Top ten dangerous prisons in the world
This article would address the top ten dangerous and furious prisons in today's modern world,
which can melt your heart even for the serial killers, psychopaths and pedophiles: because what
happens in these jails would make you forget the harsh conditions and tortures you watched in
‘Prison Break’ or in ‘The Shaw Shank Redemption’. Inmates of these jails commonly face brutal
torture for longtime, scarce food or malnutrition and overcrowdings and if they survive these
hazards, they fall a victim to epidemics and chronic diseases or get psychologically devastated.
There are many such prisons around the world which provide their inmates cushiest lifestyle and
luxurious facilities, but majority of the criminals are not lucky enough to have access to these
luxurious prisons.
Therefore, the intent of this article is to put in light the top ten dangerous prisons of today’s
world, where the death is sometimes more desirable than the life. Commonly, the concept of
punishment and prison is perceived to make a man repent for his evil act, so the person is
confined to such a place which keeps him unconnected from outer society in order to prevent
him from repeating same evil act, but these dangerous prisons not only make their inmates repent
their crimes rather destroy the ability to do any act.
10. La Sabaneta Prison, Venzuela
This dangerous jail in the top ten brutal prisons is controlled by only two things; money and
power instead of state policies because of its corrupt system, the outbreak of diseases is a matter
of routine because of the overcrowding here. The facilities are designed to have the capacity of
15,000 inmates, but there are roughly 25,000 prisoners in Venezuela which provide the best
breeding ground for diseases such as cholera. Those who neither have power nor money which is
the majority of the prison population are forced to sleep in corridors, in hammocks, because their
cells are given to those who either have power or money.
9. Bang Kwang Central Prison, Thailand
In this brutal prison, the inmates are chained with leg-irons for first three months of their
punishments and death row inmates are welded with leg-irons permanently before their
execution by firing squad or lethal injection. This dangerous prison was built between the years
of 1927 and 1931 particularly for the notorious offenders whose trials are being processed in the
Appeal court or Supreme court, who are sentenced between 25 years to life imprisonment, the
course of its long history and its crushing life style conditions either caused its prisoners to die or
lose their sanity that made it one of the top ten harshest prison in the world.
8. Petak Island, Russia
This is one of the worst prisons in Russia which is surrounded by freezing waters of White Lake,
infamous for its toughest lifestyle in its conferment as there are no lavatories, washing facility
and you spend your whole life in a cell. A mental torture adopted in this prison involves 22.5
hours a day confinement in two-man rooms and inmates are only allowed to meet visitors twice a
year. The first nine months or so are adapting there, but after three or four years the personalities
of its inmates start to deteriorate. The criminals who are kept in Petak are mostly notorious and
dangerous criminals like serial killers, rapist, psychopaths and pedophiles.
7. Gitarama Prison, Rwanda
This is one of the dangerous places in the list of top ten brutal prisons around the world where
inmates kill each other and eat the dead bodies; this prison has a capacity of 600 inmates but
housed nearly 6000 to 7000 inmates, for that most of the prisoners have to spend much of their
time standing barefooted which causes them rotting foot or gangrene. A report published that
everyday 7 to 8 inmates die at Gitarama prison due to pathetic conditions. There is no proper
food, sanitation and health care in this furious prison, it can really make you feel like a “hell on
earth”.
6. Gldani Prison, Georgia
The videos of sexual assaults, rapes, humiliation and torture made this prison as one of the topten dangerous prisons. The footage revealed the guards systematically sodomizing the inmates
with nightsticks and broom handles which urged the former U.S.S.R state to investigate these
terrible acts done to the inmates. As the videos gained worldwide exposure, so the government
took firm steps to improve conditions at Gldani prion.
5. Diyarbakir Prison, Turkey
According to the The Times, it is among the “ten most notorious prison in the world” because of
the torture and humiliation of its inmates by guards. The period of early and mid 1980s (mainly
1981 to 1984) is known as “the period of brutality” or “the hell of Diyarbakir” where the
prisoners in newly established Diyarbakir Prison were subjected to systematic and inhumane
torture and consequently 34 prisoners lost their lives. Many people who were imprisoned there
expressed their feelings inside this hellish jail and said “They did everything to destroy you
psychologically”, or simply, the proverb “the tongue cannot describe what the eye sees” is
appropriate to explain the harshness of this infamous prison.
4. Contonou Prison, Benin
What makes this prison one of the top ten dangerous prisons are its deplorable and harsh
conditions which is faced to its inmates. The facility was designed for 400 inmates, but
unfortunately it has to hold 2,445 prisoners. According to the reports, the prison approximately
holds 800 children along with its adult inmates in poor conditions. The deadly challenges and
miserable conditions found in this prison are surprisingly not intentional, as the government has
not sufficient resources to improve conditions of this prison. Another report provides that over
90 percent of its inmates are awaiting trial and large numbers of women are detained with their
children, even they have to give birth to their babies without an attendant physician.
3. Carandiru Prison, Brazil
The Carandiru Penitentiary is today considered as one of the worst prison in the history of
modern world, and also the place of the largest human right violations in the history of Brazil. It
was built in 1920 to meet all the needs of 1980 criminal code, the prison became so overcrowded
in the late 20th century that prisoners accomplished to live by their rules, overpowering small
amount of guards that worked there. Over 8000 prisoners were imprisoned there, with 1000
prison officers attempting unsuccessfully to control them; it was also the place of dangerous
diseases, as most of the inmates were suffering from HIV and other types of easily transmissible
diseases. The riots in 1992 also known as “Carandiru Massacre” gained it worldwide exposure
that ended on the cost of 111 prisoners’ lives.
2. Tadmor Prison, Syria
“Tadmor” is the Arabic word known for destruction, so the Tadmor prison is also the place for
destruction for those who were incarcerated there. The prison is infamous for its harsh
conditions, extensive human rights abuse, torture and summary executions. A report of Amnesty
International called it a source of “despair, torture and degrading treatment”. What made it the
dangerous prison is the massacre of its thousand inmates during 1980s by Rifaat al-Assad in
response to the attempt of assassination of his brother President Hafez al-Assad. In May 2015, it
was captured and blown up by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
1. Camp 22
There are some places on the earth where humans are still treated as slaves or as more
inhumanely than slaves and one of those places is the Camp 22, it is an isolated penal colony
from outer world for political prisoners in North Korea, where approximately 50,000 inmates are
housed; it was claimed that three generations of dissident families have been imprisoned there to
completely abolish the ‘roots’. It is said that in the first month of its imprisonment, you are likely
to lose your ear, nose, eye or any other limb of your body. It gained international exposure after
its prison guard defected to China in 2012 who has witnessed the extreme human right
violations, human experimentations, and systematic tortures which placed it on the top of the ten
world’s most dangerous prisons.