USA

“The State, when it assumes responsibility for an individual, whether such responsibility is undertaken for punitive or rehabilitative reasons, has a heightened responsibility for the individual within its custody.” Report to the 1998 UN Commission on Human Rights by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.

When cruelty becomes routine: Supermax detention in the USA

Overview Police Brutality Human Rights Violations on the US-Mexico Border Abuse of Prisoners Women in Detention Arbitary detention of asylum-seekers Super-maximum security Death Penalty Racism and the death penalty International Context FAQ

Imagine being held day and night in a tiny, windowless cell. Days go by without seeing sunlight or breathing fresh air. Most days, the prison guards are your only contact with the outside world. You are not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or even read a newspaper. The lights are never turned off and you are watched every minute of the day.

For a growing number of prisoners in the USA, this is how they will serve all or part of their sentence. These conditions violate international standards for the treatment of prisoners and may amount to cruel and inhumane treatment. But more and more US jurisdictions are relying on so-called “super-maximum” facilities as a tool for maintaining security and discipline within a rapidly expanding prison population.

Across the US, some 13,000 prisoners have been assigned to facilities intended to minimize contact with guards and other inmates and guards. These prisoners spend at least 22 hours a day alone in their cells for periods ranging from weeks to years. In violation of international standards, some cells don’t have windows and prisoners may be allowed only a few hours each week in which they have access to natural light or fresh air. The cells in supermax facilities usually have solid steel doors rather than bars, which reduces sound and visual contact. Generally, supermax facilities provide no work, training or vocational programs. Access to exercise yards may be severely limited. In the most restricted units, televisions, radios, newspapers and books aren’t allowed.

In a supermax facility in Baltimore, Maryland, prisoners are confined to cells that are only six square meters in size. They are allowed out of their cells for only four to five hours a week and some may be outdoors for only one hour each week. At the W.J. Estell High Security Unity, a 660 bed supermax facility in Texas, prisoners are isolated in windowless cells for 23 hours a day. The cells have only narrow slits in the doors which allow a minimal view of the corridor outside. In the Maximum Control Center in Westville, Indiana prisoners weren’t even allowed to wear watches or ask for the time until a lawsuit led to court-ordered changes.

Courts don’t assign convicted criminals to supermax units. Instead, the decision to confine prisoners under these conditions is generally made by the relevant department of corrections or by prison officials at some point after sentencing. Evidence suggests that prisoners are isolated for a wide range of reasons, many of which are not related to the dangers they pose or to the risk that they might attempt to escape.

A number of states have moved all prisoners facing execution into supermax units, regardless of their individual disciplinary records. In Wabash, Indiana prisoners have been assigned to supermax detention for acts of insolence toward prison staff. Others have reportedly been confined in supermax units because of overcrowding or because they complained about prison conditions. Women in Valley State Prison in California have alleged that they were assigned to the supermax unit, or threatened with assignment, if they complained about sexual abuse by guards. Some prisoners have reportedly been assigned to supermax units because of their political affiliations, although such allegations are difficult to verify because the allowable grounds for confinement are so broad.

Prison specialists also say that mentally ill prisoners are more likely than other inmates to end up in such units because of the difficulty they have in adjusting to prison discipline and the lack of resources to treat their behavioural problems.

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Super-Max Detention at the Valley State Prison for Women: "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment"

Valley State Prison for Women houses more than 3,700 prisoners, making it the largest women’s prison in the US. Valley State is located in Chowchilla, California adjacent to the Central California Women’s Facility. Together, these two facilities house more than 7000 prisoners, making this possibly the largest women’s prison complex in the world. Valley State contains a supermax facility, called the Security Housing Unit or SHU, that is the highest security unit for women prisoners in California. When an Amnesty International delegation visited Valley State last year, 46 women were detained in the SHU.

In the Valley State SHU prisoners are locked in their cells for 22 or more hours a day. Prisoners eat in their cells and are generally allowed out only for showers, to meet with visitors and to exercise. Contrary to international standards, outdoor exercise is not allowed every day.

All women in the SHU are routinely placed in restraints whenever they leave their cells. In November 1998, the AI delegation observed women prisoners being led up and down metal staircases with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

Prisoners in the Valley State SHU are also strip searched every time they leave their cells and again after returning from visits or the exercise yards.

Roughly one-quarter of prison staff are women, but most are employed in administration, teaching and nursing. As a result, the overwhelming majority of custody and supervisory staff are men.

The solid steel doors have a window through which the prisoners can be viewed by the guards. The prison rules require than SHU units be “in full view” at all times. Some prisoners complain that guards peer at them when they are undressing, washing, or on the toilet. Because the toilet and sink are located beside the door, such degrading invasions of the women’s privacy is particularly easy. Prisoners report that women have been encouraged to expose themselves to the guards for extra provisions.

International rights standards require that female prisoners be attended and supervised only by female officers. AI believes that supervision by female guards is essential to protect women prisoners from sexual abuse, as well as from infringements of their rights to privacy and dignity.

Women are assigned to the Valley State SHU by a prison committee. Prison authorities say that the SHU is used to protect staff and other prisoners from a minority of highly dangerous and predatory inmates. However, some prisoners appear to have been placed in the SHU for long periods for relatively minor disciplinary infractions, including spitting and throwing water. According to the prison roster, more than half of the women in the SHU in November 1998 were assigned to the supermax unit for one year or longer. One women was assigned to the unit for four and a half years. The time women are detained in the SHU may be extended for a range of behaviour including “acting out.”

Prison authorities say that all prisoners undergo a mental health evaluation before being assigned to the SHU. In practice, it appears that only acutely ill prisoners qualify for exclusion or removal from the SHU. AI is concerned that a significant portion of the women in the unit suffer from emotional or mental health problems which may make it especially difficult for them to cope with the conditions in which they are imprisoned. Some have histories of abuse, depression and attempted suicide. According to inmates and their lawyers, many of the prisoners have deteriorated while in the unit, crying uncontrollably, banging their heads against the walls, or committing acts of self-mutilation.

AI believes the conditions in the Valley State SHU housing unit amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in violation of international standards. This conclusion is based on a combination of factors including the physical conditions, the reduced social and sensory stimulation, the length of confinement, and prior history of mental and emotional problems of many inmates.

From punishment to routine

US prisons have always used short periods of solitary confinement as a means to punish prisoners. What’s different - and alarming - about the new supermax facilities is that they are intended for the long term isolation of prisoners as a routine means of control.

In 1983, after a week of violence in which two guards were killed, the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois - the highest security US federal prison - confined all prisoners to their cells for 23 hours a day. The reduction in violence that followed this emergency measure is said to have inspired an ongoing, nationwide experiment in confinement.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the federal government and states across the US began building new supermax facilities or adding supermax units to existing maximum security prisons. By 1997, 36 states and the federal government had built a total of 57 supermax facilities.

Amnesty International recognizes that it is sometimes necessary to segregate prisoners for the safety of others or for their own protection. However, many aspects of conditions in US supermax facilities violate international human rights standards and in some facilities constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Prolonged isolation in conditions of reduced sensory stimulation can cause severe physical and psychological damage.

The UN Human Rights Committee stated in 1995 that conditions in certain US maximum security prisons were “incompatible” with international standards. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has denounced conditions of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” at two US supermax units.

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