...John Peoples Steve Sosnoski ENG 102 September 19, 2015 Supermax The topic that I chose to research is The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility. It is unofficially known as ADX Florence, Florence ADMAX, Supermax, or the Alcatraz of the Rockies. My goal of this research is to dive in and learn more about ADX, known as “one of the most secure prisons in the world”. My research will cover everything on ADX from when construction started, until today. What makes this a worthy topic of research is it is one of a kind. ADX is the only Supermax facility in the United States and houses the worst of the worst. The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility, or ADX, was first constructed as a response to several serious security breaches in other prisons. One of these occurred in a high security facility named The United States Penitentiary in Marion Illinois. On October 22, 1983, two correctional officers were stabbed to death in separate incidents. What allowed this to occur was the procedure that security had, were almost in a relaxed fashion. Following the killings, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Norman Carlson, argued that a more secure prison needed to be designed. A prison where uncontrollable inmates could be isolated from officers and other prisoners. Carlson said that building such a prison was the only way to handle inmates who “show absolutely no concern for human life”. Enter the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”...
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...Jeremy Ly CRJU 2300 Paper on Supermax Prisons Supermax correctional facilities are considered “extended control” facilities by correctional specialists and are the most secure prison type in the correctional system. This is mainly because supermax prisons specialize in solitary confinement, otherwise known as “time in the hole.” Inmates are not directly sentenced to serve time in the supermax, but rather are transferred there as a result of their extremely violent/deviant acts committed in other maximum-security prisons. Also, an inmate may be sent to supermax because of their high escape risks based on their past history. The conditions inside a supermax prison are very harsh and may subject the inmate to extreme physical and psychological stress and trauma. Inmates are to spend 23 hours alone in their cell and are allowed only one hour per day to leave their cell for recreation and exercise. No contact is permitted between inmates and very few educational treatment programs are offered. This is mainly because of the extremely dangerous character of the inmates who reside in supermax. There are also strict limitations as to what items inmates are permitted to hold with them, as there is often times when illegal drugs or items that can be made into a weapon are transported to the cell. The cell is mainly composed of irremovable items, as inmates often search for anything to create a weapon to harm either themselves or others. A National Institution of Corrections...
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...Sarah Lessor Ccj 101 The human rights of Supermax prisons A supermax prison is short for super maximum security prison. These are for high risk prisoners who are a threat. Our text book states that “they have high concrete walls or double-perimeter razor wire fences, gun towers with armed officers, and strategically placed electronic monitors.” (adler 332) They are very hard to break out of. The book also says that every state has at least one maximum security prison. (Adler 332) Supermax prisons have their prisoners in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is where you spend 22 hours a day all alone. (ACLU) They cannot have any human contact. This can make a person go crazy though like talked about in class. Solitary confinement does more harm than good to the people in it because it does have horrible side affects to the mind. The people sentenced to supermax prison are very dangerous criminals. The book says that “maximum security prisons are designed to hold the most violent, dangerous, and aggressive immate.”(Adler 332) Supermax prisons have more than twenty thousand prisoners. (refworld) To hold a prisoner at one of these prisons it is around 85,000 per year. (chicagoist) It is very costly and the benefits of these prisons are not very affective. The supermax prisons are not very human friendly. They allow their prisoners to go mentally ill with being cut off from the world and human interaction. As talked about in the article on the hrw website it says...
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...On Solitary Confinement An Exploration Of An Age-Old Method of Punishment Solitary confinement is defined as the isolation of inmates and limiting their human contact in prison. From its birth in the late 1700s to its more widespread usage in recent history, solitary confinement has grown to be a considerable tool in the arsenal of the United States prison system’s methods of controlling its enormous prison population, shown by an increase in the construction of “Supermax” prisons, maximum-security prisons with units specifically designated to isolate inmates. With solitary confinement’s recent uptick in usage throughout the United States on both the federal and state level, questions have arisen about its implementation, its effects on the prison population, and its ethical implications. With it becoming apparent that solitary confinement will continue to play a large role in the United States correction system in the future, it is important to explore the answers to these questions. In this essay, we will explore these questions in order to understand solitary confinement more fully. History Defined fully as, “…confinement of a prisoner alone in a cell for all or nearly all of the day, with minimal environmental stimulation and minimal opportunity for social interaction,” (trauma of psychological torture 113) solitary confinement strives to eliminate the stimulus of senses such as sight, touch, and hearing, with the elimination of stimulus and social interaction...
