8. Iran
Prison population: 225.624
Iran, the country that has one of the most notorious correction systems in the world, had 289 inmates per 100.000 residents in 2014, which exceeded prisons capacity by 61.2 percent. Torture, sexual abuse, mock executions are the everyday reality for many inmates, especially for those who are imprisoned for political reasons.
In 2014, there were over 895 “prisoners of conscience” and “political prisoners”, many of whom were arrested only because they expressed an opinion that was perceived as a threat to the regime. Moreover, only in the first six months last year, 694 people were executed, while thousands were waiting in a death row. Although the government claimed that majority of death convicts were drug offenders, Amnesty International emphasized that among executed there were political prisoners.
