After reading this.....I'm VERY glad he got life!! Enjoy!!:thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shelbay
"Supermax" is short for "super-maximum security." It is a
place designed to house violent prisoners or prisoners who might
threaten the security of the guards or other prisoners. Some
prisons that are not designed as supermax prisons have "control
units" in which conditions are similar. The theory is that
solitary confinement and sensory deprivation will bring about
"behavior modification."
In general. Supermax prisoners are locked into small cells
for approximately 23 hours a day. They have almost no contact
with other human beings.
There are no group activities: no work, no educational
opportunities, no eating together, no sports, no getting together
with other people for religious services, and no attempts at
rehabilitation.
There are no contact visits: prisoners sit behind a
plexiglass window. Phone calls and visitation privileges are
strictly limited. Books and magazines may be denied and pens
restricted. TV and radios may be prohibited or, if allowed, are
controlled by guards.
Prisoners have little or no personal privacy. Guards
monitor the inmates' movements by video cameras. Communication
between prisoners and control booth officers is mostly through
speakers and microphones. An officer at a control center may be
able to monitor cells and corridors and control all doors
electronically.
Typically, the cells have no windows. Lights are controlled
by guards who may leave them on night and day. For exercise
there is usually only a room with high concrete walls and a chin-up bar. Showers may be limited to three per week for not more
than ten minutes.
"Prisoners are confined to a concrete world in which they
never see a blade of grass, earth, trees or any part of the
natural world."
There are complaints that inmates who misbehave while in
supermax or control units are put into "strip cells" (sometimes
at temperatures near 50 degrees with only boxer shorts to wear
and no bedding), or are chained spread-eagle and naked to
concrete beds. Other complaints include denial of medical care,
interference with mail, arbitrary beatings, "hog-tying"
(intertwining handcuffs and ankle-cuffs), "cock fights" (double
celling inmates who are likely to attack each other), and injury
to inmates during "cell extractions."
John Perotti, writing after having spent 10« out of 12 years
in control units, says: "Every aspect of life in the Control
Unit is meant to debase and degrade a prisoner's very soul the
purpose being that when released to general population where
conditions are somewhat improved, the prisoner causes no problems
. . . for fear of being sent back to the Control Unit."
Have a good one!:thumbsup:
