Some of the prisons on this list are scary because of the iron hand that the guards rule with. Others are scary because the guards have no control and the inmates are in charge. A good example of that second category is La Sabaneta, one of many underfunded, overcrowded prisons in Venezuela's penal system. Located in the state of Zulia, La Sabaneta has long been a lawless zone where gangs of convicts battle with sharpened pieces of metal for control of cell blocks. The structure was intended to hold under 800 inmates but currently holds nearly 4,000, including almost 200 children who live there with their criminal parents. When gang wars break out, the carnage is unimaginable. On the rare occasions the authorities get called in to restore order, they usually do it with indiscriminate machine gun fire.