Prison riots are never a good thing, but some are worse than others.
The most violent prison riots in history all started for one of two reasons: incredibly
poor living conditions or gang warfare.
Today we are about to take you through the top ten most deadly prison riots of all time,
each one more gruesome than the last.
We’ll start you off slowly and work our way to the most deadly prison riot in history.
Just when you think it can’t get any worse… it will.
The tropical islands of the Philippines are surrounded by beautiful aqua water and coconut
trees as far as the eye can see.
Unfortunately, it is also the country where the tenth most deadly prison riot began.
The prison riot at Davao Metro Discom took place from August 13 to August 15 in 1989.
The riot began when 16 prisoners escaped from their cells.
They had planned to riot due to the poor conditions in the prison.
In order to gain attention, the escapees took 15 civilian hostages from a visiting Protestant
church group called the Joyful Assembly of God.
The church members would pray for God to help them survive.
Unfortunately, not everyone's prayers were answered.
The prisoners were members of the Wild Boys of DaPeCol gang.
They held the hostages for ransom until their demands were met.
Their asking price; better conditions in the prison.
The Davao police called in the military and launched a rescue.
Troops and police moved in with machine guns and riot equipment.
They had tried ending the riot peacefully, but the prisoners would not give up and began
harming the hostages.
The authorities could not allow this so they went in with guns blazing.
21 people lost their lives during the raid.
All 16 inmates were killed and 5 hostages were murdered.
But this riot is nothing compared to what is coming up.
The next deadliest prison riot took place in Iquique, Chile in May of 2001.
Like the riot in Davao, this riot started due to the unbearable prison conditions the
inmates were living in.
Unlike Davao no hostages were taken, but massive destruction was brought upon the prison itself.
One of the issues was overcrowding, which meant that when the riot started there were
a lot of inmates ready to join in the mayhem.
The riot started with the prisoners overwhelming the guards and freeing other inmates as they
made their way through the building.
To make their displeasure clear they started to destroy the prison.
This culminated in the inmates lighting a large fire that quickly engulfed part of the
prison.
The building had been built almost twenty years prior and little attention was given
to fire proofing the structure.
The fire raged out of control consuming any inmates in its path.
It wasn’t until hours later that the authorities were finally able to get the blaze under control,
and disband the rioting prisoners.
By this point, the flames had claimed 28 inmates and injured 150 more.
This riot was not deadly because of inmate violence, but because of the fire that got
out of control.
The same cannot be said about our next prison riot.
No fire was started, but inmate on inmate violence was very prevalent.
You won’t believe what these prisoners did to one another.
Venezuela’s Santa Ana Prison broke into a deadly riot in December of 2007.
The prison itself held around 2,000 inmates, some of whom were the most violent and dangerous
people in the country.
The prison riot all started with an argument between an inmate and a guard.
It is unclear who threw the first punch, but what ensued was pure violence and chaos.
The inmates revolted.
They used anything they could find to fight the guards.
Once the prison personnel had been removed from the general vicinity, the prisoners turned
their weapons on one another.
Rival gangs hunted down their enemies.
They used shovels or pieces of brick and concrete broken from the walls to attack one another.
Some inmates even had homemade weapons that they had been saving for such an occasion.
At the end of the riot 30 inmates lay dead from gang warfare.
But what happens when the prison guards can’t get away from the inmates?
This next prison riot will definitely leave you more horrified than the previous three.
The New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot lasted two days, starting on February 2, 1980.
Like other riots the prisoners were revolting against the atrocious conditions in the prison.
Things like unsanitary cells, poor quality food, and the cancellation of their education
program were the main causes of the riot.
As a result of these conditions the inmates took 12 officers hostage.
The first officer was overpowered by two inmates.
After he was secured, other prisoners followed suit and began capturing guards around the
prison.
In their haste the fleeing prison guards did not lock the doors behind them.
The inmates got ahold of the keys from the captured officers’ belts and began unlocking
the cells of even more prisoners.
Then the chaos really began.
The freed prisoners began smashing windows and doors.
They grabbed weapons and more keys to unlock more cells.
Eventually the inmates turned on each other.
Rival gang members started attacking one another.
The officers that were being held hostage were beaten and raped.
The police eventually took back control of the prison.
33 inmates were killed and more than 200 were injured.
The 12 officers who were taken hostage all survived, but after what they had been put
through, many may have wished they hadn’t.
It is crazy what prisoners will do when in a riot, and we are not even halfway through
the list of the most violent prison riots in history.
It’s just going to get crazier and crazier.
This next riot is actually a combination of prison riots in Guatemala in 2005.
The reason these riots are grouped together is because they were all carried out by the
same gangs in coordination with one another.
The prison riots of Pavon, Granja Pino Canada, and El Hoyon all were orchestrated by the
Mara Salvatrucha and MS-13 gangs.
The attacks and subsequent riots within the prisons were carried out using heavier weapons
than in any of the previous accounts.
The gangs used grenades to open up holes in the prisons’ defenses.
In the confusion the prisoners were able to riot against the guards.
They got their hands on knives and guns, which they used on the guards and each other.
35 inmates died during the coordinated riots.
