The dregs of society, sentenced to life, are routinely sent in, never to return. Escape is not tolerated. Lethal force is used to stop any prisoner foolish enough to try to cross a waterway to scale the razorwire-topped walls surrounding the city. The confined govern themselves. Some survive, just barely.
Conditions are inhumane.
Any semblance of civilized behavior is snuffed out as the most violent rise to the top of the food chain. So brutal is this punishment that prisoners are offered the option of execution on demand rather than incarceration. Into this chaos crashes Air Force One. A terrorist group had hijacked the jet to kill themselves and all onboard as a political statement. This could not have happened at a more inopportune time.