Supermax (super-maximum security or administrative maximum (ADX)) is a term 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 term is used in the United States and a number of other countries to describe the most secure form of security within a certain prison system. 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 an extremely serious threat to both national and global security.
Video Supermax prison
Characteristics
According to the National Institute of Corrections, an agency of the United States government; "a supermax is a stand-alone unit or part of another facility and is designated for violent or disruptive inmates. It typically involves up to 23-hour-per-day, single-cell confinement for an indefinite period of time. Inmates in supermax housing have minimal contact with staff and other inmates," a definition confirmed by a majority of prison wardens.
Leena Kurki and Norval Morris have argued there is no absolute definition of a supermax, and that different jurisdictions classify prisons as supermax inconsistently. They identify four general features that tend to characterize supermax prisons:
- Long-term: once transferred to a supermax prison, prisoners tend to stay there for several years or indefinitely.
- Powerful administration: supermax administrators and correctional officers have ample authority to punish and manage inmates, without outside review or prisoner grievance systems.
- Solitary confinement: supermax prisons rely heavily on intensive (and long-term) solitary confinement, which is used to isolate and punish prisoners as well as to protect them from themselves and each other. Communication with outsiders is minimal to none.
- Very limited activities: few opportunities are provided for recreation, education, substance abuse programs, or other activities generally considered healthy and rehabilitative at other prisons.
In supermax, prisoners are generally allowed out of their cells for only one hour a day (one-and-a-half hours in California state prisons); often they are kept in solitary confinement. They receive their meals through ports 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.
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. Cell walls, and sometimes plumbing, may be soundproofed to prevent communication between the inmates.
Maps Supermax prison
History
The term "supermax" adopted in the US and has since been adopted in a number of other countries. The United States Penitentiary Alcatraz Island, opened in 1934, has been considered a prototype and early standard for a supermax prison.
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. 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 began to proliferate within the United States after 1984. Prior to 1984 only one prison in the U.S. met "supermax" standards: the Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. By 1999, the United States contained at least 57 supermax facilities, spread across 30-34 states. The push for this type of prison came after two correctional officers at Marion, Merle Clutts and Robert Hoffman, were stabbed to death in two separate incidents by inmates Thomas Silverstein and Clayton Fountain. This prompted Norman Carlson, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to call for a new type of prison to isolate uncontrollable inmates. In Carlson's view, such a prison was the only way to deal with inmates who "show absolutely no concern for human life".
The Federal Bureau of Prisons' solitary confinement units are known as Special Housing Units (SHU).
In recent years a number of U.S. states have downgraded their supermax prisons, 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 the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case (Wilkinson v. Austin) in 2005 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. It houses several inmates who have a history of violent behavior in other prisons, with the goal of moving them from solitary confinement for 23 hours a day to a less restrictive prison within three years. However, it is best known for housing several inmates who have been deemed either too dangerous, too high-profile or too great a national security risk for even a maximum-security prison. Residents have included Timothy McVeigh, perpetrator of the Oklahoma City Bombing who was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute on June 11, 2001; 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, McVeigh's accomplice in the Oklahoma City Bombing; 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; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber; Richard Lee McNair, a persistent prison escapee; Charles Harrelson, a hitman who was convicted in 1979 of killing Federal Judge John H. Wood Jr.; and Vito Rizzuto, boss of the "Sixth" Mafia "Family," released on October 5, 2012. The Boston Marathon Bomber was housed there. Deprivation of social contact and the isolation of inmates has some unintended positive and negative effects. Inmates are safer being in isolation, and prisons create more jobs for their local communities. Supermax prisons however are extremely expensive to run and can cost about three times the national average for a maximum security facility.
However, many states now have created supermax prisons, either as stand-alone facilities or as secure units within lower-security prisons. 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. Some facilities such as California State Prison, Corcoran (COR) are hybrids incorporating a supermax partition, housing high security prisoners such as Charles Manson.
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. 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.
