12-11-17 Silicon India: World's 10 Most Dangerous Prisons

The scientific background for this list remains unclear.  Regardless, one should note that the US ends up in the respectable 6th,7th, 8th, and 10th places.  jz

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Bangalore: ‘If you do the crime, you got to do the time,’ and the time spent in prison is not just hard, not just tough it’s rather insanely dangerous. To survive as an inmate is the real challenge and staying alive is a big deal for these prisoners. When it comes to the ten most dangerous prisons in the world each day seems like a mark of endurance. Here’s the list of most dangerous prisons in the world as reported by Heather Matthews for toptenz.net.

10. San Quentin Prison
At number 10 is the San Quentin prison in California. It was opened in 1852. It is the largest prisons in the United States. In the 1930s, corruption in the San Quentin Prison management was common and widespread. It was in 1940 after Clinton Truman Duffy was appointed the new director of the prison who employed ways to reform the appalling and brutal conditions of this prison.
Before the new system, the inmates’ were imposed to wear numbered uniforms, forced to spend solitary confinement in concrete cells with poor air supply and no light. Even now the conditions are harsh, which is incorporated to control the most violent offenders in the prison.

9. Bang Kwang Prison
At ninth spot is the Bang Kwang Prison in Thailand, also called ‘the Bangkok Hilton’. The first one month in this prison drives many prisoners insane with shackles on their feet. The prison is overcrowded and understaffed. As said by the Director Khun Nattee, “Thai prisons are tough…you don’t want to be in Bang Kwang,” as reported by topnetz.net. The prison is known for the poor medical facilities, where sick prisoners wait for their medications while chained to their bed, which they might never receive. The most dreadful of all facts is that a prisoner is informed just two hours before being executed by lethal injection.

8. Rikers Island Prison
The eighth prison on the list is the Rikers Island in New York. The prison is known for the most brutal acts practiced by the prison guards. The prison is filled with mostly drug offenders and is popular as a hotbed of assault and aggression. In 2003 six inmates were reported of committing suicide to escape the brutality of the guards. Even the mentally ill prisoner’s receive similar treatment; they often choose suicide as a remedy instead of medical treatment and attention, which they never get.

7. ADX Florence Supermax Facility
The ADX Florence Supermax Facility located in Colorado is seventh on the list. It was built as a response to the violent attacks of the prisoners on the guards and prison staff. It is a place where the prisoners are subjected to complete isolation from the prison staff. The prisoners at the ADX are considered as ‘worst of the worst,’ they are mostly repeat offenders who have murdered or injured other inmates or guards. The prison is described by the inmates as ‘clear version of hell.’

6. Alcatraz Island Prison
The Alcatraz Island prison is sixth and is currently inactive. Alcatraz is most well known prison on the list after being popularized by movies like ‘The Rock’ and ‘Devil’s Island.’  The prisons unique design makes it impossible to escape, but efforts were made to escape.

The prison followed the ‘silence’ policy, one of the most inhumane treatments, in which the inmates are forced to give up verbal communication for a long period. As a result many went insane due to these strict prison conditions. In 1963 the prison was shut down. However its dark past still lives on as a part of its legacy.

5. La Sante Prison
The fifth spot is taken by La Sante Prison in Paris, France. ‘Sante’ which translates to ‘health’ in English stands paradoxical to the obnoxious condition in which the prisoners were forced to live. As per the former official Veronique Vasseur the whistle blower, the prisoners were forced to live in concrete cells which were full of lice and rats, resulting in the inmate’s mental breakdown. The strong prisoners enslaved the weaker ones and rapes took place on daily basis. Le Sante had an extensive level of suicide, which accounted to 122 suicides in 2002 alone and plus 73 by mid 2003.

4. Diyarbakir Prison
The Turkey Prison Diyarbakir is fourth for brutally treating its prisoners. Due to the intensive torture, inflicted both mentally and physically 34 prisoners lost their lives from 1981 to 1984 at Diyarbakir. The inhumane living condition and sexual abuse of its prisoners are common in this prison. In protest to amend the prison conditions prisoners have attempted hunger strike, set themselves on fire and even committed suicide to escape the horror.

Diyarbakir inconsiderate act of incarcerating children, sentencing them to life imprisonment adding to its list of ‘crime against humanity’ makes this prison one of the most vicious prisons in the world.

3. La Sabaneta Prison
The third spot is given to the Venezuela prison La Sabaneta. This prison along with all the brutality of violence and aggression is known to have disease out breaks. There is very little medical service, the staff is underpaid and the deficient supply of food and care adds to the list of distress.

This prison functions under such intolerable health conditions that 700 inmates were wiped out due to cholera. The inmate riots have caused appalling massacre leading to the death of 100 prisoners in 1994. It resulted due to the idealness and boredom of the prisoners who are not allowed to engage in any activities in order to vent their anxiety and tension.

2. Tadmor Prison
The Tadmor Prison in Syria takes the second place with its heinous prison conditions. The violence is merciless and gruesome. A former prisoner described the prison as ‘kingdom of death and madness.’ The vicious guards are known to butcher prisoners with axes. The political prisoners are starved by the prison administrators who eventually resemble the concentration camp malnutrition victims. In 1980, after an attempt to assassinate the President of Syria, the commandos as a ‘warning message’ butchered over 500 prisoners. The act was beyond being callous and inhumane and yet it only makes the second spot.

1. Carandiru Prison
The Brazilian prison Carandiru tops the charts for being the most dangerous and worst prison in the world. In the 1992 massacre led by the police, the death toll of the general population was unbelievably high. Even the surrendered inmates were shot in there dingy prison cells. In its 46 years in service, the number of death at this prison is accounted to over 1300.In 2002 the violence inflicted by the officials was stopped, as the prison was closed. The physical violence was not the only preposterous happenings at this prison, it had also turned into a center of AIDS epidemic spreading rapidly, infecting one out of five inmates.

These prisons can easily make anybody shiver with terror just by their tales, it’s very difficult to imagine the lives of those people who have or are living in any of these prisons.