Julianne Harvey

November 30, 2015

CIS 110 sec 058
Tamika Tompoulidis
Informative Essay
Prison Conditions in the United States
My name is Julie Harvey and although I have never been to prison the growing problems with
maximum security prison conditions have struck an interest with me and is something that everyone
should become aware of. Prison conditions in the United States are often overlooked because of the
fact that the people in prison are convicts and should be punished, so why care about the conditions?
But In the United States, some prisons referred to as maxi maxis are breaking human rights as well as
the United Nation's Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
A term known as marionization is being used to describe the new types of prisons. This
expansion and widespread acceptance of super-maximum security confinement in U.S. prisons as a
bleak, damaging, and potentially dangerous prison practice (Immarigeon 1992). These prisons which
are describes as bleak, damaging, and potentially dangerous are now being practiced in 36 different
states. There is no way to fully understand the inhumane conditions of these prisons without being
confined in one of these horrible places. But here are just some descriptions to help create a better
understanding of what these prisons are like.
These prisons often have another set of court basically to determine another sentence for the prisoner.
The confinement in "maxi-maxis" is administered by prison officials without independent supervision
and leads to a situation in which inmates may in fact be sentenced twice: once by the court, to a certain
period of imprisonment; and the second time, by the prison administration, to particularly harsh
conditions. This second sentencing is open-ended limited only by the overall length of an inmate's

sentence and is imposed without the benefit of counsel (Human Rights Watch 1991). Meaning that the
prisoner undergoes a second court once already sentenced, and is put back into a court in the maxi maxi
prison. This court determines a second sentence, while the inmate has no counsel or lawyer present.
Not to mention, one of the main forms of punishment in maxi maxi prisons is confinement of inmates
for sometimes up to twenty three hours a day to their cells and denial of any contact visits. One of the
most well known maxi maxi prisons at Marion in rural Illinois, is known for practicing this as well as
much worse punishment exercises.
Corporal punishment is prohibited by the U.N.'s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners, but is often used anyways in these prisons, such as Q-Wing of the Florida State Prison at
Starke. Here it is often a punishment to be celled in a windowless, horribly ventilated room without
ever seeing the outside, sometimes up to seven years. Another form of frequent punishment in these
maxi maxi prisons is a punishment where an inmate is stripped of everything they have in prison. No
clothes, no mattress, nothing, until they earn it back bit by bit from good behavior determined by the
prison officials. In a female prison in New York, as well as other prisons across the United States uses
mass punishment. Meaning that if one person does something wrong in a group, everyone receives the
same punishment. Both of these punishment tactics are considered corporal punishment but are often
used anyways.
These are just a few of the punishments and conditions often practiced in prisons in thirty six states
known as maxi maxis. The prison conditions in the United States is often overlooked because of the
general idea that prisoners should not be worried about because they are convicts and should be
punished to the fullest extent, especially for inmates on death row. One inmate on death row stated
"the mentality is that since we are going to die anyway, why bother to do anything"(Human Rights
Watch 1991). But the fact is that the United Nations has rules to ensure a standard for the treatment of
prisoners. Recently this standard has been questionably followed. In maxi maxi prisons there are

frequent violations of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. This is
something that should be brought to the attention of not only our government officials but also to the
general population.

Works Cited

Bowker, L. (1979). The Maximum Security Prison and Its Transformation. The Prison Journal, 24-34.
Falgiano, L., & Lemaire, K. (n.d.). The Prison Project Publications. Human Rights Quarterly, 647-647.
Immarigeon, R. (1992). Marionization of American Prisons. National Prison Project Journal, 7(4), 1-5.
Richards, S. (2008). USP Marion: The First Federal Supermax. The Prison Journal, 6-22.