Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in some countries' prison systems.

History

An early form of supermax-style prison unit appeared in Australia in 1975, when "Katingal" was built inside the Long Bay Correctional Centre in Sydney. Dubbed the "electronic zoo" by inmates, "Katingal" was a super-maximum prison block with 40 prison cells having electronically-operated doors, surveillance cameras, and no windows. It was closed down two years later over human rights concerns, and was finally demolished in late 2006.

The term "supermax", however, originated in the United States as a contraction of "super-maximum," and the concept developed from the permanent lockdown of the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois dating from 1983 when two corrections officers at that prison were murdered by inmates in two separate incidents on the same day. Since then, some maximum security prisons have gone to full lockdown as well, while others have been built and dedicated to the Supermax standard. Supermax prisons are also known as SHU prisons (Security Housing Unit).

There is a nationwide trend to downgrade Supermax prisons, as has been done with the infamous Wallens Ridge State Prison, a former-supermax prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Other Supermax prisons that have gained notoriety for their harsh conditions and attendant litigation by inmates and advocates are the former Boscobel (in Wisconsin), now named the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, Red Onion (in Western Virginia, the twin to Wallens Ridge), Tamms (in Illinois), and the Ohio State Penitentiary. Placement policies at the Ohio facility were recently the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case (Wilkinson v. Austin) ^[1] where the Court decided that there had to be some, but only very limited, due process involved in Supermax placement.

There is only one supermax prison in the United States federal system. However, many states now have created supermax prisons; either as stand alone facilities, or as secure units within lower security prisons. The federal supermax prison is currently ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado. State supermax prisons include Pelican Bay in California and Tamms in Illinois. The USP in Marion, Illinois, was recently downgraded to a medium security facility.

In September 2001, Australia opened a facility in the Goulburn Correctional Centre to the supermax standard. While its condition is an improvement over that of "Katingal" of the 1970s, this new facility is nonetheless designed on the same principle of sensory deprivation. It has been set up for 'AA' prisoners who are deemed a risk to national security, who, if allowed to mix with the general population would be at risk of inciting terrorism.

Prisoner life

In Supermax prisons, prisoners are generally allowed out of their cells for only an hour a day; often they are kept in solitary confinement. They receive their meals through "food ports" ("bean holes") in the doors of their cells. Prisoners are given no work and very little access to leisure activities, though some categories of prisoners are allowed to have a television. When Supermax inmates are allowed to exercise, this may take place in a small, enclosed area where the prisoner will exercise alone.

Prisoners are under constant surveillance, usually with closed-circuit television cameras. Cell doors are usually opaque, while the cells may be windowless. Conditions are spartan, with poured concrete or metal furniture common. Often cell walls, and sometimes plumbing, are soundproofed to prevent communication between the inmates.

Controversy

Supermax and Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisons generate controversy, as some claim^[2] that the living conditions in such facilities violate the United States Constitution, specifically, the Eighth Amendment's proscription against "cruel or unusual" punishments. In 1996, a United Nations team assigned to investigate torture described SHU conditions as "inhuman and degrading".^[3]

A Supermax prison intended to fulfill such a role is the Federal ADMAX, or administrative maximum security, prison in Florence, Colorado, west of Pueblo. There, the U.S. government houses a number of convicted terrorists, gang leaders and similar prisoners; al-Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life without parole at Florence upon his conviction on May 4, 2006. Residents also include Theodore Kaczynski, a terrorist otherwise known as the Unabomber who once attacked via mail bombs, and Richard Reid, an Islamic fundamentalist jailed for life for attempting to detonate explosive materials in his shoes whilst on board an aircraft. However, such non-violent offenders as Robert Hanssen have also been held in Supermax facilities.

Prisons with supermax facilities

United States

Most of these facilities only contain supermax wings or sections, with other parts of the facility under lesser security measures.

• U.S. Penitentiary Florence ADMAX (Administrative Maximum) Facility - Florence, Colorado (entirely Supermax)
• Holman Correctional Facility - Atmore, Alabama
• ASPC-Eyman, SMU II - Florence, Arizona
• Varner Supermax - Grady, Arkansas
• Pelican Bay State Prison - Crescent City, California
• United States Penitentiary - Atwater, California
• United States Penitentiary - Coleman, Florida
• United States Penitentiary - Atlanta, Georgia
• Tamms Correctional Center - Tamms, Illinois
• Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, SHU - Carlisle, Indiana
• United States Penitentiary - Terre Haute, Indiana
• United States Penitentiary - Leavenworth, Kansas (being downgraded to medium security)
• United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (military prison)
• Kentucky State Penitentiary, Eddyville, Kentucky
• Maine State Prison - Warren, Maine
• Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center - Baltimore, Maryland
• Ionia Correctional Facility - Ionia, Michigan
• Minnesota Correctional Facility - Oak Park Heights - Stillwater, Minnesota
• Mississippi State Penitentiary - Parchman, Mississippi
• Northern Correctional Institute - Somers, Connecticut
• Florida State Prison - Raiford, Florida, Florida
• United States Penitentiary - Allenwood, Pennsylvania
• Sing Sing Correctional Facility - Ossining, New York
• Ohio State Penitentiary - Youngstown, Ohio
• Oklahoma State Penitentiary - McAlester, Oklahoma
• United States Penitentiary - Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
• Riverbend Maximum Security Institution - Nashville, Tennessee
• Polunsky Unit - Livingston, Texas
• United States Penitentiary - Beaumont, Texas
• Utah State Prison - Draper, Utah
• Wallens Ridge State Prison - Big Stone Gap, Virginia
• Red Onion State Prison - Pound, Virginia
• Mt. Olive Correctional Complex - Fayette County, West Virginia
• Wisconsin Secure Program Facility - Boscobel, Wisconsin
• Western Correctional Institution - WCI - Cumberland, Maryland (partially unfinished, still under construction)
• Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction - Walpole, Massachusetts

