Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Most Restrictive Alternative - The Origins, Control, and Functions of the Supermax Prison, 1976-2010

美国各地的超级监狱关押着数千名长期单独监禁的囚犯，条件是极度感官剥夺。法院不会将囚犯判入超级监狱；相反，根据惩教管理人员的说法，超级监狱关押的是据称存在机构安全风险的囚犯。在20世纪80年代到90年代之间，几乎每个州都建造了某种形式的超级监狱。尽管许多研究人员对这一时期监狱监禁率和监狱建设的指数增长进行了评估，但很少有人仔细研究过超级监狱现象本身。因此，这个项目试图探索一个首要问题：超级监狱的概念是如何在美国出现的，这种出现是如何塑造刑罚学话语和惩罚实践的？该作品首先从历史和制度上分析了超重型监狱的现象，研究了法院、立法者、惩教管理者和建筑师是如何策划这种刑罚创新的。此外，本项目将探讨超级监狱自成立以来，在过去的二十年中是如何运作的，特别是研究谁被拘留在这些设施中，被拘留多长时间，以及对个人和机构产生了什么影响。这项对超级监狱影响的分析将借鉴这些设施中前囚犯的经历，如访谈所述，以及对当前惩教人口数据的定量分析。该项目将包括对超级监狱现象蔓延的全国分析，以及两个更深入的基于州的案例研究，重点关注超级监狱制度的出现及其在加利福尼亚州和伊利诺伊州的具体运作。通过探索政策创新和制度改革的机制，通过超级监狱的镜头，该项目将不仅有助于矫正历史，而且有助于法律变革如何发生，被复制和变得根深蒂固的社会政治概念。

Supermax prisons across the United States detain thousands in long-term solitary confinement, under conditions of extreme sensory deprivation. Courts of law do not sentence prisoners to supermaxes; rather, supermaxes detain prisoners who are allegedly institutional security risks, according to correctional administrators. Between the1980s and the 1990s, almost every state built some form of supermax facility. Although many researchers have evaluated the exponential increases in overall prison incarceration rates and prison building during this period, few have looked closely at the supermax phenomenon itself. Therefore, this project seeks to explore one overarching question: How did the concept of the supermax prison emerge in the United States, and how did this emergence shape penology discourse and punishment practice? The work draws first on a historical and institutional analysis of the supermax phenomenon, examining how courts, legislators, correctional administrators, and architects orchestrated this punishment innovation. In addition, this project will explore how supermaxes have functioned over the last twenty years, since their first inception, specifically examining who is detained in these facilities, for how long, and with what effects on individuals and institutions. This analysis of the effect of supermaxes will draw on both the experiences of former prisoners of these facilities, as described in interviews, and on quantitative analyses of current correctional population data. This project will include both a national analysis of the spread of the supermax phenomenon and two more in-depth state-based case studies, focusing on details of the emergence of the supermax institution and its functioning specifically in California and Illinois. By exploring the mechanisms of policy innovation and institutional reform, through the lens of the supermax, this project will contribute not only to correctional history but also to socio-political conceptions of how legal change happens, gets replicated, and becomes entrenched.