Skip navigation
× You have 2 more free articles available this month. Subscribe today.

Ohio to Build Super-Max Prison

In the wake of the April, 1993. rebellion at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) which left 10 dead Ohio prisoners and prison activists had hoped the state would examine it's policies which result in Ohio have the highest level of overcrowding in the nation at 178%. The state's response has been one of more repression. The state has announced plans to build a super-max prison similar to the facilities at Pelican Bay in California and the federal penitentiary at Marion, IL. These super-max prisons have prisoners locked in their cells 23 hours a day, deprived of human contact and virtually all communication with the outside world. These prisons have been criticized by human rights groups and are the focus of extensive litigation concerning both conditions of confinement and brutality that occurs within them.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) has formed a committee to develop plans and recommend a site for the new super-max prison. If the general assembly approves the funds, the prison will have 550 beds. Since Marion became a lockdown prison in 1983 some 37 states have since built super-max prisons whether they need them or not. This trend is now reaching Ohio which already has a super-max control unit at Lucasville.

As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login