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Supermax Prison Essay

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Supermax prisons are generally designed to house the most misbehaved inmates, and these inmates are generally locked away in solitary confinement for a majority of their stay (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). Mears (2015) mentions that supermax prisons are designed for punishment and seclusion, but these inmates can be released from supermax prisons. Two common ways to get released from supermax are through good behavior and being released from a prison term. Most supermax inmates have proven they cannot conduct themselves as model prisoners, but they are given another chance through showing good behavior in adverse conditions. If the prisoners are unable to change their behavior, they may complete their sentence in the supermax prison. Supermax …show more content…

Although the staff may not have to worry about being assaulted as much, they may still develop mental issues by completely separating themselves from the inmates except only in “control” situations (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). It would seem that the staff members in supermax prisons could also get a sense of comfort, which could in turn be very dangerous for them. The staff has complete control over the inmates, and this may make them more relaxed in a place where they need not be relaxed. Overall, supermax prisons can have negative effects on staff and inmates, but they also can have positive effects. The main positive effect would be separating these violent inmates from the general population, and potentially removing key leaders from STG groups. This in of itself can help prevent some of the violence that already occurs in prisons.Supermax prisons are designed for violent criminals who cannot function within the general population of standard prisons (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). These criminals generally display patterns of violent and anti-social behavior, and they are segregated in order to maintain order. If my state were planning to build a supermax prison, I would implement certain programs in order for the inmates to potentially be

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For positive aspects, the services such as the religious and psychologists and request of psychiatrists are a plus because to be locked into a supermax prisons, one might have mental disturbances that needs to discuss to figure out how to rehabilitate. I also liked the General population program with the Step Down component. Dealing with one of the most heinous criminals in the United States, many of them are supervised over a long period of time and are escorted everywhere they go. Even though that is standardized procedures, being watched and being in isolation for 23 hours is not healthy. This program gives the inmates incentives to try to become better and be more open to behaving so that they can transferred to lesser level

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According to Bassett, 50% of suicides occur inside solitary confinmenet (419). Not to mention, inmates are sometimes physically abused by the guards in power. Through the Solitary Nation documentary, it is seen that guards sometimes have to use bigger forces like a toxic gas to get an inmate out of their cell. While it makes sense that guards have to do it for their own protection, there needs to be thought about why inmates do the things they do. When inmates suffer from their mental illnesses, they begin to lose their sense of reality as well as sense of right and wrong.

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Demartini support this view by conveying alongside Tom Stickrath, “solitary confinement has helped prevent chronically violent offenders from further harming other inmates or staff members.” She notes that solitary confinement have made prisoners further secured. In addition, Demartini points out, two juvenile prisons--in Marion and Scioto counties--have discipline units for chronically violent youths. This source was issued in 2005 which means that it is not current. The article is most opinion and does provide references for quotations and data.

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A supermax prison is a prison facility that represents the most secure level of custody in the prisons system. This prison is intended for inmates who are unmanageable in the general population or inmates who are classified as high security risks. Examples of inmates in these prisons include Sulaiman Abu Ghaith who was convicted for providing material support to terrorists, Naser Jason Abdo who was convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and Eric Rudolph who was convicted of carrying out bombings. All these inmates are housed at ADX Florence. These prisoners should be in supermax because they pose a high security risk.

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The major problem we have today is that prisons shouldn't deal with taking care of the mentally ill, that's the mental hospital facilities job. The people that work in this type of setting need to be patient with the mentally ill. Its not easy to deal with people that are mentally ill, they require so much attention. Putting mentally ill people in a prison is the worst thing to do, it makes their mental illness worse due to being in isolation.

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The Yuma territorial prison is located in Yuma Arizona. The reason why it’s there is actually smart. They put the prison there because if a criminal ever tried to escape it would be almost impossible. The area surrounding the Yuma Territorial prison would make it hard for the criminals to escape, Gila River is in the East, Colorado RIver in the North, the small town of Yuma in the West and a Desert to the South making every way a runaway criminal would go very hard. Reasons on why the prison is significant to yuma and the southeast region is retribution, incapacitation and depriving criminals who deserve no freedom.

