In the United States, correctional authorities are relying increasingly on special super-maximum security facilities to confine disruptive or dangerous prisoners. Prisoners in these facilities spend an average of twenty-three hours a day in small, often windowless cells, facing years of extreme social isolation, enforced idleness, and extraordinarily limited recreational or educational opportunities. The psychological impact of prolonged confinement in these conditions can be devastating, particularly for the many prisoners who are incarcerated with pre-existing psychiatric illnesses. Human Rights Watch examines in this report two prisons in Indiana that exemplify conditions and practices in super-maximum security facilities around the country. While recognizing legitimate security considerations in the housing of prisoners who break prison rules, Human Rights Watch concludes that security cannot justify conditions that constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The confinement of mentally ill prisoners at Indiana's super-maximum security facilities is particularly reprehensible, inflicting such suffering as to constitute torture under international human rights law. This report is the first comprehensive assessment under international human rights law of supe-rmaximum security facilities in the United States which house prisoners who will someday be released back into the community. The report illuminates key issues that correctional authorities in the United States and throughout the world must address in developing strategies for the confinement of difficult prisoners. |