Super Max facilities focus more on the punishment side of incarceration than rehabilitation, generally. Some regard Super Max prisons as torture which is forbidden by the Eighth Amendment, because of the harsh conditions of solitary confinement, the forceful and aggressive means by which the guards and prison staff must conduct their time with inmates, and the mental stress that comes with the hopelessness of being confined in a small cell with no communication and one hour per day of exercise (Tapley, 2010). There is little to no means of a release of the tension or anxiety that is built up within the inmates of a Super Max prison. When these individuals are released they are expected to integrate back into society, yet they have been institutionalized by the severity of their confinement. It is an easy an easy avenue for
Private prisons were constructed as a response to the overcrowding in federal prisons during the 1980s; many people speculate whether or not private prisons are good or bad. Critics argue that private prisons like any business are driven by profit, and prisons profit from the amount of criminals they are able to contain which gives the private prisons and their shareholders incentive to keep the prison population high and expenses low. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency estimates that over the next ten years state and federal expenditures on prisons will amount to $351 billion6. These government subsidies along with the support of private prison shareholders allow the prison industrial complex to keep their power and influence
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.
According to Schmalleger and Smykla, (2015) supermax prison systems are designed to deal with inmates whose violent behavior makes it impossible for them to live with the general prison population. Such measures involve separating prisoners by the use of segregation or solitary confinement. The supermax housing is described as a freestanding facility, or a distinct unit within a facility, that provides management and secure control of inmates who have exhibited violent or serious disruptive behavior. Supermax prisons does not include maximum or close custody facilities that are designed to house inmates with high custody needs, inmates in disciplinary segregation or protective custody, or other inmates requiring segregation or separation
The criticisms of the supermax prisons are: Deprivation of medical facilities to the inmates as well as the criteria for an accused to inflict which strongly violates the inmates' personal lives. The inmates tend to suffer from mental imbalances as they are being locked away in isolation. According to John (2013), "Solitary confinement as it currently exists in modern supermax prisons is a practice with some serious flaws" (para. 1). Many prisoners that suffer from mental illness are sent to supermax prisons. Therefore, in order to control their insane conduct, they are placed in dark cells, which further deteriorate their mental health conditions.
With all of the issues the government must worry about, prison overcrowding should not be one of them. The lazy and effortless attempts of the justice system that resulted in the outstanding number of people inside prisons is overbearing. There needs to be a change. Mandatory sentencing laws, lack of awareness and inhumane treatment of prisoners is unjust. For society to progress, new laws must be passed, recognition must happen, and action needs to take place.
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.
As we look at supermax prisons they are used to house many violent offenders to mainly keep them away from all other prisoners in solitary confinement like cells for a long period of time and most of them will never be released. The main issue that Schmalleger and Smykla describe is the fact of a mental illness starting due to supermax confinement and where none previously existed in the past (2015). The issue with that is it could get them out of a supermax prison, which I believe that is completely ridiculous because they were already crazy enough to commit the crime they did to get in there. The other ways it does effect the person in prison is that it could lead to a bunch of different symptoms and possibly even suicide from being confined
No-frills efforts may have a variety of intended and unintended effects including impacts on recidivism, corrections costs and workload, security, and inmate management (Finn, 1996, pg. 35-44). However, some correctional staff agree that allowing incentives take away inmates urge to fight or argue with other inmates and lessens opportunity for inmates to become cruel and combative towards the staff. This week’s text revealed that offenders spending more than six years in a supermax prison, will suffer from mental illness. Long term solitary confinement promotes anger, confusion, and depression within inmates (Schmalleger & Smykia, 2015).
The Supreme Court found the denial of medical care to prisoners incompatible with evolving standards of decency and running afoul of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The Court imposed the obligation of providing adequate medical care on prisons because “[a]n inmate must rely on prison authorities to treat his medical needs; if the authorities fail to do so, those needs will not be met.” To deny such care could result in pain and suffering. The Court concluded that the Eighth Amendment is violated when corrections officials display “deliberate indifference” to an inmate’s medical needs. Deliberate indifference is the conscious or reckless disregard of the consequences of one’s acts or
Introduction The need for more prisons is not really a need. I am not in favor of the there being more prisons built in this world. Serving time in prison is supposed to be as unpleasant as possible. I am also not in favor of prisoners being mistreated by other inmates and or facility staff members.
However, problems with solitary confinement were found to be evident even then as noted by, Beaumont and Tocqueville, who both came to the United States to observe and describe the new American penitentiary system, in order to gain an additional sense of knowledge in making recommendations for prison reform in their nation of France. In their observation of the Auburn Prison in New York, they found that the use of solitary confinement and subjecting the inmates to complete isolation had serious negative results, in which Beaumont and Tocqueville noted that solitary confinement did not reform and rather killed (Panzarella & Vona, pg 287). As a result, solitary confinement lost much of its popularity over the next couple of decades and later reemerged with the establishment of supermax prisons in the late nineteenth century. Supermax prisons, which is short for maximum security prisons hold the most dangerous convicts using the methods of isolation and solitary confinement to primarily control and direct them. Inmates in maximum security prisons are held in isolated cells for years or even decades as they serve their sentence.
No other reason to it but that. No one is fighting against it so nothing is going to get done about it. The only why that the tax payers are going to not have to pay for what happens at the prisons is to rise up and fight for it. Yes the prisoner need basic human rights and things to live off of but that doesn’t mean we have to feed them better than most people are eating or give them things that most people would never have living of the money they make in the prison.
The past 25 years the numbers of prisoners who are held in solitary confinement has sky rocketed. State and federal prisons all have solitary confinement. Therefore, when an inmate acts out and tries to attack other inmates, and officers then they are put into an individual cell and are isolated from other individuals. One senator had said that the expansion of the use of solitary confinement is an issue. Supermax prisons hold inmates that are considered “the worst of the worst”.
The government treats prisoners as if they are nothing in this world. The U.S prison system needs to be reformed by building new and better prisons and making it more humane and fair. Looking back to the prison history. Incarceration has not always been a common form of punishment. Back then people wanted to reform and change the way