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As a result of these privileges given to the inmates upon their arrival, the prisoner have no real incentive to follow the rules and regulations therefore prison officials must bribe and coerced them. A way to fix the defects of total power, prison officials should change or eliminate the reward system. Instead of providing inmates with rewards upon their arrivals at the prison, guards should use a positive reinforcement system where inmates get to enjoy certain privileges if and only if they follow the rules and regulations of the prison. Another structural defects are the inadequacies of the prison staff. Almost half of all the guards at the New Jersey State prison were temporary employees.

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Finally, he points out that a quarter of inmates are kept in supermax facilities where conditions amount to

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Supermax prisons are designed to house those offenders who are deemed the worst of the worst, either by committing extremely violent and heinous crimes or by being disruptive and violent in a non-supermax prison (Mears, 2005). Supermax prisons are designed to limit inmate contact with other inmates and even prison staff by keeping the inmate confined to their cell for most of the day (Schmalleger, 2015). Supermax inmates are allowed one hour of recreational time by themselves. What can inmates do to work their way out of a supermax facility? Due to inmates limited ability to interact with other inmates, there is limited opportunities to get into trouble; therefore, it is also hard to show an improvement in ones attitude.

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Inmates are constantly violated by cellmates and prison guards, both physically and sexually. Violence is often associated with prison gangs and interpersonal conflict. Prison guards are bribable and all kinds of contrabands including weapon, drug, liquor, tobacco and cell phone can be found in inmates’ hands. Crime within the fence is rampant, only counting those with violent act, 5.8 million reports were made in 2014. If the prison is really what it claims to be, shouldn’t prisoners be serving their time with regret and learning to be obedient?

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The term "Prison Industrial Complex" (PIC) is used to express the rapid expansion of the United States inmate population. The prison industrial complex (PIC) is an expression used to describe the connection between the interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment the resolution to economic, social and political problems. The P.I.C helps to maintain the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic, social and other privileges. Power is collected and maintained through the PIC in many ways, including creating mass media images that reinforce the stereotypes associated with people of color, less fortunate people, homosexual people, immigrants, youth, elderly and other oppressed communities. These stereotypes imply that those who are associated with these groups of society are criminals, corrupt, delinquent, deviant, etc.

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The prisoner’s are kept under strict supervision making a prison within the prison. Thirty six states have the maximum security and still aim to create super- maximum security. This has resulted in numerous human rights abuses and frequent violations of Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners. Though as estimated in 1996 by the bureau of justice statistics, it costs New Yorkers $ 28,426 per year to house and hold a prisoner. Against this, less than $ 2,000 a year per prisoner was spent on work, educational or recreational programmes for prisoners.

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Some might argue that solitary confinement is actually effective and has its benefits, however this is not the case since this punishment only seems to make criminals much more dangerous when they leave prison than they were before and research shows that inmates who left solitary confinement experience increased anger and end up committing the kind of criminality that society is looking to prevent by using this method of punishment. Thus, solitary confinement ultimately fails as a rehabilitative measure, and as a way to "settle down" problematic

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Authority gives a person the chance to feel superior, and as seen throughout this film, those within the position of authority will only then abuse this opportunity. Given the chance for people to gain authority or rather the sense of authority is enough to awaken the evil within. Within the movie, The Stanford Prison Experiment the guards were enabled to set a line of difference between the prisoners and themselves. They were able to make the prisoners feel weak or emasculated, forcing the students to strip and wear the assigned prison clothes that barely covered their genitals (Alvarez). Forcing the prisoners to wear these feminine articles of clothing and assigning them a number, gives the opportunity to strip away their personality and

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Private Prisons Many people in America have no idea that there are different types of prison systems. The two different types of prisons include state-ran and private. State-ran prisons are prisons owned and operated by the local, state, or federal government; however, private prisons are prisons in which individuals are incarcerated by a third-party organization that is under contract with a government agency. Private prisons are funded by the government and have the unique ability to do whatever they want.

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