Inmates walk around a yard at the Carandiru detention center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 11, 2000. Built for 3,200 inmates, the prison, which is perhaps best known for the massacre of 111 inmates by riot police during a 1992 rebellion, now houses 7,300 inmates and still smolders with violence and unrest. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

This series of five case studies and one policy report explores how government mismanagement, neglect and corruption have made the jails in the region powerful incubators of organized crime.