After we saw the luxuries of the Halden prison
in Norway, where Anders Behring Breivik, the gunman who orchestrated
the deadliest terror strike in Oslo since the World War II last month,
might stay if convicted, it's time to show the flipside.
Barring
exceptions, it's anybody's guess that prisons are definitely not the
most luxurious places to be. But there are some prisons in the world
where, forget luxuries, nightmares become your reality.
Rediff.com
takes a look at some of the most dangerous prisons in the world, where,
come what may, you would never, never like to end up in!
Image: The ADX supermax prison in Colorado, US
The United
States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) is a supermax
prison (or a control unit prison) for men that is located in Fremont
County, Colorado. It is unofficially known as ADX Florence, and is
extremely infamous and often being called 'nothing but slow and painful
torture.'
As it houses the one of the most dangerous prisoners in US, ADX Florence puts in a six-layered security set up for every inmate.
These
prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for at
least the first year. Depending on their records, they can be let out
for longer periods.
Often the target of human rights activists, the prison has seen 'thousands of forced feedings' and four suicides.
A former ADX warden described the place as 'a cleaner version of Hell.'
The Tadmor
prison is located in Palmyra in the deserts of eastern Syria. The
structures were originally built as military barracks by the French
Mandate forces.
Tadmor prison is known for harsh conditions, extensive human rights abuse, torture and summary executions.
Many
allege 'innocent and guilty alike have been dragged via a rope until
they're dead, beaten to death with pipes and chopped into pieces with an
axe' in this prison.'
However
on June 27, 1980, more than 1,000 inmates were killed by the Syrian
paramilitary forces (Defence Birgades), under the leadership of
Rifat-al-Assad, the brother of former Syrian president Hafiz al-Assad,
who stormed in Tadmor prison to avenge the failed assassination bid on
Hafiz the previous day.
Carandiru
Penitentiary was a notorious prison located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which
was finally shut in 2002 following a deadly massacre in 1992 within its
premises that killed 111 inmates.
Once
one of the biggest prisons in Latin America which housed more than
8,000 inmates at a time, brutal torture wasn't the only thing that made
Carandiru Penitentiary one of worst prisons in the world.
Nearly
a fifth of the total inmates had HIV and a majority of them didn't have
it when they entered the prison, reports have claimed.
The La Sante Prison in Paris is regarded as one of the worst in the world, especially because of its unbelievable suicide rates.
It's
alleged that 124 suicides occurred in this prison in 1999 alone.
'Prisoners have actually eaten rat poison to escape the depravity here,'
a report stated.
Image: The Diyarbakir Prison
Diyarbakir
Prison is a prison located in Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey. It was
built in 1980 as an 'E-type prison' by the Turkish ministry of justice.
Although
it is impossible to list all the methods of torture that were used,
testimonies reveal that among the most common practices were: severe and
systematic beating, pulling of hair, being stripped naked, being
blindfolded and hosed, solitary confinement, death threats, the
obligation to salute Captain Esat Oktay Yıldıran's dog, a German
shepherd called "Jo", which was trained to bite the private parts of
naked prisoners, sleep, sensory, water and food deprivation for
extensive periods, etc.
Squeezing
or crushing of limbs and genitalia, piling of naked prisoners on top of
each other, asphyxia and mock executions, electric shocks (specifically
electrodes attached to genitals), burning with cigarettes, extraction
of nails and healthy teeth, forcing prisoners to mix with inmates with
tuberculosis, sexual humiliation and assault and forced feeding of
rotten/contaminated food or feces, are some of the other
torture-techniques allegedly pursued in the prison.
Image: A guard stands at Bangkwang Central Prison on the outskirts of Bangkok
The Bangkwang prison in Thailand is regarded the worst in the world as its overcrowded and torturous. A report on anarchology.org stated,
'Bangkwang is understaffed, overcrowded, and filled with inmates who
struggle with insanity as they spend the first months of their sentences
chained in leg irons.'
The
report further adds, "If you find yourself on death row at Bangkwang,
you will have leg irons welded on until your execution, and you will be
given only two hours notice before dying by lethal injection."
Image: The death chamber at California's San Quentin State Prison is shown in this undated file photograph
In the 1930's,
San Quentin prison in California was rife with corruption by management,
until a new director, Clinton Truman Duffy, appalled at the inhumane
conditions at the prison, decided to implement reforms in the 1940's.
Prior
to his appointment, prisoners made counterfeit currency in the prison
shops, had their heads shaved and were forced to wear numbered uniforms,
while eating out of pails and enduring solitary confinement in
poured-concrete cells that had little air and no light. Even a petty
offense to prison regulations would land an inmate in solitary, and race
riots would put inmate lives at risk on a regular basis.
San
Quentin is still a harsh environment, filled with California's most
violent offenders, and the high ratio of guards to general population,
just barely keeps the prison system from spiraling out of control.
Image: Lighthouse on the former island prison of Alcatraz flashes at dusk in San Francisco Bay
Some other
prisons across the globe which are equally notorious are Alcatraz Prison
in California (now closed), situated on an island where escaping is
unthinkable, La Sabeneta Prison in Venezuela where 196 inmates were
allegedly murdered in 1995 alone and the Rikers Prison in New York.
The
Camp 22 (Kwan-Li-So No 22, Haengyong) in North Korea, Black Beach
prison in Equatorial Guinea where 'starvation deaths' are normal,
Al-Ha'ir Prison in Saudi Arabia where torture deaths regularly occur and
the 'psychologically destructive' Petak Island prison in Russia are
some other examples.
