In the United States, as many as 20,000 prison inmates across the country have gone on strike
to protest slavery-like wages, abusive guards, overcrowded cells, and insufficient healthcare.
But despite these, the US prison system is not necessarily the worst, despite incarcerating
a higher rate than any other country.
Historically prisons have only improved, but in the last decade, deplorable conditions
have persisted around the world.
So, we wanted to know, what have been some of the worst prisons in modern history?
Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most dangerous and inhumane prisons was located
in one of the most dangerous and inhumane countries: North Korea.
One of many political prisons, concentration camp number 22, has been described as “hell”
for both guards and prisoners.
Those sent to the camp were often those who had criticized the government, or former party
members thought to be unreliable.
Often, multiple generations of a prisoner’s entire family, including any children born
in the prison, were forced to serve a lifelong sentence alongside the accused.
Former guards described the shocking conditions, which included regular torture, malnourishment,
hard labor, and extermination of prisoners.
One guard also suggested that human experimentation occurred at the camp, where chemical and biological
weapons were tested on human subjects.
As many as 50,000 were believed to be held at the site.
After the prison became the focus of human rights groups and its location discovered
due to satellite imaging, it is believed the site was closed around 2012, although similar
conditions are reported in other prison camps around the country.
Another extreme prison, Tadmor Prison in Syria, was destroyed by the Islamic State in 2015.
Nonetheless, the prison has a horrifyingly violent history for Syrians.
The extremely inhumane treatment, and a massacre in 1980 made this one of the most dangerous
prisons.
After an assassination attempt on the former Syrian president, military members entered
the prison and executed an estimated one thousand people, an overwhelming portion of the prison
population.
But even twenty years later, conditions continued to be described as brutal.
A 2001 report from Amnesty International detailed that many prisoners were there for political
reasons, and would be beaten and tortured daily.
One example was that prisoners were seated in a chair that would arch all the way back,
causing asphyxiation and sometimes fracturing the prisoner’s spine.
While these prisons are closed, one that is still operating is the Muhanga District Prison,
formerly known as the Gitarama prison in Rwanda.
It has been described as the “worst prison in the world” for the deadly and dangerous
conditions.
The prison has a capacity of 500, but houses as many as seven thousand prisoners according
to the New York Times.
This incredible overcrowding means that prisoners cannot sit down, and some even develop gangrene
on their feet from the prolonged standing and unhygienic conditions.
While other prisons are dangerous for safety reasons, Muhanga, which largely houses criminals
from the Rwandan genocide, is dangerous as thousands have died from suffocation, disease
and neglect.
Although some of these prisons are believed to be shut down, similar conditions continue
in prisons all over the world, particularly in developing regions without accountability
to the world community.
From deadly living conditions, to outright murder, being incarcerated in any of these,
or similar, prisons is effectively a death sentence.
While the United States doesn’t necessarily have the worst prisons in the world, it does
incarcerate at a higher rate than any other country, and holds the largest prison population.
So what is going on with the US’s prison system? find out in this video up top.
You can also learn about solitary confinement, and its horrible effects on prisoners by watching
the video down below.
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