Imagine twenty-three hours a day in solitary confinement in a 12-by-7-foot cell with thick concrete walls, a single window, and a small slot for food. For the first time, the public is able to get a glimpse of what life is like inside ADX, the highest-security prison and the only supermax facility in the country, thanks to a landmark lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) challenging the use of solitary confinement and its human rights, public safety, and fiscal consequences. Read this article to see how America controls an increasingly overcrowded and psychologically volatile prison population.
With a total of 2.2 million currently incarcerated in the U.S. and 80,000 prisoners in solitary confinement on any given day, it’s only natural to wonder about the effectiveness of our system.
It’s interesting to contrast our penal system with Norway, where life sentences were abolished in 1991 and 21 years is the longest possible prison term, even for the most violet crimes. There are no electric fences and barbed wire surrounding the prison and security is dependent upon a level of trust and interaction between inmates and the staff, however no one tries to escape. Norway is focused on rehabilitation and reintegration back into the real world. Sound too good to be true? Read more about Norway’s prison system here and then tell me: what makes more sense?