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Penal Colony

A Penal Colony is a colony used to detain prisoners and generally use them for penal labor in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's (usually colonial) territories, and on a far larger scale than the prison farm. The prison regime was always harsh, often including severe corporal punishment. The British Empire's use of parts of Australia provides the classic example.

Prisons in the United States

According to most reports, the United States of America has the highest reported incarceration rate in the world — although several nations do not release incarceration statistics. The number could, in theory, be exceeded by countries which have prisoners who are incarcerated, but not under the authority of the prison administration. The country's large prison population is thought to result primarily from high crime rates, long sentences, and the "War on Drugs". It has been stated that a major reason for the high numbers in prison in the United States is the drug laws that result in imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders.

Recidivism is an issue that plagues the prison system. This may stem from the problem of releasing prisoners who lack job skills and at times, homes. By some estimates, 75% of released inmates return to jail at least once.

References to many facets of prison society have made their way into mainstream culture, such as the practice of secretly brewing pruno, a type of illicit beverage, the custom of dominant prisoners retaining personal "bitches," and the dangers of "dropping the soap". These representations of prison life, however inaccurate, are frequently referenced in popular culture.

Some observers regard prison conditions in the United States as problematic, with prisoner violence and rape thought to be widespread, and medical care for inmates deemed inadequate by many. An August 2003 Harper's article by Wil S. Hylton estimated that "somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of American prisoners are, at this very moment, infected with hepatitis C". Prisons may outsource medical care to private companies such as Correctional Medical Services, which, according to Hylton's research, try to minimize the amount of care given to prisoners in order to maximize profits.

Gang violence is a major problem in the prison system, as many gang members retain their affiliations when incarcerated. Identified gang members are often segregated from the general population of inmates, with different gangs being housed in separate units with the result that these gang members are imprisoned with their friends and criminal cohorts. In some ways, this has the effect of turning prisons into "institutions of higher criminal learning".

In recent years, there has been much debate in the United States over the privatization of prisons. The argument for privatization stresses cost reduction, whereas the arguments against it focus on standards of care, and the question of whether a market economy for prisons might not also lead to a market demand for prisoners (that is, a strong lobby for ever-tougher sentencing to satisfy the need for cheap labor). While privatized prisons have only a short history, there is a long tradition of inmates in state- and federal-run prisons undertaking active employment in prison for low pay.

Private companies which provide services to prisons combine in the American Correctional Association, which advocates legislation favorable to the industry, such as California's "three-strikes law" which has the end result of incarcerating more individuals. Because inmates are the 'raw materials' that the industry is based on, more people in prison means more prison business.

Like nearly all other systems in the United States, the national (federal) government, states, and individual localities all have their own prison systems. Individuals sentenced are usually remanded to a federal, state, or local prison with regard to the respective jurisdiction of the law violated.

Local prisons, usually refered to as jails, hold minor offenders serving short term sentences (i.e. unpaid traffic violations, contempt of court, etc.) and those awaiting trial in county courts. Because prisoners are unclassed (that is, not separated by offense type and other factor), conditions in many county facilities resemble those of "close security" (see below) to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence and other issues. Prisoners spend a large amount of time in their cells, a lower prisoner-to-staff ratio is maintained, and there are few activities for inmates to engage in. In many states, these facilites are maintained by county governments, with municipalities utilizing jails for the temporary holding of offenders until they are able to be transported to a county facility to await bail hearings or trial.

In the United States, a person convicted of a crime is sentenced by a judge. The length of the prison term, if applicable, is based on multiple factors including the severity of the crime, state and/or federal sentencing guidelines, and the personal discretion of the judge. The actual time spent in prison by an inmate may or may not be equal to the length imposed by the judge. The inmate may commit additional criminal offences while in prison or they may demonstrate exceptionally good behavior. Prior to the year 2000, an inmate may have been released only having served fifty percent of their sentence if they demonstrated "good behavior." However, this is no longer true of inmates convicted of federal crimes since the adoption of the federal truth-in-sentencing law. The majority of the states have followed suit, effectively abolishing parole. Such laws also modify the sentence of "life", making all life sentences "life without the possibility of parole."

The U.S. prison population as of 2004 stands at 1,390,906 men and 103,310 women.

The highest level of prison security. These prisons were designed to house the most dangerous of inmates. These include serial killers, inmates who have committed murders in less secure prisons, and high-profile inmates such as Theodore Kaczynski, Terry Nichols, and (formerly) Timothy McVeigh.

The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons operates two such facilities: USP (United States Penitentiary) Marion, formerly a Level 5 facility, and ADX Florence, which was built specifically as a supermax facility. Utilizing a penal construction and operation theory known as the "control unit" prison, the conditions of these facilities are extremely harsh — excessively so to some human rights watchdog organizations. Inmates generally spend 23 or more hours per day in their cells, with the additional hour spent either in a supervised one-man shower, or in an "outdoor" recreation area, generally a solid-walled pen twice the size of a cell and also used in solitary.

The cells themselves in ADX Florence are also designed to minimize social contact and increase isolation from the outside world. The cells, usually 7x12 feet are constructed with solid "boxcar" doors, i.e., with no windows and a locked food "wicket", and are nearly completely soundproofed. Drains and drainpipes leading to the cells, which in USP Marion were used as a method of communication, are routed to a central location and damped. Telephone privliges are virtually non-existent, as is any access to radios and television, and all mail save pre-announced legal communications is opened, read, and censored. There are no visitations of any kind, excepting legal visits. To complete the isolation, the windows of the cells (if existent) are very small and designed to only show the sky.

Simon Reeve, author of a 1998 book about the terrorist mastermind Ramzi Yousef, has described conditions inside "Supermax" as follows:

"It is probably the most secure jail ever built, and it needs to be, because the 490 men who live there are among the most violent and dangerous felons in the world. More than 22 per cent of the prisoners are men who have killed fellow inmates in other prisons. More than 35 per cent have led or participated in violent attacks on fellow inmates or prison guards. It is there, on the ultra high-security wing of the most secure prison in the world, that Ramzi Yousef will almost certainly spend the rest of his life.

"Every morning Yousef wakes in a 12 ft by 7 ft (3.5 m by 2 m) cell which contains a concrete slab and a thin mattress for a bed, a shower (with a timer to prevent flooding), a toilet, an electric light, an immovable concrete desk and stool, a polished steel mirror riveted to the concrete wall, a cigarette lighter and a 13-inch black and white television. Motion detectors, cameras, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors and 12 ft razor wire fences now guard Yousef. Cells are designed so inmates cannot see the ground outside: windows are set high up in the wall and angled pointing to the sky. This has the effect of discouraging dissent and break-outs, because prisoners are disorientated and unable to work-out where they are being held in the prison.

"'It will take Einstein’s genius and more than a little luck to get out of this baby,' said John Quest, the architect who designed the 37 acre complex, much of which is built into the side of a mountain. Laser beams, pressure pads and silent attack dogs, which can kill a man without barking, all guard the area between the prison walls and the surrounding razor wire, while visitors and prisoners enter down a heavily guarded road tunnel into the mountain, discouraging attack and making it difficult even for visitors to judge where they are in the prison." (The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism, Boston: NUP, 1999, pp. 252.)

Although the US federal government only operates one (two, counting Marion) facility of this nature, many states are now following suit by building segregation units in existing prisons or whole new facilities (such as the Ohio State Penitentiary) built on the same model.