Controversy
Supermax and Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisons are controversial. One criticism is 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". 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". 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 prisoners, and neglect of prisoners who are seriously mentally ill. The suit was dismissed.
Prisons with supermax facilities
North America
United States
Most of these facilities only contain supermax wings or sections, with other parts of the facility under lesser security measures.
- Alabama
- Holman Correctional Facility - Atmore, Alabama
- Arizona
- ASPC-Eyman, SMU I - Florence, Arizona
- ASPC-Eyman, Browning Unit (Previously SMU II) - Florence, Arizona
- United States Penitentiary - Tucson, Arizona
- Arkansas
- Varner Supermax - Lincoln County, Arkansas
- California
- United States Penitentiary - Atwater, California
- Pelican Bay State Prison - Crescent City, California
- Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary - San Francisco, California (Closed March 21, 1963)
- California Correctional Institution, Tehachapi, California
- High Desert State Prison - Susanville, California
- Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility - San Ysidro, California
- Colorado
- Colorado State Penitentiary - Cañon City, Colorado
- U.S. Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX Florence) - Florence, Colorado
- Connecticut
- Northern Correctional Institution - Somers, Connecticut
- Florida
- United States Penitentiary - Coleman, Florida
- Florida State Prison - Raiford, Florida
- Georgia
- United States Penitentiary - Atlanta, Georgia
- Idaho
- Idaho Maximum Security Institution - Boise, Idaho
- Illinois
- United States Penitentiary - Marion, Illinois (Downgraded to a medium-security facility in September 2006)
- Tamms Correctional Center - Tamms, Illinois (Closed January 2013)
- Menard Correctional Center - Chester, Illinois
- Indiana
- Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, SHU - Carlisle, Indiana
- United States Penitentiary - Terre Haute, Indiana
- Westville Correctional Facility, WCU - Westville, Indiana
- Kansas
- United States Disciplinary Barracks - Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (military prison)
- United States Penitentiary - Leavenworth, Kansas (being downgraded to medium security)
- Kentucky
- Kentucky State Penitentiary - Eddyville, Kentucky (the only prison in Kentucky housing supermax units)
- Louisiana
- Louisiana State Penitentiary - West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
- United States Penitentiary Pollock
- Maine
- Maine State Prison - Warren, Maine (contains only 1 supermax unit)
- Maryland
- Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center - Baltimore, Maryland
- North Branch Correctional Institution - Cumberland, Maryland (final housing unit began operation in summer of 2008)
- Massachusetts
- Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center- Lancaster, Massachusetts
- Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction - Walpole, Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Minnesota Correctional Facility Oak Park Heights - Oak Park Heights, Minnesota (Although Oak Park Heights is classified as a Supermax, the majority of inmates are not housed in solitary confinement)
- Mississippi
- Mississippi State Penitentiary - Sunflower County, Mississippi (Unit 32)
- Missouri
- Jefferson City Correctional Center - Jefferson City, MissouriPotosi, SECC, SCCC, Chillicothe, etc
- New Hampshire
- New Hampshire State Prison for Men - Concord, New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Jersey State Prison - Trenton, New Jersey
- East Jersey State Prison - Woodbridge, New Jersey
- Northern State Prison - Newark, New Jersey
- Essex County Correctional Facility - Newark, New Jersey
- New Mexico
- Penitentiary of New Mexico - unincorporated Santa Fe County, New Mexico - Uses the Bureau Classification System - Level 6 being Supermax
- New York
- Attica Correctional Facility - Attica, New York
- Upstate Correctional Facility - Malone, New York
- Sing Sing Correctional Facility - Ossining, New York
- Southport Correctional Facility - (disciplinary supermax prison with only solitary confinement), Pine City, New York
- North Carolina
- Polk Correctional Institution - Butner, North Carolina
- Ohio
