Super-maximum security prisons have proliferated nationally, reflecting a belief among policy makers and corrections officials that such high-cost housing is effective. Yet little is known about the precise goals of “supermax” prisons, whether these goals are achieved, what unintended effects supermaxes may have, and, more generally, whether they represent a wise investment. State correctional data systems do not readily allow for assessment of these issues. The authors of this study therefore administered surveys to state prison wardens—a population uniquely situated to provide insight about supermaxes—to address existing gaps in knowledge and to inform research and policy debates. The authors discuss the study's findings and implications.
American Correctional Association. (2003). 2003 Directory of adult and juvenile departments, institutions, agencies, and probation and parole authorities. Lanham, MD: Author.
2.
Austin, J., & Irwin, J. (2001). It's about time: America's imprisonment binge (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
3.
Austin, J., & McGinnis, K. (2004). Classification of high-risk and special management prisoners: A national assessment of current practices. Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections.
4.
Austin, J., Repko, S., Harris, R., McGinnis, K., & Plant, S. (1998). Evaluation of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice administrative segregation population. Washington, DC: National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
5.
Ayidiya, S. A., & McClendon, M. J. (1990). Response effects on mail surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly54, 229-247.
6.
Baim, J. (1991). Response rates: A multinational perspective. Marketing and Research Today19, 115-119.
7.
Baruch, Y. (1999). Response rate in academic studies: A comparative analysis. Human Relations52, 421-438.
8.
Bonczar, T. P., & Snell, T. L. (2003). Capital punishment, 2002. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
9.
Borg, M. J. (1997). The southern subculture of punitiveness? Regional variation in support for capital punishment. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency34, 25-45.
10.
Bottoms, A. E. (1999). Interpersonal violence and social order in prisons. In M. H. Tonry & J. Petersilia (Eds.), Prisons (pp. 205-282). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
11.
Bradburn, N. M. (1992). Presidential address: A response to the nonresponse problem. Public Opinion Quarterly56, 391-397.
12.
Briggs, C. S., Sundt, J. L., & Castellano, T. C. (2003). The effect of supermaximumsecurity prisons on aggregate levels of institutional violence. Criminology41, 1341–1376.
13.
Bruton, J. H. (2004). The big house: Life inside a supermax security prison. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press.
14.
Campbell, R. (2003). Dollars and sentences: Legislator'views on prisons, punishment, and the budget crisis. New York: Vera Institute of Justice.
15.
Caplow, T., & Simon, J. (1999). Understanding prison policy and population trends. In M. H. Tonry & J. Petersilia (Eds.), Prisons (pp. 63-120). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
Collins, W. C. (2004). Supermaxprisons and the Constitution:Liability concerns in the extended control unit. Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections.
17.
Corzine, J., Huff-Corzine, L., & Whitt, H. P. (1999). Cultural and subcultural theories of homicide. In D. Smith & M. Zahn (Eds.), Homicide: A sourcebook of social research (pp. 42-57). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
18.
Crouch, B. M., & Marquart, J. W. (1989). An appeal to justice: Litigated reform of Texas prisons. Austin: University of Texas Press.
19.
Cullen, F. T. (2005). The twelve people who saved rehabilitation: How the science of criminology made a difference. Criminology43, 1-42.
20.
DiIulio, J. J., Jr. (1987). Governing prisons. New York: Free Press.
21.
Dillman, D. A. (2000). Mail and Internet surveys: The tailored design method. New York: John Wiley.
22.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review48, 147-160.
23.
Elsner, A. (2004). Gates of injustice: The crisis in America's prisons. New York: Pearson.
24.
Fabelo, T. (1996). Whatever is next after the prison-building boom will be next in Texas. The Prison Journal76, 475-483.
25.
Gendreau, P., & Keyes, D. (2001). Making prisons safer and more humane environments. Canadian Journal of Criminology43, 123-130.
26.
Grann, D. (2004, February 16). The Brand: How the Aryan brotherhood became the most murderous prison gang in America. The New Yorker, pp. 157-171.
27.
Haney, C. (2003). Mental health issues in long-term solitary and “supermax” confinement. Crime & Delinquency49, 124-156.
28.
Haney, C., & Lynch, M. (1997). Regulating prisons of the future: A psychological analysis of supermax and solitary confinement. New York University Review of Law and Social Change23, 477–570.
29.
Harrison, P. M., & Beck, A. J. (2003). Prisoners in 2002. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
30.
Harrison, P. M., & Beck, A. J. (2005). Prison and jail inmates at midyear 2004. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
31.
Henningsen, R. J., Johnson, W. W., & Wells, T. (1999). Supermax prisons: Panacea or desperation?Corrections Management Quarterly3, 53-59.
32.
Hershberger, G. L. (1998). To the max: Supermax facilities provide prison administrators with more security options. Corrections Today60, 54-57.
33.
Hook, J. (2003). Mangos to mangos: Comparing the operational costs of juvenile and adult correctional programs in Texas. Austin, TX: Criminal Justice Policy Council.
34.
Irwin, J. (2005). The warehouse prison: Disposal of the new dangerous class. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
35.
King, R. (1999). The rise and rise of supermax: An American solution in search of a problem?Punishment and Society1, 163-186.
