NCJ Number
129761
Date Published
Unknown
Length
41 pages
Annotation
This report examines the current conditions at the Marion Federal Penitentiary in Illinois which opened in 1962 to replace Alcatraz as the highest-level maximum security prison in the United States.
Abstract
The analysis also considers the history of movements directed toward prison reform and prisoners' rights in relation to prison conditions. In the months following the murders of two prison guards at the Marion facility in 1983 and the identification of the perpetrators, correctional staff became increasingly repressive toward all 350 inmates. A "lockdown" that suspended visits and confined inmates to their cells for 23.5 hours per day has been eased in some areas, but restrictive policies are still in effect in some areas. The result has been greater tension and danger for prison guards and their families and greater violence and fear for inmates. The Marion experience and the history of prisons in the United States demonstrate that repression is ineffective, that the concept of maximum security needs reexamination, that alternative responses should be explored, and that prisons cannot be isolated from outside scrutiny. Photographs, drawings, and notes