The Worst Prisons In The World

The Gulag

Was the government agency which was in charge of the Soviet forced-labour camps which was set up by order of Lenin, but it reached its peak during Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s. In that time, 18 million Russians and POWs were sent to these camps, and roughly 2 million died there or as a result of their detention. 

Officially closed by Russian officials on January 25, 1960. Stalin died in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev phased them out, but work camps still existed until about 1987 when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the grandson of Gulag victims, completely eliminated all work camps. 

Currently made famous again by CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 

More from this episode:

- Turkish Prisons

- Cannibalism

- San Quentin

- Folsom

- ADX Florence

- Angola Prison Rodeo

- Rick James:

FACTS: 

Over 90% of people in prison are men. 

People convicted of drug offenses were 16% of state prisoners and 50% of federal prison inmates according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Nearly one out of every 100 people in the United States is in a prison or jail. (Jail is a place for those awaiting trial or held for minor crimes, whereas prison describes a place for convicted criminals of serious crimes.)

Less than 5% of the world’s population is located in the United States, but 20% of the world’s incarcerated people are right here in the U.S.A.

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