MIM Notes No. 198, November 15, 1999

"A SuperMax in every state!" Torture technology advances in 
Wisconsin

by MIM

In September, more than 18,000 people from four states attended 
tours at an open house for Boscobel, Wisconsin's new SuperMax 
prison. Just as the torture techniques of the Illinois Tamms C-Max 
prison (see MIM Notes 196) were modeled closely after other U.$. 
dungeons, this and other newer Super Maximum security prisons are 
replicating and expanding on the Tamms model.

This inhumane project of torture is popular in the small town of 
Boscobel. The contract to build the 509-cell prison brought a $44 
million boon to the region's budget.(1) Reactionary white Amerika 
supports the proliferation of such prisons because they 
simultaneously lock up the oppressed and provide jobs for rural 
whites.

Amerika justifies the proliferation of SuperMaxes within the 
booming prison system as a way to allegedly control the worst 
criminals. MIM disagrees. The worst criminals in Amerika are the 
imperialists because of their crimes against the peoples of 
oppressed nations throughout the world. SuperMaxes are certainly 
used as a method of control. Many politically active prisoners are 
housed in SuperMaxes as a means to deter prisoners from fighting 
for basic necessities and organizing against oppression. MIM does 
not see that all prisoners in SuperMaxes (or prisons in general) 
should be automatically freed, but we see that the current system 
is doing nothing to lead prisoners that have committed crimes to 
rehabilitate and contribute productively to society.

Amerika's high-tech torture chambers

The Pelican Bay State Prison Secure Housing Unit (SHU) in far-
Northern California is a model among SuperMax builders; Tamms C-
Max in Illinois was built after planning visits to Pelican Bay. 
All SuperMax prisons pursue sensory deprivation tactics, though 
each puts on localized touches. A prisoner wrote in the Journal of 
Prisoners on Prisons: "colors when used, are muted, mostly just 
white, off-white and grey. ... Even though the region surrounding 
the prison uses local cable television or satellite broadcast, 
this prison points its dish at (of all places) Denver, Colorado. 
... I suggest that the reason is to isolate us from local 
events."(2)

Thirty-six u.$. states now have similar facilities and offer no 
pleasantries to cover the fact that "we don't try to rehabilitate 
these guys," as an assistant to the warden at the Florence Federal 
Administrative Maximum prison (ADX) put it.(3)

The prison is designed to enforce conditions including complete 
isolation from other prisoners and from sunlight, a minimum of 23 
hours per day in the cell, all concrete and steel furniture, and 
great distance from the state's population center (which means 
difficult visiting with families, friends and attorneys).(4)

In MIM Notes 83 we reported: "strip status in 50 degree cells, 
limited access to reading and writing materials, rare visitor 
privileges are normal torture tactics for the pigs."(5)

Who are the real criminals?

According to the State of Wisconsin's public relations department, 
"the SuperMax Prison will house the state's most violent inmates 
in the state's most secure facility."

If this were true, it would make Wisconsin the only revolutionary 
authority in the united $nakes. The most violent prisoners in 
Wisconsin would have to be the governor and deputies running the 
prisons and police departments. Then, maybe we could also count on 
Wisconsin to seize and incarcerate chiefs of Amerikan military and 
political affairs when they traipse through on their campaign 
trails.

In MIM Notes Under Lock & Key in September, a Wisconsin prisoner 
reported on the preparations for the new SuperMax: "They are using 
all kinds of tricks to put us Africans and Hispanics on what they 
call 'Administrative Confinement.' The catch is that they say the 
ones on Administrative Confinement have a 75 to 90% chance of 
going to this super max. ... I believe the reason for this is to 
fill up the super max as soon as it opens. If it is filled 
immediately, they can justify to those fools in society the 
building of more prisons."(6)

Tourists hail torture as advance

Visitors on the six-day "state fair" style tour of the prison 
believe these prisoners are getting more "privilege" than they 
deserve in the lower security facilities.(4). The tourists 
included more than 3,000 schoolchildren -- Amerika's newest 
inductees into the reactionary nation accustomed to dehumanization 
of oppressed nation members.

The majority who spoke to newspapers about the prison approved 
either SuperMax repression or worse brutality against prisoners. A 
Milwaukee newspaper reported visitors saying of the SuperMax "it's 
a step in the right direction," and "they left their rights when 
they committed these crimes." A womyn said that executing the 
prisons prospective inmates would be a better use of tax money.(4)

In the land of failure to do simple math and understand the 
function of prisons, many visitors to the SuperMax were shocked by 
the $32,000 it will cost to house a captive there for one year.(4) 
MIM calls this a contradictory stance -- a failure to put two and 
two together: the University of Wisconsin at Madison estimates 
cost of a full year of college at $11,000 per year, including 
living expenses.(7)

MIM has long criticized the prison-building craze as part of a 
wild jobs-creation program for rural Amerikan labor aristocrats. 
In formerly farming or industrial towns, prisons bring 
construction and guard jobs -- turning a company town into a 
prison town.

So what can you do to help stop the vicious spread of SuperMax 
prisons and to join in education and activism to End the Amerikan 
Lockdown in general? Contact MIM for information on organizing 
rallies; educational films, lectures or panel discussions. Contact 
us to organize benefit concerts and other fundraisers for MIM's 
Serve the People Free Books for Prisoners Program. If more behind-
the-scenes activism is what you're looking for, you can help out 
with the Under Lock & Key section of MIM Notes; the Serve the 
People Prisoners' Legal Clinic; or MIM's website. MIM leads 
projects in these and many other areas along with the work of the 
United Struggle from Within prisoner organization and the 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. All these things are part 
of MIM's work to End the Amerikan Lockdown.

MC12 contributed research and editing to this article. 

Notes:
1. Wisconsin SuperMax Prison 
http://supermax.jobsight.net/public/index.stm
2. Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Volume 3, Numbers 1 and 2 
Autumn 1990/Spring 1991 http://www.jpp.org/fulltext-v3/v3n12-
e.html "It's a Form of Warfare: A Description of Pelican Bay State 
Prison" John H. Morris, III
3. The Houston Chronicle 20 June, 1999.
4. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 12 September, 1999)
5. Fight the Spread of Supermax MN83 December 1983
6. A prisoner in Wisconsin, July 1999 from MIM Notes 194
7. U. Wisconsin website. Note: this assumes Wisconsin resident 
status; prisoners of the Wisconsin prisons are Wisconsin 
residents.