Pros And Cons Of Supermax Prisons

Supermax prisons are often referred to as the prison within a prison. With the increase of prison population throughout the nation and the increase in violence, prison officials sought to curb the rate of violence. Their answer was the supermax prison system. Designed to hold hundreds of inmates in Administrative Segregation, prison officials sought to lower violence by housing the worst offenders in solitary confinement (Latessa and Holsinger, 2011, pp. 79-81).
Proponents of the supermax systems argue that these new state of the art prisons help control the violence among prisoners by isolating the most violent inmates. By isolating the violent inmates, the rates of staff assaults and inmate on inmate assaults are lower. “Prison officials