A look inside the walls of a prison in Iraq, and into the tortured minds of female ISIS militants held there

ERBIL, Iraq – Behind the graffiti-speckled cement walls of the Women and Children's Prison here in the Kurdish capital of Erbil, an array of female ISIS jihadists languish along with scores of prostitutes, murderers and other criminals. “Some have been tried, some are still waiting for their sentences," the facility's female manager, Diman Bayeez, tells FoxNews.com in her office. "They are here for various offenses … Because of ISIS, we have more and more terrorists." The facility is designed to hold as many as 150 inmates, but it has more than double that – about 325 women and children. Of those, only a fraction are accused of terrorism. "I got 15 years," a 54-year-old in a black hijab says. "For being an ISIS terrorist. I wanted to be a suicide bomber." As directed by prison officials, she can only be referred to in print by the initials K.S. Related Image A watchtower at the Women and Children's Prison of Erbil. (Photo: Hollie McKay/FoxNews.com) "I wanted a divorce,” she says. “I was very poor. I have schizophrenia and was just diagnosed with blood cancer, and my only daughter wasn't treating me well. I was borrowing money from people for the treatment." That was in June 2014, and she described her situation to a cab driver named Mahmoud in her home city of Kirkuk. "He was ISIS and said if I joined, they would treat me well and pay me," she says. "I said I would join on one condition: That they make me a suicide bomber and put me out of my misery." Mahmoud was killed fighting in Hawija, and two ISIS members found her number in his phone. She – along with her now ex-husband – were recruited. K.S. says she did not receive any formal training as a combatant, and did not pledge allegiance to ISIS, but admits that she allowed two militants to stay at her home – she now suspects that one was a spy for the Kurdish security forces. Related Image Diman Bayeez, the manager of the Women and Children's Prison of Erbil. (Photo: Hollie McKay/FoxNews.com) But when she was scheduled to put on the suicide vest, she got cold feet. She fled with the idea of seeking asylum in Europe, but the Kurds picked her up before she could leave. "I told them I did all these bad things I didn't do because I wanted to be executed. I still wanted to die," K.S. says, saying that she attempted to kill herself in jail, too, with a kitchen knife. "Now I am thankful to God. I know I have committed no crime." Kurdish authorities beg to differ. According to the deputy manager of the correctional center, Zhino Azad, K.S. was deeply entrenched in ISIS, coordinating for their agents and being a guard at their female prisons – possibly filled with captured Yazidi sex slaves. "Even her daughter, a lawyer, is terrified of her," Azad tells FoxNews.com. "She is … a little psychotic. That's the type of people ISIS takes advantage of."