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A Culture of Harm

Taming the Dynamics of Cruelty in Supermax Prisons

University of California, Santa Cruz, psylaw{at}ucsc.edu

This article examines the heightened risk of prisoner abuse that is created in supermax prison settings. It suggests that a combination of powerful contextual forces to which correctional officers are exposed can influence and affect them in ways that may engender a culture of mistreatment or harm. Those forces include a problematic set of ideological beliefs, a surrounding environment or ecology that is structured in such a way as to encourage cruelty, and a particularly intense—even desperate—set of interpersonal dynamics created between prisoners and guards. The importance of taking this heightened potential for abuse into account when discussing the negative effects of supermax and proposals for its reform is discussed.

Key Words: supermax facilities • isolation • prison environments • mental disorder in prison

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