[Ppnews] Supermax prisons: 21st century asylums

[Political Prisoner News]

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Supermax prisons: 21st century asylums
Solitary confinement in the new dungeons of the 
US trigger mental illness in prisoners.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201185145425908206.html
<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/profile/helen-redmond.html>Helen 
Redmond Last Modified: 05 Aug 2011 16:09

"People walked by and asked: 'How are you doing?' 
I answered: 'How am I supposed to be doing? 
That’s the craziest question I ever heard.' The 
mental health people asked: 'Are you having any 
suicidal ideation? What are you thinking right 
now?' I said: 'Where the f*** am I? That’s what 
I'm thinking. Ain't this America?'"

- Brian Nelson, on his transfer to Tamms supermax 
prison in Illinois. He was locked, chained and naked in a holding cell.

The recent hunger strike at Pelican Bay supermax 
prison in California exposed for three weeks the 
carefully planned and executed barbarism of life 
in supermax America. The utter desperation of the 
human cargo behind the concertina wire, buried 
deep inside concrete coffins was gut wrenching 
and heart breaking. Hunger strikes are a tactic 
of last resort for the completely subjugated; a 
slow, painful, non-flammable version of self-immolation.

Brian Nelson, a survivor of 12 years in solitary 
confinement at Tamms supermax prison in Illinois, 
understands the conditions that drove the men in 
Pelican Bay to stop eating. Distraught and 
anxious, Nelson paced in his cell for more than 
ten hours a day - causing severe, bloody blisters 
on the soles of his feet. He tried to hang 
himself. In the year 2000, Nelson went on hunger 
strike for 42 days with four other prisoners to 
protest many of the same conditions that exist at Pelican Bay.

The demands of Tamm's hunger strikers were 
similar, too: better food, shoes with arches, 
appropriate clothing, access to education, 
inmates with mental illness be transferred out, 
bilingual staff and abolition of the 
"renunciation policy" - the "debriefing policy" 
related to gangs that Pelican Bay prisoners 
demanded be abolished. Guards tried to break the 
hunger strike at Tamms by leaving carts of fried 
chicken and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies 
on the wing. The delicious smells didn't break Nelson.

Supermax prisoners' daily lives are chock full of 
alienating and undignified experiences, so empty 
of positive human interaction, thousands are 
willing to risk death than endure such inhumane 
conditions. That alone speaks volumes about the 
reality of life in supermax prisons.

One of the most humiliating aspects of life for 
inmates are the frequent strip searches - forced 
to be naked, ordered to bend over by guards and 
spread the buttocks apart to have the anus 
inspected for contraband while coughing. Strip 
searches are the old normal. The photos of nude 
prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq shocked the 
world, but to be stripped naked for hours or even 
days is standard operating procedure in supermaxes.

Nelson explained: "Every time you leave your cell 
you're strip searched 
 They do this to degrade 
and shock you
Sometimes the guards would make 
'homosexual' comments like: 'Hey baby, spread 
your cheeks'. Darrell Cannon, a survivor of a 
nine-year stretch in Tamms, described the strip 
search: 'They tell you to open your mouth, raise 
your tongue, hold your hands up, they go through 
your fingers and toes and tell you to turn around 
and spread your cheeks up against the chuckhole 
 
It's degrading to have two other human beings 
looking at you like you're some kind of specimen. It is extremely degrading."

Rehabilitation not an option

Prisoners on suicide watch are routinely left 
naked in their cells. And inmates have been 
punished by "caging", they're held naked or 
partially clothed in outdoor holding cages in inclement weather.

There is no pretence of rehabilitation in 
supermax prisons; the purpose is harsh 
punishment. Prisoners endure supersized portions 
of psychological punishment as a result of strict 
and prolonged solitary confinement. Inmates are 
confined for 23 to 24 hours a day, every day, in 
cells that measure 7-by-12 square feet. It is psychological torture.

Supermax prisons are intended to isolate 
prisoners and to deny human contact. Cannon said: 
"Everything you do, you do alone 
 It [supermax] 
was designed to break you mentally, by not 
allowing you to have another human being right 
there with you that you can interact with."

This extreme environment of sensory deprivation 
and social seclusion makes men go mad. Supermax 
prisons are filled with inmates with mental 
illnesses diagnosed. Laurie "It is a form of 
insanity to put people in a place that provokes 
mental illness 
 Either they went in crazy, or 
they go crazy once they are there," said Jo 
Reynolds, an organiser for the Tamms Ten Year 
Committee and a Soros Justice Fellow.

