The Most Brutal Prison Riots In History

On the cusp of the Iranian Revolution, as the Shah was preparing to get out of Dodge, a computer company called Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was preparing to do the same. EDS had previously agreed to work on some of the Shah’s computers. As Ayatollah Khomeini was preparing to siege the country, EDS found itself in a precarious position (and out millions in owed fees). As company employees tried to evacuate the country, two engineers were captured.

EDS engineers William Gaylord and Paul Chiapparone were put in prison on trumped-up charges in 1979. Though the American government took no interest in the prisoners’ plight, the owner of EDS, one Ross Perot, decided to swing into action. He hired a mercenary named Arthur Simons.

The prison in which Gaylord and Chiapparone were held was once considered a symbol of the Shah’s power. Working through some intermediaries, Simons convinced a mob of revolutionaries to storm the prison in the hopes of releasing the Shah’s prisoners. It worked: Gaylord and Chiapparone were able to escape into the city.

A prison riot that broke out in Rio de Janeiro left 56 people dead and several more injured. Officials said it began as a fight between two of the country's biggest rival gangs that spiraled out of control. Prisoners were beheaded and dismembered in the melee, guards were held hostage, and the fighting lasted more than 18 hours. Some inmates were able to escape during the chaos. It was the biggest prison riot the country has ever seen, officials said. 

News agencies reported the prison was overcrowded. There were 1,224 inmates in a prison meant to hold 592. 

In 2001, several Taliban prisoners being held in Afghanistan’s prison in Qala-i-Jangi revolted, gaining access to weapons and opening fire. The resulting violence was horrible to behold. CIA agent Mike Spann was the first person killed in the riot. Reports say that a prisoner rushed him with a live grenade; when it exploded, both the inmate and Spann were killed.

Two days later, authorities raided the fortress, launching an attack on the prisoners. The military also purged the basement where the prisoners were holed up by drenching the rooms in gasoline and setting them on fire. The defense for one of the victims, American Taliban sympathizer John Walker Lindh, said the basement floors were littered with human remains by the time everything had settled down.

In 1992, the inmates at Brazil’s Carandiru Prison were playing football (that’d be soccer to Americans) when the game turned into a brawl that quickly spread to the rest of the prison. The general air of violence made authorities extremely uncomfortable. So uncomfortable, in fact, that they only bothered to negotiate with the prisoners for about an hour before sending in troops to quash the rebellion.

Over the course of 30 minutes, agents swept through the prison, killing 111 inmates. Each victim was supposedly shot more than five times each. Though 74 of the assaulting agents were convicted of both murder and human rights violations (which would have netted the lot of them more than 700 years of combined jail time), the verdicts were vacated and no one was ever actually sent to jail.

In the early 1970s, Attica Correctional Facility was a powder keg. The prison were overcrowded, and prison policies limited inmates to spartan conditions. Prisoners were given just one shower a week and one roll of toilet paper per month. On September 9, the prisoners of one cell block overpowered their guards and took 39 prison employees hostage.

After four days of failed negotiations, authorities raided the prison. In the ensuing battle, 10 hostages and 29 inmates were killed and 89 others were injured. There were rampant reports that several prisoners were killed or beaten after they surrendered. One man was shot seven times and then ordered to crawl along the ground. When he failed to move fast enough, he was kicked to death by prison guards.

Gary Nelson was in a New Mexico high-security prison thanks to a conviction for bank robbery some years prior. In February 1980, he was sitting next to a fellow inmate getting drunk on homemade moonshine when his buddy, in Nelson’s words, “jumped up. He'd been drinking and said, 'Look, when they come to count, and they leave that door open, we're going to jump them and take over this place.” Though Nelson didn’t expect anything to happen, the prisoners revolted using exactly that plan.

Over the course of several hours, inmates took 12 guards hostage, even parading one prison guard with a belt around his neck like a dog. Before the prison was retaken, inmates stalked through one cell block and murdered several inmates accused of being snitches. When all was said and done, 33 inmates were killed.