I woke up around 4.30 AM this morning and failed to go back to sleep. I started watching Nat. Geo. and saw this documentary on Americans who messed up and ended up in prison abroad.
There was this one guy who let a Brazilian drug dealer persuade him (and his friends) to take tons of coke across the border to the States. They got caught at the airport and sent to prison. His father, who was a very respected American lawyer, got him the minimum sentance: 5 years in stead of 25. They were sent to Carandiru, the largest and most dangerous prison in South America.
The name "Carandiru" rang a bell and reminded me of something I had read about before: On October 2, 1992 a massacre at the São Paulo penitentiary was triggered by a prisoner revolt. The situation had become impossible for the prison guards to control so the Brazilian MP's stormed the facility. As a result 111 prisoners were killed, 102 from gunshots fired by the MP's and 9 from stabwounds inflicted by other prisoners. No policemen were killed. Surviving inmates later testified that the MP's fired shots at prisoners who had already surrendered or who were just hiding in their cells.
In the aftermath, the commanding officer of the whole operation was initially sentenced to 620 (!!!) years in prison but in 2006 a Brazilian court voided his conviction because of mistrial claims. His freedom didn't last very long though. He was assassinated in September of that same year. The penitentiary was officially closed down in 2002.