Maximum security prisons in other countries

• Portlaoise Prison (Portlaoise, Ireland) - the most secure prison in Europe, protected full time by members of the Irish Defence Forces.
• Al Hayer Prison (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
• Goulburn Correctional Centre (Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia)
• Centro de Readaptação Provisória de Presidente Bernardes (Presidente Bernardes, São Paulo, Brazil) - inspired by the Supermax standards, although prisoners can only stay there for a maximum of 2 years.
• HMP Belmarsh (London, United Kingdom) - its most notable residents are terrorists, including many of the terrorists of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot imprisoned there. It has been used to detain a number of people indefinitely without trial under the provisions of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.
• HMP Whitemoor (March, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom) - houses up to 500 of the most dangerous criminals in the UK. It has a unit called the Close Supervision Centre which is referred to as a "Prison inside a Prison".
• Wakefield Prison (Wakefield, United Kingdom) - the largest in the United Kingdom
• Penitenciária Federal de Catanduvas (Catanduvas, Paraná, Brazil) - also based on the Supermax standards. It is the first federal prison in Brazil, designed to receive prisoners deemed too dangerous to be kept in the states' prison systems.
• Penitenciaría de Cómbita (Colombia) - follows supermax specifications, hosts terrorists and drug lords.
• C Max (Pretoria, South Africa) - for violent and disruptive prisoners.
• Casuarina Prison - Special Handling Unit (SHU) (Perth, Western Australia)
• Kingston Penitentiary (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
• EBI, Extra Beveiligde Inrichting - Dutch High Security prison in Vught
• Millhaven Institution (Bath, Ontario, Canada) - Houses Canadians being held by Security certificates.
• Special Handling Unit (Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, Canada) - Canada's highest-security super-maximum security prison.

Well-known supermax inmates

• Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber
• Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, former chief assassin for the Medellín Cartel of Colombia
• Terry Nichols, conspirator in the Oklahoma City bombing
• Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber"
• Eric Robert Rudolph, abortion clinic and 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bomber
• Carlos Lehder, Colombian cocaine trafficker, a founding member of the Medellín Cartel
• Christopher "Rizler" William Smith "Minnesota spam king"
• Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker" in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Spared the death penalty when it was determined he was not directly involved in the 9/11 attacks.
• Ramzi Yusef, World Trade Center bomber.
• Robert Hanssen, American FBI Agent turned Soviet spy
• Omar Abdel-Rahman, terrorist leader
• Sammy Gravano, "The Bull", notable Mafia leader
• John Walker Lindh, "American Taliban"
• Christopher Boyce, Soviet spy (now released)
• Jeff Fort, gang leader and attempted terrorist for Libya

Books and media portraying maximum security units

• The Chamber (1994) by John Grisham, made into a film (1996) starring Gene Hackman and Chris O'Donnell
• (2005) by Robert Muchamore
• (2004), a video game set within a futuristic prison facility that includes a supermax section
• Dead Man Walking (1993) by Sister Helen Prejean, made into
• a film (1995) starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon
• an opera (2000), composed by Jake Heggie, and
• a play (2002), stage adaption by Tim Robbins
• Face/Off (1997), starring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage
• Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988, Australia) by John Hillcoat, starring Vincent Gil, Nick Cave, and Dave Mason
• Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation (2001), by Joseph T. Hallinan
• The Green Mile serial novel (1996) by Stephen King, made into a film (1999) starring Tom Hanks
• The Life of David Gale (2003) by Charles Randolph, starring Kate Winslet, Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney
• Lost Highway (1997) by David Lynch, which briefly features a supermax cell where the protagonist is held
• Prison Break (2005), a TV series, which revolves around a man who was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and his brother's elaborate plan to help him break out the prison.
• Oz (1997–2003), an HBO TV series created by Tom Fontana and produced by Barry Levinson
• Up the Ridge (2006), a TV documentary by Amelia Kirby and Nick Szuberla (Website)
• The Longest Yard Featured a supermax facility
• Half-Life 2 features the Nova Prospekt supermax facility

See also

• List of prisons
• Maximum Security Prisons in the United States (Supermax)
• Panopticon

References

External links

• California's Security Housing Units
• Recording Carceral Landscapes: Security Housing Unit
• Supermaxed.com Supermax Prisons in the U.S.: Information and links to legal authorities, academic articles, prison advocacy groups, and related materials
• Supermax lockup for spammer Rizler
• Vick, Karl (September 30, 2007). Isolating the Menace In a Sterile Supermax. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.