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harry potter - Is Azkaban the Only Prison in the Magic World?


The only prison that I can remember being mentioned in Harry Potter is Azkaban. Some simple research indicates one person was imprisoned for owning Sphinxes and Hagrid was sent there, apparently as a precautionary measure, after the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets. This implies that even though living in Azkaban is a terrible ordeal, that it's possible to be sent there for smaller crimes.


Are there other prisons in the magical world, or is Azkaban the only one? And if there are, has JKR ever made any comments about why one would be sent to Azkaban as opposed to another prison?


Are there also prisons that might be more like a "minimum security" setup without dementors for lesser crimes?




Answer



No. We know at least of Nurmengard, where Gellert Grindelwald is imprisoned. Voldemort visits (that's probably an overly kind description) Grindelwald in his cell in search of the Elder Wand.


From the HP Lexicon:



A towering, "jet-black" wizarding prison built by Gellert Grindelwald to hold his enemies, Nurmengard is a forbidding place (DH18, DH23). Carved over the entrance is Grindelwald's grim mantra: "For the Greater Good" (DH18). And when Grindelwald was defeated by Albus Dumbledore in 1945, he himself was placed in the topmost cell of the tower, held captive for over fifty years (DH18, DH24) where he eventually began to show some remorse (DH35). Finally, in 1998, Voldemort sought Grindelwald out here, looking for information on the Elder Wand, and killed him (DH23).



HP Lexicon - Nurmengard


ETA: A cursory search doesn't turn up specific quotes from JKR re: why a prisoner would go to Azkaban as opposed to another wizarding prison, but I would wager that wizards and witches who commit an offense in the UK go to Azkaban. For example, Igor Karkaroff, a foreign-born Death Eater caught in the UK, did his time in Azkaban rather than Nurmengard.


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