Prisoners resort to cutting their flesh: A form 
of self-mutilation that results in thick 
scarring. Small shavings of concrete, plastic 
'sporks' or paper clips are used to cut and cause 
bleeding to arms, legs and genitals. Cannon 
remembers some prisoners cutting themselves, 
"just to feel something 
 they were willing to do 
anything to get out of their cell and into the 
infirmary to be around other people".

Nelson recalled an inmate who continually 
tightened a piece of string around his finger. It 
became gangrenous and was amputated. Men who 
injured themselves told him: "I need the pain, to feel real".

'They're not faking'

"Gassing" is also common in supermax prisons. It 
is a word used to describe prisoners throwing 
urine and faeces at guards. Gassing is treated as 
a security threat and is met with excessive force by a tactical team.

Prison mental health staff label inmates who 
engage in cutting and gassing as malingering and 
"acting out", not as suffering from mental 
illness. And yet there is decades of 
indisputable, well-documented evidence that 
solitary confinement causes mental breakdown and self-injurious behaviour.

Dr Terry A Kupers, a psychologist who has 
conducted hundreds of assessments of prisoners in 
supermax prisons, explained in an article in the 
Belleville News-Democrat. "Twenty-three hours a 
day alone in a cell causes many inmates to 
brutally attack themselves," he wrote. "In the 
adult male population of the United States, 
self-mutilation occurs only in solitary 
confinement. It's an epidemic across the country. They're not faking."

Supermax prisons are modern, high-tech, taxpayer 
funded concentration camps. The architecture is a 
twisted blend of Fascist-Stripped-Classical and 
Functionalist designed to facilitate the One Flew 
Over the Cuckoos Nest punishment of inmates. They 
are located in rural areas in small, 
conservative, majority white towns desperate for 
jobs. Pelican Bay was built on an abandoned 
logging site and is completely cut off from its 
surroundings. Tamms supermax is located in the 
far corner of Illinois in the village of Tamms, 
population: 724. The remote location of supermax 
prisons keeps them hidden and away from public 
scrutiny and protest. Media are not allowed in.

On the perimeter of supermax prisons loom large 
and imposing guard towers with gun turrets and 
floodlights that resemble German Flak towers.

The interior of supermax prisons is built on the 
architectural principles of isolation, 
surveillance and über-control. Doors and gates 
are controlled electronically. A panoptic central 
guard tower is encircled by prisoner "pods" and 
closed-circuit TV cameras allow guards to see 
into every cell. Privacy is nonexistent. Concrete 
cells contain a poured concrete bed, immovable 
concrete desk/stool, stainless steel sink, toilet 
and mirror. Metal wire mesh cell doors have a 
slot to deliver food and other items. Some doors 
have Plexiglas covers that insulate cells from sound, air and vision.

Architects have partnered with penal authorities 
to create austere, hermetically sealed dungeons 
devoid of natural light, colour or beauty. They 
are milieus full of monotony, guaranteed to 
provoke mental despair. Architects who build 
prisons call themselves "justice" architects. In 
response to that outrageous claim and to the boom 
in prison building, Architects/Designers/Planners 
for Social Responsibility (AAPSR) launched a 
prison design boycott. The organisation 
acknowledges the barbaric consequences of 
supermax incarceration and encourages architects 
to sign a pledge not to do any work that 
"furthers the construction of prisons or jails".

Daily routines in supermax prisons are rigidly 
controlled. Prison guards and administration have 
total power and domination over every aspect of 
prisoners' lives through a series of capricious 
rules and regulations that, if broken, result in 
"tickets", loss of privileges or additional 
prison time. Inmates' bodies, belongings and 
cells are subjected to relentless searches, 
inspection and video monitoring. Authorities 
decide the number of showers per week (one to 
five) and the amount of time (15 minutes), 
exercise time (1 hour), clothes, TV/radio access, 
food, visitation rights - and can withdraw 
medication. Inmates aren't allowed to speak to 
other inmates when outside their cells. If 
prisoners stray off the yellow line walking to 
the shower or exercise cage, they can be shot.

The hunger strikers in Pelican Bay sent the world 
a distress signal: A supermax SOS. They are 
buried alive but still able to fight against the 
most appalling prison conditions imaginable. 
Those of us on the outside have a moral and 
ethical responsibility to hear and answer that 
call and fight to shut every supermax prison down.

Helen Redmond is a US-based journalist, 
commentator, and drug and health policy analyst.

The views expressed in this article are the 
author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Source:
Al Jazeera




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