This American-owned prison on Cuba's eastern tip opened in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11 to house Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan. Detainees were subjected to enhanced interrogation methods (aka torture) such as waterboarding and sensory deprivation at the infamous Camp X-Ray, a temporary detention facility that closed in 2002. 1)
San Quentin, California's oldest jail, is infamous for its brutality. Many notorious criminals have lived there, including Charles Manson, Scott Peterson, and Sirhan Sirhan, the assassins of Robert F. Kennedy. It is home to California's only gas chamber and the state's only death row prison for male inmates (the largest facility in the country). San Quentin had a reputation for corruption and interracial riots in the 1930s, which the guards encouraged. 2)
Maximum-security, medium-security, and low-security units make up this Indiana prison complex. Terre Haute, nicknamed “Guantanamo North,” is host to the federal government's execution chamber. Inmates on death row are kept in a Special Isolation Facility, where they reside in small cells alone and are only allowed out three days a week to use the exercise cages. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon Bomber, will be housed in this prison until his execution. 3)
This is an overcrowded prison. Inmates become ill and violent as a result of the overcrowding. Guards offer preferential treatment to those with money and influence in La Sabaneta, which is dominated by corruption. All else must sleep in a hammock in the corridors, except for a few select individuals who are allowed to sleep in their cells on a bed. 4)
The prison in Diyarbakir is notorious for having the highest rate of human rights abuses per prisoner. On a regular basis, this house of torture subjected prisoners to mental and physical violence, forcing many of them to commit suicide. 5)
Five prisoners can be crammed into a cell that is just four square meters. Prisoners are required to use plastic bags and bottles as washrooms because the facility lacks a proper sanitation system. Basic medical treatment is also unavailable; prisoners can see a doctor after they have died. 6)
Rikers Island Prison is known for its high levels of brutality, corruption, and mistreatment of prisoners, especially those who are mentally ill. Following the beating death of 18-year-old Christoper Robinson in 2008, it was revealed that the inmates responsible were members of “The Scheme,” a secret organization run by the prison's guards to make those inmates commit acts of violence against other inmates in order to preserve order. 7)
This maximum-security jail in the United States is also known as ADX Florence, Florence ADMAX, Supermax, or the Alcatraz of the Rockies. This prison, which opened in 1994, is home to some of the world's most dangerous criminals, including Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Ramzi Yousef, and others (responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing). Inmates at this prison spend 23 hours a day in their 7-by-12-foot concrete cells in solitary confinement. 8)
The Hoeryong Concentration Camp, also known as Camp 22, has been in operation since 1965, but its existence was kept hidden for decades before satellite imagery of the facility became public. Prisoners are malnourished, beaten, and forced to work 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week in fields and mines. 9)
Gitarama, the world's most overcrowded jail, houses over 7,000 inmates in a building designed to accommodate just 500. Owing to the extreme overcrowding, these men and women are forced to stand barefoot on dirty ground for long periods of time, causing their feet to rot. Many require amputations, but most inmates are unable to obtain the care they require, resulting in half a dozen deaths each day. 10)