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...a 1995 Eighth Amendment case concerning the treatment of prisoners at California’s Pelican Bay Supermax Penitentiary. I argue that the language of dehumanization fails to describe the harm of solitary confinement because it remains complicit with a hierarchical opposition between human and nonhuman animal that rebounds against prisoners, especially those who have been racialized and/or sexualized as less than human. Humanist discourse neglects the sense in which both human and nonhuman animals are affective, corporeal beings who rely upon the support of others for their own capacity to orient themselves within a mutually-perceived world. Drawing on the testimony of inmates in solitary confinement, and situating this testimony in relation to the political and scientific history of US incarceration practices, I develop a post-humanist critique of solitary confinement. Keywords: Solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, intercorporeal Malebranche would not have beaten a stone as he beat his dog, saying that the dog didn’t suffer. Merleau-Ponty, Nature, 166 Certain carceral practices are often condemned – both by prisoners and by their legal or political advocates – on the grounds that they violate human dignity by treating people like nonhuman animals. For example, in the 1995 Eighth Amendment case, Madrid v Gomez, the treatment of prisoners at California’s Pelican Bay Supermax Penitentiary is consistently compared to the treatment of nonhuman animals.i Some inmates were “hog-tied”...
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...Marisa Carroll Professor Condon English 1101-64 30 September 2013 The Alcatraz of the Rockies In 1990, John Jay Powers was sentenced to time in prison for robbing a bank. While there, he witnessed the murder of another inmate and began suffering from post-traumatic stress. In 2001, after a brief escape attempt, he was transferred to Administrative Maximum (ADX) Florence, the federal government's only supermax facility, where inmates are housed in conditions of such extreme isolation. The prison is known as ADX Florence, Florence ADMAX, Supermax, and, not so fondly, as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" (Marcus). Before entering ADX, Powers had no history or symptoms of mental illness, but since being installed there, he has become deranged and has engaged in numerous acts of self-mutilation, including biting off his finger, and trying to kill himself on several occasions (“Reports on and from”). To give people an idea of why a previously sane person would lapse into madness at ADX, they would need look no further than the circumstances of their confinement. ADX was designed to ensure the total isolation of all its prisoners, who are held in cells about the size of an average bathroom. The cells have thick, concrete soundproof walls, a door with bars and a second door made of solid steel. The only possible means of communicating with other humans is to yell into the toilet bowl and hope that someone may hear. The inmates are kept in their cells twenty four hours of the day for...
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...that it’s the feeling of ‘impotence’ that finally ‘breaks you’ in prison. What does he mean by this? What dole means, it is the things in life that you realize you will not be able to take part in again is what makes prison the hardest. You are a spectator to your family’s life. You cannot be there for a tragedy, or help them when they are sick. You cannot be a father to your children, or enjoy the little things in life. You care confined behind bars for the rest of your life, and the feeling of not being able to be there in the world for the things that matter the most are the most heartbreaking. 3.) How does Dole explain the ways that healthcare and education are (and are not) part of the supermax prison in which he is confined? As for the education that is offered in the supermax prison, they have a GED program but do not offer anything more than that. Although they have this program, the inmates are not really encouraged to take part in it, but rather they are discouraged it by prohibiting who can take part in the GED program and who cannot. The teachers are were not help, and you have to almost teach yourself to get through...
