6/24/97 International Herald Tribune Throwing Away the Key "Super-Maximum" Prisons: Virginia Gets Even Tougher on Its Convicts By Peter Finn Washington Post Service BIG STONE GAP, Virginia--- On a 3,000-foot elevation surrounded by the lush, wooded Appaiachian Mountains, a new definition of hard time in Virginia is rising in a series of bunker-like buildings. This is where Virginia is building one of two "super-maximum" prisons, harsh institutions that have become common in the United States. An identical 1,267-inmate facility is being built 35 miles northeast of here on Red Onion Mountain, near Pound. Both will open next year. The inmates in the new prisons will be divided into two groups: general population and segregated. Those in segregation---as many as 192 prisoners in eight units at each prison---will be in 23-hour lockdown. Their tiny cells have narrow slats to let in natural sunlight. Through the slats, there is a spectacular view here of the valley below, but prison officials plan to smoke the windows before the prison opens so inmates can't see out. For the segregated prisoners, there will be no group activities, no educational or vocational programs, no television and no sports. Some of them also may be denied reading material. Exercise will be limited to an hour a day of pacing alone in a narrow concrete yard. When visitors are allowed, they will not be permitted to touch the prisoners; even the most secure of Virginia's current prisons allow an embrace at the beginning and end of a visit. Such super-maximum prisons have drawn criticism from prison rights advocates and human rights groups. But prison officials say they are essential to manage the most violent and incorrigible convicts. Ronald Angelone, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, said the abolition of parole for all crimes committed in the state after Jan. 1, 1995, means that the state will have many more prisoners to handle in coming years. So the state needs tougher prisons to house them, he said. Although the rate of violent crime in Virginia has remained steady or dropped every year since 1993, the number of state prisoners has increased, from 17,000 in 1993 to 24,000 today, and will reach 40,000 in 2002, state officials said. Because of that projected growth, the state is in the midst of a $420 million prison building boom. In addition to the two super- maximum facilities, officials are building two maximum-security prisons, a women's prison and the state's first private prison. The two super-maximums will be needed to handle the larger number of violent inmates serving true life sentences, Mr. Angelone said. *'Prisoners will be totally under the control of correctional officers," he said. When prisoners are taken out of their cells, whether for showers, exercise, or legal, medical or family visits, they will be shackled, handcuffed and accompanied by two guards. Above them, at all times, more guards will watch from gun ports. The guards will be armed with guns and, for use in less serious situations, such nonlethal weapons as rifles that can fire up to 300 rubber balls. "The prison is designed so that there are always sight lines for the officers," said Mr. Angelone, who noted that older prisons have corners where prisoners, they can escape scrutiny. The segregated units mostly will be used to house prisoners who have committed offenses inside prison. Depending on the crime, some will be held in segregation for years. "We are dealing here with the worst of the worst," Mr. Angelone said. State correctional systems have been building super-maximum prisons, modeled after the federal prison at Marion, Illinois, since the 1980s. At least 40 states have such facilities. THE TREND concerns some human rights groups, who say the complete isolation of prisoners is degrading and has spawned violence and other abuses by guards. The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and the American Friends Service Committee have complained of beatings and hog tying of inmates and of guards forcing prisoners to lap food from plates because their hands are cuffed behind their backs. Some of the stun weapons that Virginia is introducing across its prison system which every officer at the supermaximums will carry, have been condemned by Amnesty International as "cruel and inhumane." Mr. Angelone said such weapons protect inmates and guards without the need to resort to lethal force. "There needs to be security, yes, but it always needs to be done in a humane fashion," said Jenni Gainsborough, public policy coordinator for the ACLU's National Prison Project. "There is tremendous potential for abuse in these places: the isolation, the weapons, the lack of any clear independent oversight. And the mental effect on people, particularly those who come in with mental problems, can be horrifying." Indeed, one federal judge found that putting inmates with mental illness in such isolation was akin to "putting an asthmatic in a place with little air to breathe. " The judge, in a California case, found that the mentally ill should not be so isolated, but he said such harsh conditions do not violate the constitutional rights of the prison population as a whole. Officials here plan mental testing before confining prisoners to segregation. And Mr. Angelone, without commenting directly on conditions in super-maximumprisons in other states, said Virginia's would be different from most of the others. Unlike most super-maximum prisons in the United States, Virginia's will have some generalpopulation prisoners. Those inmates--- violent, long-term felons who nonetheless obey the rules---will have some privileges denied to those in segregation. They will be allowed to congregate in the yard, and will have limited educational programs. But even compared with maximum-security prisons in Virginia, those opportunities will be scant. At nearby Keen Mountain Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility, prisoners can participate in a variety of work programs, including silk-screening and making T-shirts, soap and license plates. At Wallens Ridge and Red Onion, the only work will be janitorial, and educational programs will be limited to obtaining a General Educational Development diploma. "What do we expect when these prisoners get out if there is no effort at rehabilitation and we just isolate them and encourage their antisocial tendencies?" Ms*Gainsborough of the ACLU asked. But in Virginia, society's interests in rehabilitation will be moot for many super-maximum prisoners. Because of their sentences and because the state has abolished parole, many will probably die in prison.