Prisons

Summary of YES:

·       Out of the 400 inmate at the supermax prison in Colorado 20% are there for murder of other inmates.

·       18% for assaulting another inmate with a weapon. 16% for serious assault on a corrections officer.

·       10% for escape and 5% for rioting.

·       A benefit to the dispersion model is the fact that no single prison is required to deal with a large number of problem inmates.

·       The consolidation model involves placing all highly dangerous inmates at one location with special features and rules.

·       It is much more efficient and safe to implement the consolidation model.

·       Correction officers feel and are safer, but there have been drawbacks in combining such a highly violent mix of prisoners.

·        The main purpose of the Supermax is to control the inmate’s behavior until they can demonstrate that they can be moved back to a traditional prisons.

·        The challenge facing Supermax prisons is to properly balance staff and inmate safety needs against important constitutional and correctional management principals

Summary of NO:

·       75% of those respondents to a national survey reported some or very little confidence in state prison systems.

·       To accommodate increases in prisons admissions and time served, 168 states and 45 federal prisons have been built since 1990.

·       In 1987 50 of the inmates that testified that they were abused by corrections officers were found to not be credible witnesses.

·       Guards treat those prisoners in Supermax prisons inhumanely such as shackling them to their beds and keeping them confined to their cells for 22 hours a day.

·       The placement of those into Supermax prisons is arbitrary at best. It is based on evaluations of the inmate’s behavior not a court of law.

·       Supermax prisons are the most costly experiment in our criminal justice system. The system for deciding who is placed in these prisons is arbitrary and the treatment is cruel and possibly in violation of the constitution.

Reflection:

           In my opinion when addressing this issue the two main issues that need to be focused primarily on are the safety of corrections officers, and the cost of running Supermax prisons. Sure the treatment of those prisoners sent to such prisons must be addressed but it comes in a distant 3^rd compared to the other 2.

            We must not forget that those inmates sent to supermax prisons are the most violent and dangerous we have. If our research concludes that placing such people into supermax prisons increases the safety of corrections officers and other inmates, and if our research concludes that the cost is not absurd, we should continue with supermax prisons.  However, we should be very generous in the cost aspect because it is hard to place a number on officer safety. The other side makes a good argument about the treatment of inmates and constitutional issues, and I think those issues should not be overlooked. I am just saying that we should first worry about officer safety and then work our way down