- Ohio State Penitentiary - Youngstown, Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State Penitentiary - McAlester, Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Oregon State Penitentiary - Salem, Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- United States Penitentiary - Allenwood, Pennsylvania
- United States Penitentiary - Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
- State Correctional Institution Greene - Waynesburg, Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Kirkland Correctional Institution - Columbia, South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Riverbend Maximum Security Institution - Nashville, Tennessee
- Texas
- United States Penitentiary - Jefferson County, Texas
- Estelle High Security Unit - W.J. Estelle Unit - Walker County, Texas
- Allan B. Polunsky Unit (formerly Terrell Unit) - West Livingston, Texas
- Utah
- Utah State Prison - Draper, Utah
- Virginia
- Wallens Ridge State Prison - Big Stone Gap, Virginia
- Red Onion State Prison - Wise County, Virginia
- Washington
- Washington State Penitentiary - Walla Walla, Washington
- West Virginia
- Mt. Olive Correctional Complex - Fayette County, West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wisconsin Secure Program Facility - Boscobel, Wisconsin
Canada
- Special Handling Unit (Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec) - Houses Canada's most dangerous and violent inmates
Mexico
- Penal del Altiplano - Almoloya de Juarez, State of Mexico. Full Supermax and the only facility of this kind in 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:
- Centro de Readaptação Provisória de Presidente Bernardes (Presidente Bernardes, São Paulo, Brazil) - inspired by the supermax standards, although prisoners can only stay there for a maximum of 2 years. Is a part of the prison system of the Brazilian State of São Paulo.
- Penitenciária Federal de Catanduvas (Catanduvas, Paraná, Brazil) - also based on the supermax standards. It is the first federal prison in Brazil, designed to receive prisoners deemed too dangerous to be kept in the states' prison systems (in Brazil, ordinarily, both convicts sentenced by States' courts or by the Federal Judiciary fulfill their prison terms in state-run prisons; the Federal Prison System was created to handle only the most dangerous prisoners in Brazil, such as major drug lords, convicted either by the Federal Judiciary or by the judiciary of a state).
- Penitenciária Federal de Campo Grande (Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil) - the second of two Brazilian Federal prisons based on the supermax specifications.
Colombia
- Penitenciaría de Cómbita (Colombia) - follows supermax specifications, hosts terrorists and drug lords.
- Establecimiento Penitenciario de Alta y Mediana Seguridad de Girón EPAMSGIRON.
Europe
- Portlaoise Prison (Portlaoise, Ireland) - One of the most secure prisons in Europe, protected full time by members of the Irish Defence Forces. Held many convicted IRA prisoners.
- Nieuw Vosseveld - Dutch High Security prison in Vught
- Stammheim Prison - German High Security Prison, partly purpose-built to keep Red Army Faction terrorists in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Politigårdens Fængsel - (Copenhagen - Denmark) There are 25 maximum security cells located in the prison of the central police station of Copenhagen
- The State Prison of East Jutland - (Horsens - Denmark) - High Security Prison. Holds many of Denmark's most dangerous criminals.
- Penal colony No 6 Federal Penitentiary Service - Sol-Iletsk - Russia - correctional facility in Sol-Iletsk, Orenburg Oblast, Russia.
- Kumla Prison, Hall Prison and Saltvik Prison - Sweden - All three prisons have a similar security unit called Fenix, which can house 24 inmates.
- Asinara Prison, Sardinia - Often described as the "Italian Alcatraz" for its very low succeeded evasion rate, housed criminals with Mafia-related charges, such as Totò Riina, in a restrictive detention condition known as Article 41-bis prison regime, Italy's notorious bandits, such as Graziano Mesina and Matteo Boe and many criminals connected to terrorist organizations, the most known being Brigate Rosse.
United Kingdom
- Her Majesty's Prison Belmarsh - London, England, United Kingdom - many of the terrorists of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot are imprisoned there.
- Her Majesty's Prison Frankland - Durham, England, United Kingdom - High Security Prison with a special unit for prisoners suffering from Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorders.
- Her Majesty's Prison Full Sutton - York, England, United Kingdom - High Security Prison.