61 prisoners were injured at El Hoyon alone, many were found bleeding from knife wounds.
Now this next prison riot is a little more well known, and for good reason.
It took four days for the police to regain control and ended with an 8 million dollar
settlement in favor of the prisoners.
This riot was called the Attica Prison Riot and happened in New York.
The riot started on September 9, 1971.
It seemed like just another day.
Except the command staff of the prison had decided to change the scheduling a bit.
Unfortunately, they did not inform the officer who was in charge of leading the group of
men in 5 Company to their next location.
The group normally went out to the yard right after breakfast, but on this day the guard
found the door to the yard locked.
The inmates realized the officer was confused and capitalized on it.
They overpowered the guard.
The rioters then ran back down the hallway gaining more and more inmates as they went.
The 1,000 person mob began to brutally beat the guards and took their weapons.
They burnt down the prison chapel.
42 officers and staff were taken hostage.
The riot itself was not the craziest part about this story however.
After four days of the inmates running the prison, the state police finally gained back
control.
They did so by killing 39 people.
Although some inmates needed to be subdued, the police were accused of shooting prisoners
who had surrendered in cold blood.
The most messed up part of the situation though was the killing of 10 hostages.
The hostages were not killed by the inmates, but by the state police.
They tried to cover up their mistake, but the autopsy reports proved that the hostages
had been shot dead by weapons used by the state police.
In the end, the injured inmates filed a lawsuit against the state.
They received a settlement for 8 million dollars for the unlawful action of the police and
state officials, and for violation of Human Rights.
We are now getting to the top of our list.
The amount of violence is going to skyrocket, so just be ready.
For our next violent prison riot we are going to head back to South America to the country
of Brazil.
There were 3 riots that took place at the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex in Manaus,
Brazil in January of 2017.
All of the riots were between two rival drug trafficking gangs called Familie do Norte
and Primeiro Commando da Capital.
What stands out most about these riots are how brutal they were.
The prison riots at the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex were orchestrated to kill rival gang
members, not to harm the officers at the prison.
The riots resulted in 60 prisoners losing their lives on the very first day.
The most gruesome part is that the rival gang members did not just kill one another, they
tortured each other.
In many cases the torture ended with decapitiation.
These riots had little to do with protesting prison conditions and everything to do with
gang warfare.
This brings us to our top 3 most violent prison riots of all time.
There are parts of these riots that were even hard for us to believe, because of how crazy
they were.
Buckle in for a wild ride.
For the third most violent prison riot we are back in Venezuela.
The Uribana Prison Riot began on January 25, 2013.
This riot was triggered by an announcement that Venezuelan National Guard troops would
be searching the facility for weapons.
This was part of an anti-gang task force.
Knowing that the National Guard would not like what they found the prisoners riotted.
Everyone was a target in this riot.
Inmates, officers, and National Guard troops were all a part of the final death count.
The violence became so bad, that after the riot was over bodies mutilated beyond recognition
were found.
These heinous acts led human rights groups to condemn the prison, citing that overcrowding
and inhumane conditions were partly the reason for the riot.
61 people were killed and 120 others were injured during this event.
We are now at the penultimate most violent prison riot in history.
We hope you’re ready, because there is no way you’ll see what’s coming in these
last two prison riots.
El Porvenir Prison in Honduras was used to hold suspects on trial for assault, drug trafficking,
and rape charges.
On April 6, 2003 the worst of the worst began to riot at El Porvenir Prison.
A fight erupted between the two rival gangs of Mara Salvatrucha and La 18.
Like the Iquique Prison, the destructive method of choice for the rioters was to set stuff
on fire.
The gang members set the mattresses of their rivals on fire while they were locked in their
cells.
Although there was some fighting during the riot, the fire is what claimed the most lives.
It took firefighters hours to put out the blaze.
When it was contained and authorities proceeded through the prison to get the riot under control,
they found 86 dead inmates, all burnt to a crisp.
You’ve made it to the most violent prison riot in history.
This last prison riot is so violent that it was named the Carandiru Massacre.
It broke out on October 2, 1992 at the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil.
The riot got so bad that the Military police were called upon to subdue the inmates.
Unfortunately for everyone involved in the riot, they did a lot more than just subdue
them.
The police came into the prison weapons hot and 102 prisoners were shot dead.
The officers were later accused of human rights violations and using excessive force.
Accounts surfaced of prisoners being shot even after they surrendered.
Survivors recounted police shooting inmates who were hiding in their cells, but the São
Paulo court found the police innocent and no charges were carried out.
Out of the 68 officers who were sent in to break up the riot, not a single one was killed,
which makes you wonder why so many of the inmates had to die.
There were also 9 inmates found stabbed to death by other prisoners, which brings the
death toll of the most violent prison riot in history to 111 people, all of which were
inmates.
Prisons are already dangerous, but when riots break out they can be deadly.
This list is by no means the only prison riots that have occured, but they are the deadliest.
As a rule of thumb it is probably just best to stay out of gangs, prison, or prison riots
if you value your life.
Now check out How To Survive Inside Prison?
Or watch 50 Insane Facts About Prison You Wouldn't Believe.