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*[[Kingston Penitentiary]] ([[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]])
*[[Kingston Penitentiary]] ([[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]])
*[[Special Handling Unit]] ([[Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec]]) - Maximum Security Prison, with a supermax wing - Houses Canada's most dangerous and violent inmates.
*[[Special Handling Unit]] ([[Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec]]) - Maximum Security Prison, with a supermax wing - Houses Canada's most dangerous and violent inmates.
* KENT Institution - British Columbia - Pacific Region Maximum Security Institution
* [[Kent Institution]] - British Columbia - Pacific Region Maximum Security Institution


====Mexico====
====Mexico====

Revision as of 01:36, 9 July 2012

United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX is presently the only facility housing supermax units operating in the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Supermax (short for "super-maximum security") is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries. The objective is to provide long term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in the prison system — the "worst of the worst" criminals, and those who pose a threat to national and international security.[1]

History

Alcatraz Island is a historical prototype of the supermax prison standard.

The United States Penitentiary Alcatraz Island, opened in 1934, has been considered a prototype and early standard for a supermax prison.[2]

An early form of supermax-style prison unit appeared in Australia in 1975, when "Katingal" was built inside the Long Bay Correctional Centre in Sydney. Dubbed the "electronic zoo" by inmates, Katingal was a super-maximum security prison block with 40 prison cells having electronically operated doors, surveillance cameras, and no windows. It was closed down two years later over human rights concerns.[3] Since then, some maximum-security prisons have gone to full lockdown as well, while others have been built and dedicated to the supermax standard.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons' solitary confinement units are known as Special Housing Units (SHU).[4]

In recent years a number of US states have downgraded their supermax prisons, [citation needed] as has been done with Wallens Ridge State Prison, a former supermax prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Other supermax prisons that have gained notoriety for their harsh conditions and attendant litigation by inmates and advocates are the former Boscobel (in Wisconsin), now named the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, Red Onion State Prison (in Western Virginia, the twin to Wallens Ridge State Prison), Tamms (in Illinois), and the Ohio State Penitentiary. Placement policies at the Ohio facility were recently the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case (Wilkinson v. Austin)[5] where the Court decided that there had to be some, but only very limited, due process involved in supermax placement.

There is only one supermax prison in the United States federal system, ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado.[6] However, many states now have created supermax prisons, either as stand-alone facilities or as secure units within lower-security prisons.[7] State supermax prisons include Pelican Bay in California and Tamms in Illinois. The USP in Marion, Illinois was recently downgraded to a medium-security facility.

In September 2001, the Australian state of New South Wales opened a facility in the Goulburn Correctional Centre to the supermax standard. While its condition is an improvement over that of Katingal of the 1970s, this new facility is nonetheless designed on the same principle of sensory deprivation.[8][9] It has been set up for 'AA' prisoners who are deemed a risk to public safety and the instruments of government and civil order, or believed to be beyond rehabilitation. Corrections Victoria in the state of Victoria also operates the Acacia and Maleuca units at Barwon Prison which serve to hold the prisoners requiring the highest security in that state including Melbourne Gangland figures such as Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams, who was Murdered in the Acacia unit in 2010.

Prisoner life

In supermax, prisoners are generally allowed out of their cells for only one hour a day (in California state prisons they are allowed out for one-and-a-half hours); often they are kept in solitary confinement. They receive their meals through ports, also known as "chuck holes" or "bean slots", in the doors of their cells. When supermax inmates are allowed to exercise, this may take place in a small, enclosed area where the prisoner will exercise alone.[10]

Prisoners are under constant surveillance, usually with closed-circuit television cameras. Cell doors are usually opaque, while the cells may be windowless. Conditions are plain, with poured concrete or metal furniture common. Often cell walls, and sometimes plumbing, are soundproofed to prevent communication between the inmates.[citation needed]

Controversy

Supermax and Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisons are controversial; some claim[11] that the living conditions in such facilities violate the United States Constitution, specifically, the Eighth Amendment's proscription against "cruel and unusual" punishments. In 1996, a United Nations team assigned to investigate torture described SHU conditions as "inhuman and degrading".[12] A 2011 New York Bar association comprehensive study suggested that supermax prisons constitute "torture under international law" and "cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. constitution".[13] In 2012, a federal class action suit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and officials who run ADX Florence SHU (Bacote v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Civil Action 1:12-cv-01570) alleged chronic abuse, failure to properly diagnose and neglect of prisoners who are seriously mentally ill.[14]