- Her Majesty's Prison Long Lartin - Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom - High Security Prison.
- Her Majesty's Prison Maghaberry - Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom - High Security Prison
- Her Majesty's Prison Manchester - Strangeways, Manchester, England, United Kingdom - High Security Prison with a special unit for prisoners suffering from Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorders.
- Her Majesty's Prison Shotts - Scotland - High Security Prison. Holds some of the UK's most dangerous and violent criminals.
- Her Majesty's Prison Whitemoor - March, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom - houses up to 500 of the most dangerous criminals in the UK. It has a unit known as the 'Close Supervision Centre' which is referred to as a "Prison inside a Prison". It has a special unit for prisoners with Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorders.
- Her Majesty's Prison Wakefield - Wakefield, England, United Kingdom - High Security Prison with a 'Close Supervision Centre'. It is nicknamed "The Monster Mansion" due to the many high-profile convicted murderers incarcerated there.
- Her Majesty's Prison Woodhill - Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom - High Security Prison with a specialist 'Close Supervision Centre'.
Africa
- C Max (Pretoria, South Africa) - for violent and disruptive prisoners.
- Scorpion Prison (Cairo, Egypt) - Supermax prison located inside the Tora Prison complex.
Asia
- Gyeongbuk Northern the Second Correctional Center(Prison), Cheongsong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea
- KEMTA, Taiping, Perak Malaysia
- Al Hayer Prison (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
- Bilibid Prison (Manila, Philippines) - Large maximum security prison with around 17,000-20,000 convicted prisoners.
- White Swan - Russian maximum-security prison for convicts sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Al-Muwaqqar II Correctional and Rehabilitation Center is a super maximum security prison with 240 cells in Jordan, see also Correction centers in Jordan. It is designed to hold incorrigibly violent inmates in separate isolation cells.
- Khao Bin Central Prison, Ratchaburi, Thailand - Supermax facility being opened in the first half of 2014.
Australia
- Goulburn Correctional Centre - Full Supermax prison, highest level of security in Australia - 75-bed centre, (Goulburn, New South Wales).
- Casuarina Prison - Special Handling Unit (SHU) (Perth, Western Australia)
- Risdon Prison - 8 cell Tamar Unit (Risdon Vale, Tasmania)
- Barwon Prison - Barwon Supermax (Lara, Victoria)
- Port Phillip Prison - Charlotte unit (Laverton, Victoria)
- Brisbane Correctional Centre - 18-cell Maximum Security Unit (Brisbane, Queensland)
- Alexander Maconochie Centre - 12-cell Supermax Section (Hume, Australian Capital Territory)
- Yatala Labour Prison - G Division (Northfield, South Australia)
- Alice Springs Correctional Centre - 12-cell Supermax Unit (Alice Springs, Northern Territory)
Popular media
"Maximum Insecurity," an Amazon bestseller, gives an inside look at the medical system at the Colorado State Penitentiary.
In the Season 2 Finale of Arrow, Oliver places Slade Wilson in a Supermax facility designed by A.R.G.U.S..
The movie "Escape Plan" starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Caviezel is based on an ocean-based "supermax facility"
In the Season 6 Finale of Arrow, Samandra Watson places Oliver in a maximum security prison.
See also
- List of prisons
- Penology
- Panopticon
- Solitary confinement
- Incarceration in the United States (security levels)
- Article 41-bis prison regime the Italian high security treatment for Mafiosi and terrorists
- Prisoner security categories in the United Kingdom
- F-type Prisons (Turkey)
- Black Dolphin Prison
References
External links
- Supermaxed: Supermax and Maximum Security Prison Website
- California's Security Housing Units
- Recording Carceral Landscapes: Security Housing Unit
- Supermax lockup for spammer Rizler
- The Resistable (sic) Rise and Predictable Fall of the U.S. Supermax by Stephen F. Eisenman, Monthly Review, November 2009
Source of article : Wikipedia
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