Uncompromising pictures from inside America's overcrowded prison system

These revealing pictures illustrate America's prison system at breaking point - with overcrowding in the nation's jails at its highest for eight years. Correctional institutions across the U.S are bursting at the seams with more than two million Americans behind bars. The worst hit state, California, houses 140,000 inmates when its 33 adult prisons are only designed to hold a maximum of 80,000. Overall, the Bureau of Prisons Network is around 39 per cent over 'rated capacity' - their highest level since 2004 - with that figure expected to soar to 45 per cent above its limit by 2018 .