners, of which 13,000 were held on drug-related charges - said to be four times its planned capacity. It is located in Ghezel Hesar, city of Karaj, 20 km northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran (there are two other prisons around Karaj: Rajai Shahr prison and the Central Prison at Karaj). The Ghezel Hesar prison is infamous for its conditions. In March 2011, it made headlines when, according to official reports, 14 people were killed and 33 wounded during a prison revolt.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

Region

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

Insufficient data
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Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources