GANG WARFARE RAGES IN BRAZILAIN PRISON

Three inmates decapitated by rival gang members in latest outbreak

By comparison to Mexican and Brazilian prisons, ours are more like luxury hotels, but human rights groups keep complaining about the horrible conditions in America’s prisons.

GRUESOM DECAPITATION FOOTAGE EMERGES FROM BRAZILAIN PRISON SHOWING INMATES PARADING AROUND WITH HEADS OF RIVAL GANG MEMBERS LIKE TROPHIES
More than 60 inmates killed at the notorious Pedrinhas prison in the state of Maranhao last year in long-running gang war

By Simon Tomlinson

Mail Online
January 8, 2014

Shocking video has emerged showing the decapitated bodies of three men who were executed by a rival gang - inside a Brazilian prison.

The footage, which is too gruesome to publish, shows the inmates slumped on the floor with two heads resting on one of the corpses.

Their bodies are peppered with dozens of wounds, suggesting they suffered horrific torture before being killed.

Brazilian newspaper the Folha de Sao Paulo, which released the footage, described how 'other prisoners posed with the bodies, showing them off like trophies'.

The video was handed to the publication by a union of jail workers to highlight the horrendous conditions which have long blighted the country's prison population.

This latest display of brutality, recorded on December 17, took place at Pedrinhas jail in the north-eastern state of Maranhao where 62 inmates were killed in 2013 alone.

The source of the problem lies in a long-running feud between rival factions from the state's capital and those elsewhere.

Just days after the beheadings, a judge visited the prison to demand the government seize back control of the site, according to CNN.

Douglas Martins also highlighted the extreme violence meted out on women, in particular female visitors who were forced to have sex with leaders of the gangland prisoners.

But overcrowding - Pedrinhas has 2,196 inmates but was designed for only 1,770 - is also a major issue all over the country.

According to the state-run Agencia Brasil news agency reported this week that the federal government has reached agreement to transfer the leaders of these gangs to other prisons.

In October, a violent uprising at Pedrinhas Penitentiary Complex left 10 dead and 30 injured after wardens discovered that 60 prisoners were digging an escape tunnel.

In April 2011, inmates were involved in one of the largest and bloodiest rebellions that lasted about 30 hours in the São Luis penal complex.

The revolt left 18 dead, three of them by beheading. Five prison guards were held hostage.

At one point police attempting to break into the site were held back by the convicts who threw two severed heads over the wall.

The criminals had gone on the rampage demanding better treatment saying the food wasn’t fit for human consumption and the water was polluted and rank.