The U.S. government houses a number of convicted terrorists, gang leaders, spies, and similar prisoners in a supermax prison known as ADMAX, the Federal administrative maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, west of Pueblo. Al-Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life without parole at Florence upon his conviction on May 4, 2006.[citation needed] Residents also include Theodore Kaczynski, a domestic terrorist otherwise known as the Unabomber, who once attacked via mail bombs; Robert Hanssen, an American FBI Agent turned Soviet spy; Terry Nichols, an accomplice to the Oklahoma City bombing; and Richard Reid, known as the "Shoe Bomber", who was jailed for life for attempting to detonate explosive materials in his shoes while on board an aircraft.[15]

Prisons with supermax facilities

North America

United States

Allan B. Polunsky Unit houses State of Texas supermax units
Mississippi State Penitentiary houses State of Mississippi supermax units

Most of these facilities only contain supermax wings or sections, with other parts of the facility under lesser security measures.

Canada

Mexico

South America

Brazil

In Brazil, the "regime disciplinar diferenciado"(differentiated disciplinary regime), known by the acronym RDD, and strongly based on the Supermax standard, was created primarily to handle inmates who are considered capable of continuing to run their crime syndicate or to order criminal actions from within the prison system, when confined in normal maximum security prisons that allow contact with other inmates. Since its inception, the following prisons were prepared for the housing of RDD inmates:

Colombia

Europe

United Kingdom

Africa

Asia

Australia

See also

References

  1. ^ Mears, Daniel. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Supermax Prisons" (PDF). Urban Institute - Justice Policy Center. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  2. ^ Carlson, Peter M.; Garrett, Judith Simon, Prison and Jail Administration: Practice and Theory, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1999. Cf. Chapter 35, p.252, "Supermaximum Facilities", by David A. Ward.
  3. ^ Kennedy, Les (19 May 2004). "Final release for Katingal, misguided experiment in extreme jails". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  4. ^ "USP McCreary, Visiting Regulations" accessed May 1, 2008 http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/mcr/MCR_visit_hours.pdf
  5. ^ Wilkinson v. Austin 04-495 (2005), Link to case text
  6. ^ Vick, Karl (September 30, 2007). "Isolating the Menace In a Sterile Supermax". Washington Post. pp. A03. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
  7. ^ Riveland, C. (1999) Supermax prisons: overview and general considerations. Washington DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections
  8. ^ a b Masters, Chris (17 November 2005). "SuperMax". Four Corners. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  9. ^ Watson, Rhett (9 May 2009). "Inside the walls of SuperMax prison, Goulburn". The Daily Telegraph. Australia. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  10. ^ Shalev, S. (2009) Supermax: controlling risk by solitary confinement. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
  11. ^ PrisonActivist.org – California's Security Housing Units
  12. ^ Paglen.com – Security Housing Unit
  13. ^ [1] – The Brutality of Supermax Confinement
  14. ^ Cohen, Andrew (18 June 2012) An American Gulag: Descending into Madness at Supermax The Atlantic, Retrieved 20 June 2012
  15. ^ "Just how bad are American 'supermax' prisons?". BBC News. 10 April 2012.
  16. ^ Marion, IL
  17. ^ "George Bell III Transferred from Parchman." WLBT. August 18, 2008. Retrieved on August 10, 2010.
  18. ^ Ward, Mike. "Hunt is on for escaped killer." Austin American-Statesman. June 29, 1999. A1. Retrieved on November 27, 2010. "Clifford Dwayne Jones' escape from the Estelle High-Security Unit on Sunday afternoon was the first from a Texas prison this year and the first from the "super max" lockup, as the unit is called."
  19. ^ Ward, Mike. "Death row inmates free guard, meet with activists." Austin American-Statesman. February 23, 2000. "A prison guard held hostage by two execution-bound killers inside Texas'``super maxdeath row[...]" and "Tuesday deep inside the maximum-security Terrell Unit just outside[...]"
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