This American-owned prison on Cuba's eastern tip opened in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11 to house Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan. Detainees were subjected to enhanced interrogation methods (aka torture) such as waterboarding and sensory deprivation at the infamous Camp X-Ray, a temporary detention facility that closed in 2002. ¹⁾

San Quentin, California's oldest jail, is infamous for its brutality. Many notorious criminals have lived there, including Charles Manson, Scott Peterson, and Sirhan Sirhan, the assassins of Robert F. Kennedy. It is home to California's only gas chamber and the state's only death row prison for male inmates (the largest facility in the country). San Quentin had a reputation for corruption and interracial riots in the 1930s, which the guards encouraged. ²⁾

Maximum-security, medium-security, and low-security units make up this Indiana prison complex. Terre Haute, nicknamed “Guantanamo North,” is host to the federal government's execution chamber. Inmates on death row are kept in a Special Isolation Facility, where they reside in small cells alone and are only allowed out three days a week to use the exercise cages. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon Bomber, will be housed in this prison until his execution. ³⁾

This is an overcrowded prison. Inmates become ill and violent as a result of the overcrowding. Guards offer preferential treatment to those with money and influence in La Sabaneta, which is dominated by corruption. All else must sleep in a hammock in the corridors, except for a few select individuals who are allowed to sleep in their cells on a bed. ⁴⁾