36.
Knight, K. N. (2000). The evolution of decisionmaking among prison executives, 1975-2000. In J. Horney (Eds.), Policies, processes, and decisions of the criminal justice system (pp. 177-224). Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
37.
Kurki, L., & Morris, N. (2001). Supermax prisons. In M. H. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and justice: A review of research (Vol. 28, pp. 385-424). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38.
Land, K., McCall, P., & Cohen, L. (1990). Structural covariates of homicide rates: Are there any invariances across time and social space?American Journal of Sociology95, 922-963.
39.
Light, S. C. (1990). Measurement error in official statistics: Prison rule infraction data. Federal Probation54, 63-68.
40.
Lovell, D., Cloyes, K., Allen, D., & Rhodes, L. (2000). Who lives in super-maximum custody?Federal Probation64, 33-38.
41.
Lowenkamp, C. T., & Latessa, E. J. (2005). Developing successful reentry programs: Lessons learned from the “what works” research. Corrections Today67, 72-77.
42.
Lynch, A. K. (1994). The cost-effectiveness of incarceration: A critical review of the literature. Tallahassee: Florida Corrections Commission.
43.
MacKenzie, D. L. (1997). Criminal justice and crime prevention. In L. W. Sherman et al. (Eds.), Preventing crime: What works, what doesn't, what's promising (pp. 9.1-9.76). Washington, DC: Office of Justice Programs.
44.
Mangione, T. (1998). Mail surveys. In L. Bickman & D. Rog (Eds.), Handbook of applied social research methods (pp. 399-428). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
45.
National Institute of Corrections.(1997). Supermax housing:A survey of current practice. Washington, DC: Author.
46.
Nitkin, D. (2003, October 16). Maryland wants to demolish supermax as obsolete at 14: State shifts from lockup to rehabilitation in prison. Baltimore Sun, p. A1-A1.
47.
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. (2003). Ohio State Penitentiary. Columbus, OH: Author. Retrieved January 1, 2005, from www.drc.state.oh.us/Public/osp.htm
48.
Pfeiffer, M. B. (2004, October 31). A death in the box. New York Times Magazine, pp. 48-53.
49.
Pizarro, J., & Stenius, V. M. K. (2004).Supermaxprisons: Their rise, currentpractices, and effect on inmates. The Prison Journal84, 248-264.
50.
Preer, R. (2004, April 4). The solitary men. Boston Globe Magazine, pp. 30-37.
51.
Ralph, P. H., & Marquart, J. W. (1991). Gang violence in Texas prisons. The Prison Journal71, 38-49.
52.
Reisig, M. D. (2002).Administrative controlandinmatehomicide. Homicide Studies6, 84-103.
53.
Rhodes, L. A. (2004). Total confinement: Madness and reason in the maximum security prison. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
54.
Riveland, C. (1999a). Prison management trends, 1975–2025. In M. H. Tonry & J. Petersilia (Eds.), Prisons (pp. 163-203). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
55.
Riveland, C. (1999b). Supermax prisons: Overview and general considerations. Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections.
56.
Rossi, P. H., Freeman, H. E., & Lipsey, M. W. (1999). Evaluation: A systematic approach (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
57.
Simon, J. (2000). The “society of captives” in the era of hyper-incarceration. Theoretical Criminology4, 285-308.
58.
Sparks, R., Bottoms, A. E., & Hay, W. (1996). Prisons and the problem of order. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
59.
Stickrath, T. J., & Bucholtz, G. A. (2003). Supermax prisons: Why? In D. Neal (Ed.), Supermax prisons: Beyond the rock (pp. 1-14). Lanham, MD: American Correctional Association.
60.
Toch, H. (2001). The future of supermax confinement. The Prison Journal81, 376-388.
61.
Toch, H. (2003). The contemporary relevance of early experiments with supermax reform. The Prison Journal83, 221-228.
62.
U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2003). Correctional populations in the United States, 1997 and prisoners in 2002. Washington, DC: Author.
63.
Useem, B., Camp, C. G., & Camp, G. M. (1996). Resolution of prison riots. New York: Oxford University Press.
64.
Useem, B., Liedka, R. V., & Piehl, A. M. (2003).Popular support for the prison build-up. Punishment and Society5, 5-32.
65.
Walters, B. A., & Priem, R. L. (1999). A CEO-issues model of firm performance for single-businessmanufacturers. Academy of Strategic and Organizational Leadership Journal3,1-13.
66.
Ward, D. A. (1995). A corrections dilemma: How to evaluate super-max regimes. Corrections Today57, 104-108.
67.
Ward, D. A., & Werlich, T. G. (2003).Alcatraz and Marion:Evaluatingsuper-maximumcustody. Punishment and Society5, 53-75.
68.
Wells, T. L., Johnson, W. W., & Henningsen, R. J. (2002). Attitudes of wardens toward administrative segregation and supermax prisons. In L. F. Alarid and P. F. Cromwell (Eds.), Correctional perspectives (pp. 171-180). Los Angeles: Roxbury.
69.
Wooldredge, J., Griffin, T., & Pratt, T. (2001). Considering hierarchical models for research on inmatebehavior:Predictingmisconductwith multilevel data. Justice Quarterly18, 203-231.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
