15 Most Violent Prisons on Earth

• From maximum security prisons on a tiny island in the middle of the sea to cells so packed with people that disease can spread with no escape, we count 15 of the hardest and most brutal prisons in the world 15 - *** Kwang Prison, • Located in Bangkok, Thailand, it's nicknamed the "Bangkok Hilton" but even so, not a place to go on your honeymoon • Torture is routine here, inmates crammed into tiny cells, one bowl of rice per day, prisoners are required to wear leg irons for the first three months of their stay • Even worse is for death row inmates - leg irons are welded onto their legs permanently, and they're given as little as two hours notice before they're dragged off for execution 14 - Petak Island Prison, • A place in White Lake, Russia, set on an island surrounded by water housing some of the country's most dangerous prisoners • Violence here is surprisingly low, and that's because for 22 hours a day they're shoved in a cage with one inmate, no lavatories, washing facilities or chance of release - you will spend your whole life in that cell • The inmates are surrounded by cold water and snow, a year spent adapting to this new, bleak world - after a few years their personalities decompose, 20 years and you begin to lose your mind 13 - Kamiti Maximum Security, • This is a prison designed to hold just under 1,500 occupants, but is instead overflowing with 3,600 in grimy, unbearable conditions • Since there's no decent water supply, the inmates are required to haul buckets of it everyday in scorching heat just to survive • "G" Block is especially notorious for its violence, *** and sodomy that goes on endlessly, videos released from mobile phone cameras showing workers beating on inmates - it certainly doesn't help their image 12 - Tadmor, • A prison in Syria that sends chills up the spines of criminals - basically a butcher house for inmates, described as a "kingdom of death and madness" • Evidence shows guards, filled with hate and power, carving up prisoners using axes and blades, non-violent criminals left to starve and turn into living skeletons in almost concentration camp conditions • After one assassination attempt on the president, 500 prisoners were attacked in their cells and slaughtered, body parts chopped up in the courtyards and disposed 11 - La Sabaneta, • Venezuela, South America, 25,000 inmates kept in a prison designed for 15,000, violence and corruption running savage in a place undermanned with 1 guard for every 150 prisoners • Since there are so many prisoners, some are forced to sleep in makeshift hammocks strung in pipe-access corridors, while rich inmates pay off guards in order to get the nicest cells • Over the years, there have been a number of mass *** incidents, including a 1995 attack that saw almost 200 prisoners killed and 600 wounded 10 - Pelican Bay State, • Located in the North-western point of California, Crescent City, Pelican Bay is notorious for its solitary confinement conditions • Though other prisons might have bars on the door so they can see out of it, Pelican Bay offers no more than a tiny pinky-finger sized hole to see the outside world for 23 hours a day • The other hour you're locked in the exercise yard, basically a cement box with 20 foot walls offering a brief, bar-filled view of the sky • It's so bad that many prisoners have gone on hunger strikes to protest the conditions 9 - Alcatraz Island, • Also known as "The Rock", or "Devil's Island", a prison fortress built on an island designed to be escape-proof and the strongest prison in all of America • It housed many famous prisoners such as Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly, with violent escape attempts numerous and attacks aplenty, such as the "Battle of Alcatraz in 1946 in which inmates captured the weapons room and recreation yard keys • It shut down after only 29 years, and ever since it's been a museum, one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions 8 - Camp 1391, • An Israel prison undiscovered until 2003, when a historian was going over old maps and realised someone had airbrushed the facilities location out of existence • Prisoners describe it as a 2m x 2m cell with no natural light, *** and physical abuse from the guards, not told where they are, no visitors or lawyers allowed - a prison that does not exist • An Israeli human rights organisation attempted to close the facility with a petition, but nobody would listen to them • It's believed the prison continues to operate to this day 7 - Gitarama Central Prison, • A literal hell on Earth, described by the LA Times as "no space in hell where people live, sleep, eat, rot and die squeezed together four men per square yard in a roofless brick box" • Although the prison was originally designed to hold 400, following the events of the Rwandan genocide, that number rose to 7,000 - to the point that they've basically been left for dead, some resorting to the consumption of recently deceased flesh just to stay alive • The prisoners lives have been compared to a wall of standing people, a single organism under the sun, choking on smoke and cold, disease and gangrene everywhere 6 - Guantanamo Bay, • A prison in Cuba still operational today - it first opened in 2002 with the Secretary of Defence claiming it was built to detain incredibly dangerous criminals and interrogate them in the optimal setting • Some of the prisoners set free claimed there was forced drugging, *** degradation, barbed wire assaults, broken glass and cigarette burns • Amnesty International called for it to shutdown in 2005, but the U.S government rejected their proposal, and though Obama attempted to shut down Guantanamo Bay, he was outvoted 5 - Carandiru, • For almost 80 years this Brazilian prison stood as a place of terror for inmates - in 1992 there were riots that had inmates massacred by police and guards, cowering in their cells • Over 46 years as much as 1300 inmates were butchered, and an AIDS epidemic spread through the facility hitting 20% of the population • In 2002, Amnesty International campaigned for its closure and in 2002 they were successful 4 - Rikers Island, • The main jail in New York City, notorious for brutal violence all through the 90s, said to be worse than the absolute roughest New York streets • Stabbings per year were estimated to be around 1,000, but with reform and SWAT teams cracking down on riots, searching cells daily and confiscating makeshift weapons, that number dropped to less than 70 • Those who ARE found with weapons are given more time to their sentence, leading some to fear constant attacks since they have nothing to defend themselves with 3 - Louisiana State Penitentiary, • Once known as the Angola prison, this is the largest maximum-security prison in the U.S housing around 6,000 inmates • It's actually a farm prison in which prisoners work all day every day in order to keep them tired at night, and they even participate in rodeos once every year • Through the 60s and 70s, weak inmates were served as slaved, ***, gang-***, traded and sold like cattle, and a couple of prisoners were kept in solitary confinement for 40 years for murdering a guard 2 - Kwan-li-so No. 22, • A North Korean maximum security area isolated from the outside world where both prisoners and their families are held in lifelong detention • The prisoners are likened to walking skeletons, dwarfs and cripples in rags with over 30% of inmates bearing deformities from beatings and mistreatment • They're forced to work to exhaustion with primitive tools, their only meal 180g of corn two times a day, no vegetables, no meat, unless they choose to snack on rats, snakes and frogs found in the compound - and a surprising amount do, simply from desperation 1 - ADX Florence Supermax Prison • Top of the line, ultimate lockdown for the most dangerous criminals seen in the United States, so tight in security that inmates need to be kept in complete isolation from both guards and other inmates • A large number of prisoners commit suicide simply from loneliness, some attempt to starve themselves only to be force-fed and kept alive against their will • Chairs and beds are made of concrete, sinks are combined with toilets, a four-inch window is their only view into the outside world • Many describe it as a cleaner version of Hell