SUPERMAX

Post by **SkiDork** » Dec 11th, '06, 13:24

I've been doing some reading on Supermax prisions. They've been falling out of favor of late. Many people say they're creating these crazy wakced out psychopaths who are then released (in some cases, depending on their sentence/crime) only to commit a violent crime shortly thereafter.

Here's a CNN news story written by the Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph which seems to back that up...

It might actually be more humane to just death penalty them.

What say you?

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The article: (from CNN.com)

FLORENCE, Colorado (AP) -- Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph laments in a series of letters to a newspaper that the maximum-security federal prison where he is spending the rest of his life is designed to drive him insane.

"It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis," he wrote in one letter to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

Rudolph wrote that he spends 23 hours a day in his 7-by-12-foot cell, his only exercise confined to an enclosed area he described as a "large empty swimming pool" divided into "dog-kennel style cages."

"Using solitary confinement, Supermax is designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible," he wrote in a letter.

One of Rudolph's victims had no sympathy for him.

"It gives me a great deal of pride to think he's never coming out of there," said Diane Derzis, who runs a Birmingham, Alabama, women's clinic Rudolph bombed in 1998. "He should never see daylight again."

The newspaper reported in its Sunday editions that it has corresponded by mail with Rudolph for more than a year, and prison officials have refused the paper's request to interview Rudolph.

The Gazette refused Rudolph's request that it publish his writings in their entirety. The newspaper said if it published articles, it would print portions of the letters as long as they were not hate literature or libelous.

Rudolph, an anti-government extremist, pleaded guilty in April 2005 to setting the bomb that killed one person and wounded more than 100 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and three other bombings, including a fatal explosion at a Birmingham clinic.

XtremeJibber2001 · Post by **XtremeJibber2001** » Dec 11th, '06, 14:21

Awww poor criminals. I guess they should have considered the consequences before committing the crime.

DMC_Freeride · Post by **DMC_Freeride** » Dec 11th, '06, 14:28

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:Awww poor criminals. I guess they should have considered the consequences before committing the crime.

--- Lots of people are in jail for doing what these guys support...

XtremeJibber2001 · Post by **XtremeJibber2001** » Dec 11th, '06, 14:40

DMC_Freeride wrote:
XtremeJibber2001 wrote:Awww poor criminals. I guess they should have considered the consequences before committing the crime.
--- Lots of people are in jail for doing what these guys support...

Good point ... something I didn't consider. Although, how many pot smokers are in supermax prisons? I guess I feel the act shouldn't be illegal, but dealing it should be.

DMC_Freeride · Post by **DMC_Freeride** » Dec 11th, '06, 14:46

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
DMC_Freeride wrote:
XtremeJibber2001 wrote:Awww poor criminals. I guess they should have considered the consequences before committing the crime.
--- Lots of people are in jail for doing what these guys support...
Good point ... something I didn't consider. Although, how many pot smokers are in supermax prisons? I guess I feel the act shouldn't be illegal, but dealing it should be.

Drug offenders make up close to a third of people in US prisons...

BigKahuna13 · Post by **BigKahuna13** » Dec 11th, '06, 14:58

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:Awww poor criminals. I guess they should have considered the consequences before committing the crime.

Much as I agree with the sentiment when it comes to violent criminals. There is, as dork pointed out, the practical consideration that if the person's going to eventually rejoin society it's not in our own best interest to have him even more pissed off at society than he was before.

XtremeJibber2001 · Post by **XtremeJibber2001** » Dec 11th, '06, 15:27

BigKahuna13 wrote:
XtremeJibber2001 wrote:Awww poor criminals. I guess they should have considered the consequences before committing the crime.
Much as I agree with the sentiment when it comes to violent criminals. There is, as dork pointed out, the practical consideration that if the person's going to eventually rejoin society it's not in our own best interest to have him even more pissed off at society than he was before.

I agree. DMC also makes a good point. Just imagine how much money we'd save if the system was set-up differently/better