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Top 10 Most Violent Prison Riots
Prison riots have increased the last few decades. Appalling conditions as well unfair treatment caused grievances amongst inmates. This article sets out to examine 10 of the most violent prison riots in world history. Most of these riots were caused because the inmates felt their rights were being violated and the living conditions inside the prisons were too appalling to live.
10. Fremantle Prison Riot:
The Fremantle Prison riot took place on 4 January 1988 at Fremantle Prison, in Western Australia. It was organized as a diversion for an escape that was about to occur. Temperatures inside the cells were recorded at 52.2 °C. 3 division and 4 division were taken over by a total of seventy prisoners, and 15 officers were taken hostage. The fire caused $1.8 million in damage and the escape route was blocked unintentionally. During the two weeks prior to the riot, prispners collected 3 litres of fuel from lawnmowers, which they managed to conceal in their drink bottle. Wise thinking.
9. Ashwell Prison Riot:
In 2009, 400 prisoners were involved in a major disturbance at Ashwell jail in England after a riot led to a “total loss of control” by prison officers. The cause of the riot? The overflowing prison population as well as lack of appropriate prison places, which resulted in prisoners being transferred away from theirhomes and put in lower category prisons where there were more drugs, violence and gang cultures around. The prison has since been closed (in 2011) and Rutland County Council acquired it from the Ministry of Justice in 2013. The site has been redeveloped as Oakham Enterprise Park, a business park for office and light industrial use.
8. Attica Correctional Facility Riot:
The prisoners demanded better conditions inside the prisons of Attica, New York in 1971. After the death of George Jackson, a black activist prisoner, who was shot in the head by an officer, 1,000 Attica prisoners rebelled and seized control of the prison and its 33 staff members. 39 people were dead, including 10 correctional officers and employees.
7. Alcatraz Prison Riot:
Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary is in the middle of San Francisco Bay and was thought to be inescapable until one of the major riots took place on May 2, 1946. Bernard Coy, a prison inmate convicted for bank robbery, suddenly attacked the guard who was overseeing the prison’s weapons. Coy and his five accomplices— Miran “Buddy” Thompson, Joseph “Dutch” Cretzer, Clarence Carnes, Marvin Hubbard and Sam Shockley stole some of the weapons and managed to disarm their guards. They had planned to; first, take some hostages and then hijacking the prison motorboats and flea for the free world. But the door to the prison yard got jammed and they weren’t able to get out. Unable to escape, they decided to kill the witnesses to the riots and began firing erratic shots at the guards. All this continued for two days until two pantaloon Marines stormed into the prison and rescuing the hostages, putting an end to the problem. All in all, two people were killed and 11 were injured.
6. San Pedro, Santa Monica and El Fronton Prisons:
The riots resulted in a repression in which 224 people lost their lives in Lima and Callao, Peru. President Alan Garcia changed the platform of his predecessor swiftly. He intended to reduce human rights violations against civilian populations, by asking the civil society to come up with a more viablesolution. He moreover became commander of prisons and made them a national concern. Prisoners in 3 prisons rose up and took their guards and journalists hostage. Their demands included the release of 500 people imprisoned for terrorism. The government utilized force to take hold of the situation after the negotiations had fallen through.
5. Apodaca Prison Riot:
On February 20, 2012, 44 inmates were killed and several others were injured and wounded. The riot took place inside the Apodaca prison in the northern state of Nuevo Leon in Mexico. All of those who have been confirmed as dead were from the D Dormitory. The cause of the riot was a power struggle between members of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetos Cartel. Both groups try to control drug sales insidethe prison. Drug trafficking has already cost the lives of 47,000 people in Mexican when President Calderon launched a war against organized crimes in 2006.
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