Infamous for the alleged abuses and torture carried out within its walls, the Saudi prison system is hardly the cradle of restorative justice.
During a month-long amnesty earlier this year, when some of the country's most wanted men were told they would not face the death penalty, only four militants turned themselves in.
However, in a new attempt to entice the hunted out of hiding, the authorities this week launched a charm offensive, enlisting the apparently willing help of inmates.
A number of jailed terror suspects appeared on national television promoting prison life, with one - on the list of 26 most-wanted Saudis - saying it was better than being at home.
"I swear to God, they (jailers) are nicer than our parents," said Othman Hadi Al Maqboul al-Amri, who surrendered in June under the royal amnesty.
"We heard things about abuse and persecution that could or could not be believed," another prisoner, Abdul-Rahman al-Ahmari, said on the documentary from al-Hayer reform penitentiary, outside Riyadh. "But I found al-Hayer totally different."
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