Inside Brazil's shockingly overcrowded prisons where dozens of inmates are killed and beheaded each year as gangs wage brutal turf wars
THESE startling images reveal what life is like behind bars for inmates in Brazilian prisons.
Yesterday the shocking horror of the country's jails came to the fore after a riot in at the Altamira Regional Recovery Centre in Para state.
At least 57 prisoners were slaughtered by other inmates during clashes between gangs in the penitentiary in the north of the country.
Many of those who perished were burned alive after being locked in their rooms by lags from rival organised crime groups who set prison wings on fire.
The total number of victims is expected to rise, prison authorities say.
They confirm the riot was the result of a vicious fight between the Rio de Janeiro-based Comando Vermelho and a local criminal group known as Comando Classe.
Vile video also emerged of inmates 'playing football' with decapitated heads.
The bloodthirsty clip appears to show twisted prisoners playfully kicking the heads of their dead rivals across the roof.
RIFE WITH GANGS
It features half a dozen lags, at the Altamira Regional Recovery Center, using human body parts as balls during an apparent savage game of soccer.
The disgusting images were featured in a video obtained by the respected news organisation Reuters.
Sixteen of the 57 killed were decapitated in the bloody five-hour-long clash that ended around midday on Monday.
Many of those who perished were burned alive after being locked in their rooms by lags from rival organised crime groups who set prison wings on fire.
Fifteen prisoners were found dead at one wing alone, many were strangled or stabbed with sharpened toothbrushes.
Inside Brazil's hellhole jails where killers are given the keys
Brazil is home to some of the world's most dangerous prisons – many of which are run by the inmates themselves.
The overcrowded hellholes are ruled by gangs and drug dealers and bloody murders are a daily occurrence.
Prisoners are even given the keys to their cells as the guards are just too terrified to step foot in the filthy corridors.
Those that hold the keys are called 'chaveiros' or keyholders and they are tasked with controlling the wings.
Normally it is the deadliest killers are who are given the keys as they are the only ones who can control the other inmates.
A Human Rights Watch report – The State Let Evil Take Over – told how dozens of lags are now packed into cramped cells.
The country's prisons hold more than 600,000 inmates but they were only built for half that.
One smaller rural prison, that houses 2,300 inmates, is guarded by just four officers.
Brazil has the world’s fourth largest prison population, 28 per cent of whom were convicted on drug-related charges.
And drugs are the biggest problem in Brazil's jails – fuelling the bloody riots and murders that plague the system.
In the first three weeks of 2018, more than 140 prisoners were killed and since then hundreds more have perished.
As Brazil's incarcerated population has surged eight-fold in three decades to about 750,000 inmates, the worlds third-highest tally, its prison gangs have come to wield vast power that reaches far beyond prison walls.
Another jail , the Pedrinhas Prison Complex is the largest penitentiary in Maranhao state, in Sao Luis has also seen violence over the years.
In 2013, nearly 60 inmates were killed within the complex, including three who were beheaded during rioting.
Much of the violence stemmed from broken cells allowing inmates and gang rivals to mix in the patios and open spaces of the complex.
Officials recently repaired and repopulated the cells allowing law enforcement access and decreasing violence among prisoners, according to officials.
Other reforms include a policy of custody hearings and real-time camera feeds.
According to officials there have been no prisoner on prisoner killings inside the complex in nearly four months.
CHRONIC OVERCROWDING
Critics believe overcrowding is one of the primary causes of rioting and violence in Brazil's prisons. Additionally, overcrowding has strengthened prison gangs which now span the country and control certain peripheries of cities including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Sao Luis.
Brazil now has the fourth-largest prison population in the world behind the U.S., Russia and China.
The population of those imprisoned had quadrupled in the past twenty years to around 550,000 and the country needs at least 200,000 new incarceration spaces to eliminate overcrowding.
A vast increase in minor drug arrests, a dearth of legal advice for prisoners and a lack of political will for new prisons have contributed to the increases.
Overcrowding in the country has lead to vicious daily fights between inmates.
The 2013 unrest sparked by clashes between rival prison gangs inside the complex left 10 dead in one month.
It was allegedly originally sparked after prisoners refused to let guards inspect their cells.
The following year in 2014 at least 36 cons escaped from the institution that September.
Some inmates nicked a dump truck and used it to plough through a wall in the penitentiary.
In 2006 a riot claimed the lives of three people in the Laudemir Neves jail.
That uprising even saw prisoners armed with handgun's threatening the lives of guards.
In 2017 up to 60 inmates were killed in another prison riot in the country sparked by a lack of water.
In another riot the same year 31 cons were slaughtered, disembowelled and had their hearts ripped out at Monte Cristo Prison, Boa Vista.
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