Solitary – Inside a US supermax prison

originally by: New Humanist
February 2011: Sharon Shalev

I vividly remember my first visit to a supermax prison. In a remote rural part of the United States and in stark contrast to the beautiful landscapes surrounding it, the prison site itself was completely barren, double-fenced with barbed wire, covered by gravel and overlooked by guard towers. It was instantly clear that this is not an ordinary prison.

To enter you must pass through several gates and a highly sensitive metal detector. Once you finally get to the windowless, bunker-like prison building you need to walk through seemingly endless CCTV-monitored corridors and numerous electronically controlled gates – each gate needs to lock behind you before the next one opens – before you even make it to the cell-block.

You are then made to wear a protective vest and eye goggles, warned not to get too close to the cell gates and reminded that the prisoners confined there are extremely dangerous individuals.

The appearance of the prison, security arrangements, stories of extreme violence and the accompanying props (goggles, protective vest, and combat uniforms worn by guards) immediately place a barrier, physical as well as psychological, between yourself and the prisoners confined behind the thick metal doors.

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Posted by Zinzi Eka-Naphtali on 23/01/2011. Filed under Featured Articles,Human Rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry