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Supermax prison

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Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons or units within prisons, representing the most secure and austere levels of custody in the prison systems of the United States and other countries.

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 prison block designed for sensory deprivation, with its 40 prison cells having electronically-operated doors, surveillance cameras, and no windows. It was closed down two years later over human rights concern, and was finally demolished in early 2006.

The term "supermax", however, originated in the United States as a contraction of super-maximum, and the concept developed from the permanent lockdown of the Federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois dating from 1983 when two corrections officers at that prison were murdered by inmates in two separate incidents on the same day. Since then, some maximum security prisons have gone to full lockdown as well, while others have been built and dedicated to the Supermax standard. Supermax prisons are also known as SHU prisons (Security Housing Unit).

In Supermax prisons, prisoners are often allowed out of their cells for only an hour a day; often they are kept in solitary confinement. They receive their meals through "food ports" in the doors of their cells. Often they are given nothing to do, no work or assigned activities, except in many Supermax prisons, including the Federal Supermax in Florence, Colorado, the prisoners are allowed to have a television. When Supermax inmates are allowed access to an exercise area, often this is just a small cage, not much different from their cells, in which they are taken to "exercise" alone. Prisoners are under constant surveillance, usually with video cameras. Cell doors are often automated and often opaque, designed to prevent prisoners from seeing outside their cells. Conditions are extremely spartan, with poured concrete furniture the norm. Cell walls, and sometimes plumbing as well, are often soundproofed to prevent communication between the inmates.

There is a nation-wide trend to downgrade Supermax prisons, as has been done with the infamous Wallens Ridge State Prison, a former-supermax prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Other Supermax prisons that have gained notoriety for their cruel conditions and attendant litigation by inmates and advocates are the former Boscobel (in Wisconsin), now named the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, Red Onion (in Western Virginia, the twin to Wallens Ridge), 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 04-495 (2005), Link to case text, where the Court decided that there had to be some, but only very limited, due process involved in Supermax placement. The construction and operation of these types of prisons is also expensive, and the design of these facilities makes it difficult to convert them to house less risky prisoners. Among the least controversial of the Supermax prisons is the Federal ADMAX, or administrative maximum security, prison in Florence, Colorado, west of Pueblo. There the U.S. government houses a long list of convicted terrorists, gang leaders and similar prisoners.

With controversy over alleged abuse and brutality of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, there has been increased attention to the treatment of Supermax prisoners on the U.S. mainland.

Supermax/SHU prisons are very controversial, as some claim [1] that they violate the United States Constitution, and in 1996, a United Nations team assigned to investigate torture described SHU conditions as “inhuman and degrading.”[2]

Recently, Australia has 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.

There are said to be about 60 Supermax prisons in the U.S.[citation needed] Many of these facilities have both Supermax and "general population" units.

Current Supermax Prisons in the United States

Current maximum security prisons in other countries

Notable Supermax inmates

See also

Sources

Supermax Prisons in the U.S. Supermaxed.com Information and links to legal authorities, academic articles, prison advocacy groups, and related materials . . .

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