After working nearly 100 hours a week every week for six months, lawyer Kwon Yong-suk started wondering if solitary confinement in prison might be a better alternative to his situation.

A prison warden friend told him volunteering to stay in a real jail cell would involve too much red tape, so in 2002 Kwon set the wheels in motion to create a jail-like retreat where people like him could find some peace and solitude.

Opening in 2013 in the countryside outside Seoul, visitors to his facility come for two days and are locked in a cell for 20 hours at a time – free from their phones, emails and the countless distractions of modern life.

Video by Kwon Moon. Additional editing by Bowen Li.

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