NCJ Number
213100
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2006 Pages: 6-21
Date Published
March 2006
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This literature review examines changes in penal thought, policy, and practice in the United States in the last three decades that have increased the popularity of supermax prisons to house disruptive inmates.
Abstract
The general purpose of supermax prisons is to increase control over inmates who have been assaultive, escape-risks, or likely to promote disturbances in the general prison population. In supermax prisons, inmates are confined to their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, and contact with other people is limited to medical staff, clergy, or a counselor. The harshness of these policies is believed to improve the safety of other inmates as well as the prison staff. A review of the penology literature suggests that supermax prisons gained support in recent years because of changes in the ideologies underlying corrections policies, specifically the ideologies that believe toughness and strict controls work best with out-of-control behaviors. This has been accompanied by a decline in the belief that rehabilitative measures are effective in modifying the behavior of hardened criminals. Also, a new management style in corrections focuses on managing risk through the identification, classification, and management of offender groups based on assessed dangerousness. Added to these factors has been a political climate in which citizens' fear of crime has spurred politicians to enact symbolic "get-tough" sentencing policies. Another factor in promoting the supermax system is the increased commercialization of crime control, which has made the construction and operation of prisons an important part of local economies. Supermax prisons are thus the ultimate product of a punitive and controlling penology fueled by commercial interests. This penology and the harsh prisons it has fostered, however, have no empirical evidence of their effectiveness as measured by reductions in prison violence. 82 references