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During the continuing controversy about whether the U.S. judicial system and our mammoth prison industry could handle the detainees destined for trials at Guantanamo Bay, I have not heard or read the words of any commentator saying a critical word about U.S. supermax prisons. Whether it be progressive talk radio, Change.org or any other source, all of the commentary has focused solely on how escape-proof supermax prisons are.
A common feature of U.S. supermax prisons is the deprivation of human contact: the prisoners are in their cells 23 hours a day, have no contact with other prisoners and are fed through a slot in the door. In addition to this isolation from human contact, supermax prisoners are deprived of the sights and sounds of the outside world, as is not the case in many other prisons. Escape-proof enthusiasts even favorably cite the federal supermax that is built 100 feet below ground level. Prisoners there will never see the sky nor a plane flying through it.
A probing analysis of one of the worst of the worst, Pelican Bay in California, has found that the isolation practiced there is psychologically devastating to the prisoners. Except for the possible sound of clanging doors, silence was the predominant sensation noted at Pelican by an investigative reporter.
In all the furor about whether torture is a good thing and whether the U.S. actually practices it -- under an extremely strict definition -- what is clear is that the U.S. citizenry tolerates the psychologically damaging isolation in its supermaxes.
Although prison reform is not a Peace Action issue, Peace Action members should be forewarned not to help build up support for supermaxes in an effort to achieve a desired objective: the closing of Guantanamo.