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...Long-term solitary confinement could have a negative effect on inmate’s physical and mental well-being. Inmates who are confined to a cell 23 hours out of the day may begin to experience depression, panic attacks, suicidal and decrease in physical appearance such as weight loss. Inmates may lose their social interaction skills because they do not interact with other inmates. Inmates learn to cope with being in small confined spaces and lose focus. “Grassian has since concluded that solitary can cause a specific psychiatric syndrome, characterized by hallucinations; panic attacks; overt paranoia; diminished impulse control; hypersensitivity to external stimuli; and difficulties with thinking, concentration and memory. Some inmates lose the ability...
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...scientific community now has on the long-term effects of solitary confinement, it is clear that this practice raises ethical and practical questions. It will, in the next ten to twenty years, force various states and the federal government to choose whether they want to continue with an inhumane practice that could leave communities with a new danger that has been wholly caused by incarceration policies that some might consider barbaric. In order to understand the situation, one must have a background on the current situation with solitary confinement. It remains a popular practice across the United States, as prisoners are held in prison units that are conveniently coined “maximum security.” Prisoners can be sent to maximum security – or “Supermax” – units for a number of...
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...Brianna Gilfoy 8199889 Prof. Ross Clarkson ENG 1100 December 2, 2015 Isolation Warps a Human For most, being alone and isolated is a nice way to get away from overwhelming events happening in life. However, when it comes to extreme cases, isolation is very bad for someone’s well-being, according to Michael Bond who states, “for most people, prolonged social isolation is all bad” (Bond, “How Extreme Isolation Warps the Mind”). Overall, isolation has several negative impacts on the human mind and body. Extreme isolation can affect someone in three distinct ways: physically, mentally, and socially. Isolation can be caused either by yourself or by others. Isolation is being separated from others by one of the three following circumstances: living in a remote area, a perception of being removed from a community, or being held captive in a room. The main type of isolation is called social isolation which is the absence of social relationship and is typically considered very unhealthy if the time being spent alone becomes excessive. Another distinct type of isolation is called emotional isolation which can result from social isolation and is when people keep feelings completely to themselves. Physical health is very important to live a healthy, long life but in many cases of extreme isolation physical health is negatively affected. Bond states that “we’ve known for a while that isolation is physically bad for us. Loneliness interferes with a whole range of everyday...
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...Running head: PRISON COMPARISON PAPER Federal Prison Comparison Paper Jessica Cantu University of Phoenix Introduction to Corrections CJA 234 Jeffery Newton November 12, 2011 Federal Prison Comparison Paper There are different kinds of state prisons are: supermax, maximum security, close-high security, medium security, minimum security, and open security. Supermax prisons are permanent lockdown. Maximum security prisons are usually older, larger, walled facilities. They also have the most rigorous security procedures and the lowest inmate to guard ratio. Close-high security are a kind of maximum security but less restrictive and the inmate to guard ratio is a bit higher. Medium security prisons are smaller and newer, and have double fences instead of walls. These prisons also have dorm or pod housing rather than cells; however, the inmate to guard ratio is a bit higher. Minimum security prisons are also newer and smaller as well as minimal perimeter security and fewer internal controls. Again there is an even higher inmate to guard ratio and the inmates live in rooms or dorms and have more privacy and amenities than those in other prisons. Open security prisons are better known as nonsecure facilities; work release centers, prerelease centers, and halfway houses. These facilities have no armed guards and no fences (Foster, 2006). John Gotti John Gotti grew up in poverty but quickly rose in prominence, and was one of the crime family's biggest...
