NCJ Number
242842
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 14 Issue: 5 Dated: December 2012 Pages: 530-563
Date Published
December 2012
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This study explores supermaximum prisons in California.
Abstract
Supermaximum security prisons ('supermaxes') across the United States detain thousands in long-term solitary confinement, under conditions of extreme sensory deprivation. In 1988 and 1989, California opened two of the first and largest of the modern supermaxes: Corcoran and Pelican Bay State Prisons. Today, California houses more than 3300 prisoners in supermaxes. Each month, between 50 and 100 people are released directly from these supermaxes onto parole. Using statistics obtained from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, this article explores who these prisoners and parolees are: what race are these prisoners, how long did they spend in solitary confinement, and how frequently are they released? Relative to non-supermax prisoners and parolees in California, supermax prisoners and parolees are disproportionately Latinos, who have served long prison sentences, under severe conditions. Analysis of interviews with correctional department administrators about the original goals and purposes of the supermaxes further contextualizes these data, revealing that supermaxes today function rather differently than their designers envisioned 20 years ago. In sum, this research provides one of the first evaluations of how supermaxes function, in terms of whom they detain and for how long, and how these patterns relate to the originally articulated purposes of the institutions. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.