Supermax Prisons

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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. During this discussion about solitary confinement and super max prisons NPR had several speakers Laura Sullivan, Walter Dickey, and guest speakers who discussed the qualities of this program.
Supermax prisons hold inmates that are considered “the worst of the worst”. Prisoners that are in supermax prisons are isolated 23 hours out of the
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States like California had problems with gangs so whoever was causing trouble these inmates were placed in solitary confinement cells. MS. Sullivan had a clip of an inmate speaking, he had said that when another inmate tells you to kill or harm another inmate that you do it or else if you don’t then you end up dead. When an inmate is in prison they pick a side based on their skin to keep themselves safe. The two people who were on her tapes were released from solitary confinement by snitching on other inmates, which placed them and their family in prison. Other states that don’t have gang problems still use solitary confinements. Finally, California violence rates are higher than they have ever been before along with them committing more people into solitary confinement there hasn’t been an impact and gang rates are also …show more content…
He stated that they are now more of an open atmosphere prison rather than a supermax prison due to lawsuits that are being brought to light. Him and other staff are regretting downsizing the supermax prison due to inmates becoming more aggressive, and gang violence rising. They are cutting down services such as food, workers, downgrading the security levels of the offenders.
Walter Dickey a professor Of Wisconsin Law school, he had said that supermax prisons are over exaggerated. He believes that they aren’t the worst of the worst due to the fact of how many there are, and some may have problems seeing that they are mentally ill, difficult to manage. Or other reasons. Finally, he describes that if a supermax prison has empty beds they try to fill them up even if some inmates do not fall under the classification of needing to be in a supermax prison. One of the guest callers named LeAnn had said that some inmates pretend to be mentally ill so that they can be placed into maximum security. The reason why they pretend is so that they can gain security from violence that they would receive in other prisons. She states that they need to quit over paying workers who aren’t qualified. Finally, she said money that they pay on these workers should be put towards programs that help rehabilitate