Azkaban

"They don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most go mad within weeks."

- Remus Lupin on Azkaban

Azkaban, also known as Azkaban Prison, built in the 15th century and in use as a prison since 1718, is a prison on an island in the middle of the North Sea. It serves the magical community of Great Britain as a penitentiary for convicted criminals.

Using certain Charms, Azkaban is hidden from the muggle world, and is unplottable. It is thought to have undetectable extension charms placed on it (or similar types of magic) to make it bigger on the inside, as the prison seems to serve the whole of wizarding Britain.

As of Eldritch Diggory's visit in the 1730s or 1740s, a graveyard had been established on the island to accommodate those who died of despair.

Other wizarding prisons exist, such as Nurmengard (which was used exclusively to hold its creator Gellert Grindelwald), Azkaban is the only known fortress to be the "official" holding ground for wizarding criminals.

Overview
The island on which Azkaban was built never appeared on any map and was believed to have been created or enlarged by magical means. Azkaban was initially a fortress which was home to the evil wizard Ekrizdis, known for luring Muggles onto his island where he tortured and killed them. After his death, the concealment charms he had cast faded away and the Ministry of Magic acknowledged the island's existence for the first time. Even then, the place was infested with Dementors, foul creatures that suck the happiness out of the victim and cause great suffering to those near them.

Authorities considered destroying the fortress, but decided against it in fear of the possible revenge of the Dementors or the island itself. Thereafter the island was left alone for years, before the establishment of the International Statute of Secrecy. Because of the impracticality of using small wizarding prisons which could result in bangs, smells and light shows, should victims escape, plans for a purpose-built prison for wizards on some remote Hebridean island were made. However, when Damocles Rowle was elected Minister for Magic in 1718, he insisted on using Azkaban instead, seeing the Dementors as an advantage because using them as guards would save expense, time and trouble. This plan was eventually put into motion and despite protests, Azkaban remained the prison of the wizarding world, mostly because of the complete lack of breakouts and breaches of security.

Although the subsequent Minister Eldritch Diggory, having visited Azkaban and witnessed its horror, fought to find alternatives to the prison or at the very least remove the Dementors, he caught dragon pox in 1747, before they could reach a decision. No one else seriously considered closing the prison until the advent of Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt in 1998.

Azkaban gained a reputation as a horrible place, mostly due to the prison's guards: Dementors. Because of this, most of the prisoners eventually went insane and slowly died under the Dementors' influence. Since 1717, using any of the three Unforgivable Curses on another human being has carried a punishment of a life sentence in Azkaban (unless there is sufficient evidence that the caster did so under the influence of the Imperius Curse, or legal exceptions made by the Ministry of Magic as in the case of Aurors in the First Wizarding War).

Pre-1998


Azkaban was guarded by Dementors until most of them revolted and joined Lord Voldemort in summer of 1995. As a result, Voldemort's Death Eaters escaped en masse to rejoin their master in both 1996 and 1997.

There is most likely an Anti-Apparation jinx on Azkaban; if there were not, wizards and witches could simply Apparate from the prison to the outside world. However, since it is debatable that most witches and wizards need a wand to Apparate, this may be irrelevant, as none of the prisoners maintain possession of their wands. Before 1995, most of the prisoners would barely have had enough strength to Apparate anyway, as the mere presence of Dementors, particularly in large numbers, inhibits the use of magical powers.

Before the Dementors' revolt, the only people ever to escape the prison were Barty Crouch Jr and Sirius Black, in 1982 and 1993, respectively. Barty Crouch Jr. was smuggled out by his father, Barty Crouch Sr., and replaced by his dying mother using Polyjuice Potion, while Sirius was able to escape by changing into his Animagus form of a dog. The revolt has severely compromised the security, as multiple escapes were made with no more Dementors guarding the prison; the Ministry continued omitting certain facts to maintain their facade of having everything under control, including keeping one breakout a secret.



There is a graveyard outside the wall of Azkaban where the Dementors buried prisoners who died. However, if the dead prisoner has a relative who is not a criminal, the relative in question has the right to pick up the corpse for a proper burial, as Barty Crouch Sr. had the right to pick up the body that was disguised as his son, though he chose not to due to fear of being exposed of committing a jailbreak.

Although the prison is in the middle of the ocean with iron walls protecting it, it was unnecessary to keep prisoners inside, as Remus Lupin stated, because the prisoners were already trapped in their own heads due to the intense depression caused by the Dementors. As Sirius indicated, most prisoners went insane after a short while, and some even stopped eating, preferring death to their lives within Azkaban. Dementors fed the prisoners, indicating the prisoners might have felt depression at mealtimes.

