Out of Sight: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in the United States

• NCJ Number: 184779
• Author(s): Jamie Fellner
• Editor(s): Malcolm Smart
• Date Published: February 2000
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Human Rights Watch
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Volume 12, No. 1 (G)

Annotation

This publication indicates more than 20,000 prisoners in the United States are housed in maximum-security facilities who have almost no access to educational and recreational activities and other sources of mental stimulation and who are usually handcuffed, shackled, and escorted by two or three correctional officers whenever they leave their cells.

Abstract

The publication also notes assignment to maximum-security facilities is usually for an indefinite period that may continue for years. Although maximum-security facilities are ostensibly designed to house incorrigibly violent or dangerous inmates, many of the inmates confined in them do not meet those criteria. Maximum-security confinement is subject to human rights standards contained in treaties signed by the United States and binding on State and Federal officials. According to these standards, correctional authorities must respect the inherent dignity of each inmate and must not subject prisoners to treatment that constitutes torture or that is cruel, inhuman, or degrading. However, State and Federal correctional facilities are operating maximum-security facilities in ways that violate human rights. Conditions of confinement are often unduly severe and disproportionate to legitimate security and inmate management objectives, impose pointless suffering and humiliation, and disregard the fact that all prisoners are members of the human community. For many prisoners, the absence of normal social interaction, reasonable mental stimulation, and exposure to the natural world is emotionally, physically, and psychologically destructive. Prisoners subjected to prolonged isolation may experience depression, despair, anxiety, rage, claustrophobia, hallucinations, problems with impulse control, and an impaired ability to think. Some prisoners develop clinical symptoms usually associated with psychosis or severe affective disorders. The publication suggests a human rights assessment of maximum-security confinement requires consideration of eligibility criteria, specific conditions, and confinement duration. Specific recommendations are offered to assist in a human rights review of existing or proposed maximum-security facilities.