The Purposes, Practices, and Problems of Supermax Prisons

Abstract

At least thirty-four American states in the late 1990s operated supermaximum security prisons or units, providing nearly 20,000 beds and accounting for 1.8 percent of the state prison population. Although conditions vary from state to state, many supermaxes subject inmates to nearly complete isolation and deprivation of sensory stimuli. Surprisingly little is known from research on who is sent to supermaxes, why, and for how long; the effects of supermaxes on security and conditions in other prisons; or the effects of supermax confinement on the mental conditions and social skills of inmates. Deleterious effects are likely to be especially acute for mentally ill and subnormal inmates. The recent proliferation of supermaxes appears premised on a belief that prison disorder is the product primarily of disruptive inmates rather than the characteristics of prison regimes; the best evidence suggests otherwise.