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| In super-maximum
security prisons, inmates are often locked alone in their
cells for up to
twenty-three-and-a-half hours
a day. They eat and exercise alone, live under extraordinary levels of
surveillance and
control, and have little or no opportunity for education or vocational
training. Although U.S.
prisons have always had harsh solitary confinement cells to which
prisoners are sent for a few
days or weeks to be punished, a new generation of these "supermax"
prisons are imposing extreme
social isolation on prisoners for years.
Instead of looking for ways to help disruptive or dangerous prisoners develop the ability to live with other human beings, more and more correctional systems eager to prove that they are tough on crime are turning to "high-tech cages" with little regard for the effects that their inhumane conditions have on the mental and physical health of the prisoners. Human Rights Watch's 1997 report, Cold Storage: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Indiana, offered the first case study of super-maximum security facilities that described these prisons from a human rights perspective. We found that prison policy sanctioned unreasonable treatment of prisoners. We also found that beyond officially mandated treatment, prisoners were also subjected to excessive and unnecessary use of force. After the report was published, Human Rights Watch staff testified before the Indiana state legislature and met with Indiana correctional officials. Subsequently, the state has modified certain of its super-maximum security policies and has created a special residential unit for the treatment of mentally ill and disruptive inmates. In April 1999, Human Rights Watch released a report on one of Virginia's first supermax prisons. We are continuing research nationally into the use of these highly restrictive institutions through extensive on-site investigations in several states, research in courts and agencies, correspondence with inmates, and consultations with corrections professionals, lawyers, and activists. For more information on Human Rights Watch's work on prisons, please click here. |
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