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...Federal Prison Comparison Matrix Angel Kennedy CJS/255 March 7, 2016 Richard Gilbert Jail vs Prison Is there a difference between jail and prison, and if so, what factors separate the two? The belief each place is practically the same is a common misconception, however; there is one fundamental component in which governs the temporary or permanent placement of an offender. A jail’s and prison’s quality of food, facility resources, and availability of rehabilitative programs are all different, but; “the fundamental difference between jail and prison is the length of stay for inmates” (HG.org, 1995-2016) Jail and Its Place in Corrections The correctional mission of jails today is to use the combination of incarceration and rehabilitative methods to deter criminals from recommitting. Once officers have detained an offender, he or she is escorted to a local jail. Upon arrival, the criminal is taken into the "booking area" where he or she will undergo a process in which will determine placement: finger printing, photographing, stripping of personal property, examination, and bathing. If the criminal cannot make bond due to lack of funds or a bond was not given, the criminal will remain in custody until a trial is set, usually within the first twenty-four hours. According to BI, the average jail stay is twenty-three days, a sixty-four percent increase from fourteen days (2015). Rehabilitative programs are offered to those who have been sentenced to a year or more. The majority...
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...Our jail systems are a short time confinement. Where the inmates are awaiting trial, and sentencing. It is often run by sheriffs or local government officials. As to where our prisons are operated by federal governments. And house inmates anywhere from one year to life, depending on the crime. Jails try and work with specialized services and boot camp, work release programs. Where the state prisons use halfway houses, community restitution centers, the penitentiary was secular and spiritual; and physical punishment is not needed, living conditions are cleaner, body contamination was cut down because inmates have been separated. Such as putting them in isolation and to create habits by enforcing strict rules. Labor was productive from prisoners, because they were not aloud to sit around. The secular prison is where inmates can feel regret, a meeting for religious need for expressing contrition for sin, including a place of penitence or penance; expressing remorse and regret of their crimes. By doing this an inmate can say “I am sorry and promises not to do that again”. (Foster, 2006 pg. 22) Minimum security is setup for the “short-termers” (Foster, 2003 pg. 124) the inmates are approaching release and have worked themselves down have a higher classification. The prison is smaller with minimal perimeter security and less internal control with highest rates of inmates to guards. The wire fence is there for the safety of the public, but the inmates can still escape...
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...Chapter 51 Questions 1) No, it is not a good argument. Brown was on her lunch break so she was not doing what her employment required her to do. Brown’s job does not require her to be walking in the road and her job did not require her to be in the road in the first place. The conditions of her injury do not satisfy the requirement of arising out of employment that is needed. Her job did not have an increased risk or positional risk. Brown also was not injured while performing any of her employment duties so it did not happen during the course of her employment. 3) Rawlinson should assert that the Alabama state prison system violates the disparate impact of Title VII. The stated rule of being at least 5 foot 2 inches and 120 pounds is not discriminatory at first but then you realize that this rule could be discriminatory against women because not many men are shorter than 5 foot 2 inches or weigh less than 120 pounds. Rawlinson doesn’t really need a method for proving discrimination for the second part of her case because the Alabama prison system has a rule that expressly discriminates against hiring women for positions that will have close contact with the inmates at high security prisons. Since the maximum security prisons in Alabama don’t use cells but house the inmates in barracks, this would mean that all prison guards would have close contact with the inmates which would mean that no women would be able to be hired for these positions. The defense that the Alabama prison...
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...Prison Assignment This assignment is a research and reflection paper on some aspect of the prison system. You have some choice of what focus you would like to take. You can do one of the following options: 1. If you enjoy history you can research a historical prison. 2. You can compare the prison system in Canada with the United States, or another country. 3. Lastly you can create your own perfect prison system. With this option you would consider such things as: * how big would the cells be and what would be included in them? * what activities would the inmates be allowed to do? * what rehabilitation programs would your prison have? * would you use solitary confinement and if so under what circumstances and for how long? * what would be the key purpose of putting people in prison and for what crimes would you use prison? This paper should be approximately 2 pages double spaced and organized with an introduction, conclusion and several body paragraphs. Be sure to cite your sources using the MLA (EasyBib can be used for websites). The paper will be evaluated based on the following criteria: Content – a thorough analysis of your topic with sources referenced /20 Communication – clearly written with proper grammar and spelling /10 Total /30 Some issues you may consider including: 1. The Ashley Smith case or how to deal with mentally ill inmates who are suicidal? 2. The use of prison...
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