'20 worst prisons on the planet'. Where are they?
September 26, 2012
Andrew Freeman
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]La Sante Prison, Paris, France[/h] La Sante Prison, one of the worst prisons in the world, is home to international terrorist Carlos the Jackal and previously housed felled Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega before he was extradited to Panama to stand trial for human rights violations.
A study by France's National Institute of Demographics and Prison Administration found that France had the highest prison suicide rate in the EU. The 23-hour-a-day lockdown and 100 degree in cell heat may contribute to why so many prisoners
opt to end their lives at La Sante.
Click through the gallery to see the rest of the worst prisons in tht world.
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Gldani Prison, Georgia[/h] Gldani Prison in the former Soviet republic of Georgia came under scrutiny when a video that surfaced on September 18, 2012, appeared to show the prison warden and a slew of guards repeatedly
torturing and sexual assaulting multiple inmates (this link is NOT graphic).
The guard responsible for leaking the videos, Vladimir Bedukadze, said he had witnessed similar atrocities occurring daily since 2005, making this prison one of the worst in the world. Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia has resigned amid the
abuse scandal. The issue has become extremely political as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is up for re-election on October 1 against the Georgian Dream party backed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
[h=5](Photo: Vano Shlamov/Getty Images)[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Louisiana State Penitentiary, Louisiana, United States[/h] Formerly known as Angola Prison, Louisiana State Penitentiary is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, and one of the worst in the world, housing 5,108 prisoners. Angola is a farm prison where inmates work all year round and participate in an annual rodeo. The prison has been accused of imposing cruel and unusal degrees of punishment upon (among others) prisoners
Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, who have been in solitary confinement for 40 years (a world record) after being convicted of murdering a prison guard in 1972,
despite meager evidence.
[h=5]Photo: msppmoore/Creative Commons via Flickr[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]San Quentin State Prison, Marin, California[/h] San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California, is a hotbed of prison gang activity and the sunshine state's only death row for men. The Black Guerrilla Family was founded there in 1966 and the Aryan Brotherhood in 1967. Gangs are subdivided by race and region. Not being affiliated with a gang is dangerous, according to an
MSNBC look inside the prison.
[h=5]Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Maricopa County Jail, Phoenix, Arizona[/h] Maricopa County Jail is spread out over a number of locations in the Phoenix area and run by
famous Arizona Sheriff Joe Arapiao. In
2008 and
2010, U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake ruled that the conditions of the jail were unconstitutional. An extension of the jail, Tent City, is outdoors. The heat index has been measured as high as 165 degrees. If all of this didn't make Maricopa one of the worst prisons in the world already, all inmates are required to wear pink undergarments.
[h=5]Photo: Jean-Loup Sense/Getty Images[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Maracaibo Prison, Venezuela[/h] Maracaibo prison is in Venezuelan President's Hugo Chavez's home state of Sabaneta, and is one of the worst in the world. It was opened in 1958 with capacity for 900 prisoners. Today the facility houses
2,400 inmates and has a swimming pool for its gang leaders. Maracaibo made news in 1994 when an uprising of Guariro
Indians resulted in
54 injured and 106 dead. Media members who attempted to visit the prison had
rocks thrown and shots fired at them by prisoners on the roof.
[h=5]Photo: Jorge Silva/Reuters[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Tadmor Prison, Syria[/h] In 1980, after a failed attempt on his life, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad had 500 to 800 inmates of Tadmor Prison massacred (clean up took two weeks). The prison was closed after Hafez al-Assad's death in 2001. His son, current President Basshir al-Assad, re-opened Tadmor Prison on June 15, 2011. Syrian expatriate
Doctor Bara Sarraj, an immunologist at Chicago's Northwestern University, wrote
From Tadmor to Harvard detailing his nine years in the prison, describing it as "constant humiliation, horrible beatings and hangings." Currently,
Syria is in a state of civil war, and Tadmor is open for undisclosed business.
[h=5]Photo: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Petak Island Prison, Russia[/h] In 2004 the
Telegraph interviewed Valery and Oleg, cellmates at Petak Island Prison (number OE-256/5), located in the middle of a lake deep in remotest Russia. Petak is the most isolated
prison in Russia. Both men had been convicted of brutal murders and, instead of life sentences, were sent to Petak Island to see if they would survive 25-year sentences. Prisoners spend 22 hours a day in cells with their cell mate and pace in an outdoor cage during their yard time. Parcels and visitors are allowed twice a year.
[h=5]Photo: Maxim Marmur/Getty Images[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]ADX Florence, Colorado[/h] United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, is the federal government's premier super-max prison, and one of the worst prisons in the world. Inmates are held in their cells for 23 hours a day. They have no interaction with other prisoners and limited interaction with guards. Inmates never spend more than one hour of every 24 outdoors, and
no natural light ever reaches their cells. The light deprivation is meant to mentally break inmates. In a
60 Minutes interview, former Warden Robert Hood described ADX Florence as, "A clean version of hell."
[h=5]Photo: AFP/ Stringer[/h]
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<figcaption class="slide-caption"> [h=2]Pelican Bay State Prison, California[/h] Pelican Bay State Prison is located at the Northwesternmost point of California in Crescent City. It is under fire for isolating prisoners in secure housing units (
solitary confinement for misbehavers) giving them no more than a
pinky sized hole of contact with the outside world for 23 hours a day. The lone hour in the exercise yard, a cement box with 20-foot tall walls, offers a view of the sky-through the bars. Prisoners have gone on
hunger strikes to protest the conditions in one of the worst prisons in the world.
[h=5]Photo: Stringer/Reuters[/h]
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