4. Brazil
Prison population: 607.731
In last fifteen years, the prison population in Brazil has increased by 160 percent reaching over half a million inmates in 2014. The rise in the number of inmates was not followed by the increase of prison capacity which can host a little more than half of current prison population. Thus, together with Iran, Brazil has the most overcrowded prisons among all the countries on this list.
In October last year, Human Rights Watch published the report on Brazilian prisons titled “The state let evil take over”. According to the report, guards have little or no influence as prisoners are literally “keyholders”. They are given keys of pavilions and cells and the task to maintain the order behind bars. Keyholders exploit their power to sell drugs or place for sleep, using violence to impose their rule that goes intentionally unnoticed by prison authorities.