Visits to the island are heavily restricted, as only respectable Ministry officials were noted to be allowed to visit any possible relatives. An example is when Barty Crouch Sr. and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit to their imprisoned son due to the former's high status in the government; they took advantage of this privilege to smuggle Barty Jr. out of prison. The Minister of Magic is also allowed to visit the prison, as to check out on certain prisoners for their conditions, as Cornelius Fudge did on Sirius Black.

After the war


After the end of the Second Wizarding War and Kingsley Shacklebolt's appointment as Minister for Magic in 1998, dementors were no longer employed as guards of Azkaban. This is likely because they had proven to be untrustworthy, and because the depression and madness their presence caused in prisoners is considered inhumane.

Ever since they were removed, Aurors have been guarding the prison, taking turns so that a certain number of Aurors are assigned to stand guard, before leaving to return to fieldwork and other Aurors take their place. It is unknown how many surviving Voldemort supporters and Death Eaters were imprisoned in the aftermath. Them aside, any Ministry officials who knowingly and willingly went with Voldemort's ideologies during the time when the Ministry was under his control, mainly the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, were sentenced to Azkaban, the most prominent being Dolores Umbridge, for her crimes against humanity (more specifically, Muggle-borns).

Known Azkaban convicts
"We have confirmed that ten high security prisoners, in the early hours of yesterday evening, did escape. And of course, the Muggle Prime Minister has been alerted to the danger. We strongly suspect that the breakout was engineered by a man with personal experience in escaping from Azkaban; notorious mass murderer Sirius Black, cousin of the escapee Bellatrix Lestrange."

- Cornelius Fudge interview to the Daily Prophet, January 1996

Etymology
The name Azkaban is inspired by the Hebrew word Abaddon, meaning 'place of destruction' or 'depths of hell' and also draws inspiration from the Prison of Alcatraz off the coast of San Francisco. It may also derive from the name of the Russian town Abakan, which has historically been occupied by various groups of exiles.

Behind the scenes

 * At least as far as the books are concerned, Azkaban is perhaps the most prolific and detailed location to never appear. It was referenced numerous times throughout the books, but aside from the cover of one copy of the third book, it never appeared in an image in the books. This is because, unlike the movies, the books were told exclusively through the eyes of Harry Potter himself, who never visited or have been in Azkaban.
 * There is an added scene in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in which the 1996 mass breakout at Azkaban is shown. This scene also marks the first and last ever appearance of Azkaban itself.
 * In the film, Azkaban is also on an island, but the island cannot be seen due to the stormy sea surrounding the tower.
 * In the front cover of the adult Bloomsbury edition of the third book, Azkaban is shown to be a rectangular tower, while in the fifth film it is more of a triangular tower.
 * It is likely that if Sirius's status as an Animagus was known, the Ministry would have taken certain precautions to prevent him from transforming to escape. This would mean that Azkaban's security measure is not fully enforced for every situation at all times, assuming that the protection with Dementors is pure enough.
 * Escaping from Azkaban is a serious offense, punishable by the worse-than-death Dementor's Kiss. Sirius Black was fated to this, if not for him being rescued beforehand, and Bartemius Crouch Jr. suffered from it when his escape became public. Such a punishment is probably because the escaped prisoners in question are too dangerous to be simply reconfined into the prison, as they could easily escape again.
 * Prisoners from Azkaban have their place card numbers tattooed on their neck and have pictures of them taken with their official number.
 * There are no human personnel (guards, officials etc.) in Azkaban other than prisoners. All prisoners, as seen in the films, wear white shirts with grey stripes.This is because Dementors are mentioned to be pure enough to contain the prisoners in the walls of the prison and it is most likely that no human personnel would manage to bear working in such a depressed place. However, Kingsley Shacklebolt purged Azkaban entirely of Dementors and replaced them with Aurors.
 * Access to Azkaban is strictly prohibited to all people except high-ranked Ministry officials, and only them are granted permission to enter the prison and visit prisoners, although this is very rare.
 * Azkaban prisoners are brought to prison by Aurors, making Aurors the only officials who regularly visit the prison but only to hand over prisoners (before they replaced the Dementors as guards). Dawlish was said to be escorting prisoners.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) 
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * Pottermore

Notes and references
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