The 10 Most Dangerous Prisons in the World
Prisons are supposed to be places for rehabilitation and punishment, but some areas of the world are downright nightmares. These facilities are violent, overcrowded chaotic places far from orderly institutions with structured routines. For the many inmates, survival becomes a full time job. These infamous lockups might make you rethink the movies about life behind bars if you thought they were exaggerated.
Today, we’ll explore the most chilling prisons across the globe where danger lurks around every corner and have a very low chance of survival.
La Sabaneta Prison, Venezuela
La Sabaneta is more a powder keg waiting to explode than a prison. Violence is a daily occurence with severe overcrowding, understaffed guards and a guard-to-prisoner ratio that makes your local DMV look efficient. At one time, this Venezuelan hellhole held more than 3,700 inmates in a space designed for 700. Prison gangs run the prison, meting out their own brutal brand of justice, and guards don’t care. Survival here is a test of endurance; inmates live with malnutrition and such diseases as tuberculosis.
Black Dolphin Prison, Russia
Russia’s most violent criminals—serial killers, terrorists, and cannibals—are sent to Russia’s Black Dolphin Prison, near the Kazakhstan border. Prisoners here are moved blindfolded and housed in a cell with no means of escape, ever. Daily life is bleak: There are no furniture, 90 second checks by guards every 15 minutes, and a no lie down policy when you are awake. The punishment is almost as cruel as their crimes – some prisoners reportedly eat nothing but soup and bread for years.
Gitarama Central Prison, Rwanda
To say Gitarama Central Prison is overcrowded is an understatement. It was built for 500 inmates, but it houses over 7,000, according to New York Times. Prisoners have died of suffocation or infection from standing on rotting flesh for days and days here. Plus, inmates squeeze shoulder-to-shoulder like sardines in a can, and have no room to lie down, so they sleep in shifts. Survival is bleak since violence is rampant and medical care almost nonexistent.
ADX Florence, USA
ADX Florence earned the nickname the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” because it is America’s most secure federal prison. Roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of downtown San Francisco, this supermax facility is where some of the country’s most infamous criminals call home: Ted Kaczynski, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, and a few hundred others. Prisoners are kept in 23-hour solitary confinement in cells meant to remove any form of human contact. It’s no bloodbath like you see in so many other prisons, but being shut from humanity for that long? The psychological effects are no less brutal. As a result, many inmates reportedly suffer from extreme mental health problems.
San Pedro Prison, Bolivia
Bolivia’s San Pedro Prison is a world away from a traditional prison model. Inmates are essentially running the show here. Cells are bought and sold like real estate, with perks for those who can pay for them—think private bathrooms, kitchens. Families live inside the walls, and so prison becomes a bizarre blend of chaos and community. Although its atmosphere is brightly colorful, it’s replete with violence and drug activity and the guards barely pay attention.
Carandiru Penitentiary, Brazil
Carandiru was closed in 2002, but remains the byword for infamy. It was one of South America’s worst prisons, known for endemic violence and vicious gang warfare, and a scene of a deadly 1992 massacre in which police gunned down 111 inmates in a riot. Prisoners were not only put under severe stress because of the inhumane conditions but were at worse risk of getting diseases and even HIV. The name Carandiru still gives Brazilians goose bumps.
Kwanliso No. 15, North Korea
Yodok, or Kwanliso No. 15, is North Korea’s political prison camp, and feels like something ripped straight out of a dystopian novel. The conditions are squalid; starvation, disease, and constant labor are part of inmates’ constant experience, which ends in death. The regime imprisons entire families under its guilt by association policy, and a chilling aspect of public executions is reality. The stories of defectors is so harrowing that you’ll think it doesn’t exist in the 21st century.
Petak Island Prison, Russia
Another Russian prison, Petak Island, lies on a frozen island in the middle of Lake Novozero. It’s a maximum security facility for the worst of the worst — murderers, rapists, repeat offenders. Prisoners are locked in tiny, freezing cells, in near total isolation, and listen to nothing but the howling winds outside. Petak’s brutal conditions are meant to crush the spirit of the hardest criminals.
Bang Kwang Central Prison, Thailand
Bang Kwang, nicknamed the “Bangkok Hilton,” is nothing but cruel. The jails are known for a severe overcrowding and wild conditions; inmates spend their first three months in shackles. Prisoners rely so heavily on packages from family members to survive because the food is so inadequate. Medical care is minimal and many die from treatable illness, and violence is common. Bang Kwang is one of the most feared in Southeast Asia.
Tadmor Prison, Syria
Tadmor Prison, located in the Syrian desert is renowned for housing extreme violence and human rights abuse’. A massacre at the prison reportedly killed hundreds in a single day during the 1980s. The facility had wider fame as a tool of political repression under Syria’s Assad regime where torture and executions were common. Destroyed in 2015, its legacy is one of the most horrendous prisons to ever exist.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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