Supermax Prison

The eighth amendment firmly states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The discussion today is about supermax prisons and how it obeys the 8th amendment. It is really hard to say who should not be sentenced to a supermax prison because no one knows the heart of a so called “offender” nor were any of us in the same place as the offender was when the crime happened. This is a very hard question to answer, but to respect the question my answer is simply; no one. I believe that no criminal should have to be sent to such a place that will deteriorate your mentality and be placed in a cell that should be reserved for a wild animal, no pun intended.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” This is from Article 1 of the UDHR, from reading this I cannot believe that these supermax prisons are acting in a humane way. If this is how humans are to treat one another then how are supermax prisons showing brotherhood? I ran across Article 4 of the UDHR which states “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Any further questions?

Short answer is no, the drawbacks do not outweigh the benefit if there are any. The pros for the prison are that the guard knows exactly where inmates are 23 hours a day. With a lockdown like this, correctional officer’s surveillance is uncanny! Although, I don’t think that supermax prison enthusiast are looking into the rehabilitation that a violent offender needs. I really would like to stay biased about this question because I myself am about to enter into the military police realm, so I feel that experience holds more value than speculation.