Purposes Changed: Examples of supermax prisons

Many states have converted all or part of their super-maximum security prisons for other uses, as lawsuits and public opinion have reduced the need for so many ultra-secure cells over the last decade:

Ohio

Prison: Ohio State Penitentiary

Action: Sections of the prison opened to maximum- and minimum-security inmates

Reason: All but 176 of 424 prisoners originally placed in supermax security were transferred to other security levels after a class-action lawsuit in 2001 challenged the state’s system of assigning inmates there. Today only 53 of 533 are supermax inmates. Ohio’s death row was transferred to the prison in 2005 to fill some of the vacated space.

Virginia

Prison: Wallens Ridge State Prison

Action: Downgraded from supermax to maximum security

Reason: Virginia built two supermax prisons in the same region in the late 1980s and found it did not need 2,400 cells just for extreme isolation inmates.

Wisconsin

Prison: Wisconsin Secure Program Facility

Action: Downgraded from supermax to maximum security

Reason: Inmates brought a lawsuit alleging cruel and unusual conditions at the prison in 2000. The change was among those made as part of a settlement in that case in 2002.

Maryland

Prison: Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center

Action: Contracted about half the prison to federal prison system for pretrial housing

Reason: 112 federal inmates join 162 state supermax inmates at this 288-bed prison, which is small but rarely full. Most or all of the supermax inmates housed there are likely to be transferred to a maximum-security prison under construction.

Source: AP research