Supermax Inmates

Stuart Grassian, a board-certified psychiatrist and a former faculty member from the Medical School at Harvard, has interviewed hundreds of prisoners in solitary confinement (Breslow). In one of his studies, Grassian discovered that approximately 1 out of 3 prisoners in isolation “were actively psychotic and/or acutely suicidal.” With his newly discovered knowledge, Grassian has discovered that solitary can cause a specific psychiatric syndrome, which include hallucinations, panic attacks, overt paranoia, diminished impulse control, hypersensitivity to external stimuli, and difficulties with thinking, concentration and memory (Breslow). A few of the convicts lost their ability to maintain their sense of alertness, while others discovered newfound obsessions which crippled any chance of progress. The mental heath risks are horrible, the punishment is not rehabilitating prisoners but making them more dangerous to the outside

Within the 29 years Alcatraz was in use, it held some of the worst criminals in the American history, such as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George "Machine Gun" Kelly. Within these years there have been 14 escape attempts by 36 prisoners non were successful. According to Alcatrazhistory.com “Twenty-three were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, and two drowned. Two of the men who were caught were later executed in the gas chamber at the California State Prison at San Quentin for their role in the death of a correctional officer during the famous May 2-4, 1946, "Battle of Alcatraz" escape attempt”. Alcatraz’s federal prison time was up at that moment on March 21, 1963, the prison was shut down by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy after 29 years of service.

Nowadays the majority believe that the living conditions in prisons are better than the living conditions decades ago. Despite that, it seems that in some prisons the conditions are even worse. (Garbus, 2014). He asserts that he got some information from the prisoners about the current circumstances in jails. They revealed to him that they were handcuffed to the bottom of their bunk on their underwear for months, they also described their cells.

In November 2013 three correctional officers beat an inmate who sustained life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized for 17 days. When officers tried putting Kevin Moore in the ward for the mentally ill, he refused saying he didn’t want his record depicting him as "a monster". Officers then forced Moore to the ground beating him with their fists and batons laughing while saying, "Who's a monster now?". A handful of Moore's dreadlocks had been ripped out an officer allegedly went back to retrieve them as "a trophy". The inmate came out of the fight with five fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, and facial fractures in multiple areas.

The rules and regulations stated that if a prisoner even had a stench about them that they would be sentenced to punishment. Some of the punishments would include up to fifteen days in the dark cell, a cell made entirely out of granite with only a small ventilation shaft to let any light in. Depending on the infraction committed, the prison guards would often drop snakes and scorpions down the shaft onto the prisoners. The prison rules consisted of some of the following restrictions: Prisoners shall not in any way deface the walls of their cell. At the ringing of the morning bell, every prisoner will turn out, dress.make up his bed neatly, and be ready for marching out.

With over seven-hundred individuals sharing that cramped space in each building it is very clear to see why the spread of disease was a consistent problem. The brick barracks were not the only living quarters inside of the death camp. A large amount of stall-like barracks were installed in sub camps such as Birkenau. They consisted of cramped wooden bunks with only a single row of skylights allowing light to penetrate the dark space. Being stuffed like sardines into a can became a nightly ritual for most prisoners, nevertheless, sleep was the only thing keeping the martyr of exhaustion at

The next skill that I deem to be the most important is to listen. Some incidents happen just because someone will not listen so they surely will not prior to an incident. There was an incident that took place about a month ago at CCA when nobody would listen to an inmate regarding an issue with his cellmate. Due to the lack of communication, both became convicts became

Besides detainees being directly affected by overcrowded prison, it has an adverse effect on society, due to detainees being victim of recidivism. As agreed by United States Sentencing Commission (2016), “nearly half (49.3%) of such offenders were rearrested within eight years for either a new crime or for some other violation of the condition of their probation or release conditions”. The study additionally states that “almost one-third (31.7%) of the offenders were also reconvicted, and one-quarter (24.6%) of the offenders were reincarcerated over the same study period”. This to imply that society is surrounded by former law-breaker who never got a chance to change their sinful habits. Some of the victim of recidivism, according to United States Sentencing Commission

“Two-thirds of prisoners reoffend within three years of leaving prison, often with a more serious and violent offense (Gillan).” This is an example of what society calls recidivism. According to Webster, recidivism is a tendency to lapse into a previous pattern of behavior, especially a pattern of criminal habits. The purpose of imprisonment is intended to rehabilitate the prisoners. The idea of imprisonment is so that after criminals are done with their personal sentence they will not want to go back into the system. “Unfortunately, research has consistently shown that time spent in prison does not successfully rehabilitate most inmates, and the majority of criminals return to a life of crime almost immediately (Vaccarello).” The judicial system is set up for humans to recommit crimes because they are not giving the proper rehabilitation while in prison.

Additionally, the implications of therapy used to address both substance abuse and mental health in the prison culture will also be examined. According to Joseph D. Galanek (2012), “The United States currently leads the world in incarceration; with a little over two million individuals housed in jail and prison” (p. 196). This is an astonishing number and harsh reality of the magnitude of criminality within our society. The challenges that inmates face and have to deal with on a daily basis are nothing like those found on the outside. Author Paul Wright states (2000), “In American culture, the implicit threat of homosexual rape, when made by a government official in the daily course of his duties is nothing extraordinary and such abuse is deemed to be a normal part of life in prison” (p. 16).

After talking to a cell mate Tony plead insanity and was taken to Broadmoor Asylum for the criminally Insane, he served 15 years there. When Jon went to talk to tony he described him as normal. Tony was describing all the things he did that people labeled as a sign of mental illness. What he wore, what he talked about, even how he wouldn 't join the other patients who he was genuinely afraid of. “How do you sit in a sane way, how do you cross your legs in a sane way.” Jon went to Tony’s psychiatrist and asked why was he still there?

Inmates slept under these tents four months at a time through any weather including Arizona 's heat of 130F to colds of 41F. The inmates were discriminated against due to the fact they could not speak the language, they were different in color, and they were "illegals" An inmate at the facility Jaime Valdez spent 4 months of 2012 in the separated outdoor units. He states, "They mocked us for not speaking the language,” Valdez says of the jail guards. “We would talk to them and they ignored us” (Valdez). There were holes in the tents that let winds, rain, ect..in which drenched bedding, clothing,

It housed some of America 's most dangerous felons from 1899 through 1947. Those dangerous felons included, Robert “Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud from 1890 through 1963. That is seventy-three years of being stuck at a prison, crazy right? After quite some years the prison was shut down due to the operating costs being out of this world expensive. After

When sentenced to the SHU, inmates are in their cell for 23 hours a day, with 1 hour left to do recreation in a box. Todd Ashker, the leader of the hunger strike, describes how he has not “had a normal face-to-face conversation with another human being in 23 years” (Wallace-Wells). Most of the prisoners kept in the Pelican Bay SHU began exhibiting mental breakdown as a result of the isolation (Wallace-Wells). If prisoners were kept in a normal cell, or at least were able to interact with other humans face-to-face, then they might not have had to resort to the hunger strike. The harsh conditions of the SHU are what made the prisoners decided to nonviolently protest, which further proves the presence of inmate-balance theory.

Most people in the United States each year go the prison and keep there for non-violent crime, such as drug related offenses. This issue has affected many family’s life for many years and caused the prisoners to deprive from many of their rights. Lacking the appropriate policies for keeping drug related offenses in prison has been a public health crisis and created a new addiction, like penchant for locking people up in prison. The author in this article “prison addiction: why mass incarceration policies must change.” discusses about lacking the appropriate policies for incarceration for non-violent drug related offenses. In this regard, he points that this issue has been part of public health crisis, and many families live in poverty with