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A Rare Look Inside the Maine State Prison's "Supermax"
Loaded on March 15, 2014
by Lance Tapley
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2014, page 48
Filed under:
Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement.
Location:
Maine.
An almost-clean version of hell
by Lance Tapley
There was a stain of what looked like blood on the floor of the otherwise shiny-clean, empty Mental Health Unit isolation cell. “It’s Kool-Aid,” said my minder, a deputy warden. He smiled. But, as the saying goes, I hadn’t drunk …
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More from this issue:
- Corizon Needs a Checkup: Problems with Privatized Correctional Healthcare, by Greg Dober
- Florida County Agrees to Pay $4 Million to Deceased Prisoner’s Estate, by Derek Gilna
- Seventh Circuit Upholds Removal of Prisoner’s Dreadlocks
- Second Circuit Vacates Magistrate’s Judgment Entered without Consent
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Why There’s an Even Larger Racial Disparity in Private Prisons Than in Public Ones, by Katie Rose Quandt
- Arrest-Proof Yourself, by Dale Carson and Wes Denham, by John Dannenberg
- When Victims Speak Up in Court – in Defense of the Criminals, by Andrew Cohen
- Texas Criminal Court Fees are a Tax on Poor Defendants, by Matthew Clarke
- Oregon Jail Guard Quits, Divorces Wife for Former Prisoner
- South Dakota Parole Board Improperly Enhanced Prisoner’s Parole Date
- California Female Prisoners Sterilized
- Kentucky Supreme Court: Probation Cannot be Extended for Sex Offender Treatment
- Former Detainee Alleges Unconstitutional Conditions at Illinois Jail, Accepts $7,501 Judgment
- Seventh Circuit Upholds FTCA Venue Transfer
- Alabama Sheriff Made Party on Counterclaim Alleging Prisoners Subjected to Sexual Abuse
- Adverse Inference Instruction Required for New York Jail’s Destruction of Video Evidence
- Washington Jail Denied Good Time without Due Process; Rehearing Ordered
- Texas Courts Examine Proof of Ability to Pay Probation Fees before Revocation, by Matthew Clarke
- California County Not Liable for Misconduct of Jail Guard Not Acting within Scope of Employment
- Second Circuit: Videoconference at Resentencing Violates Right to be Present
- Taylor County, Texas Rarely Disciplines Jailers
- Eighth Circuit: Denial of Nominal Damages Jury Instruction was Improper
- D.C. Circuit Holds PLRA’s Exhaustion Requirement Inapplicable to Former Prisoner
- Michigan Parole and Probation Supervision Scrutinized; Three Officials Fired
- The Federal Tort Claims Act: A Primer, by Derek Gilna
- Psst! Hey Man, Need Some Execution Drugs?
- A Rare Look Inside the Maine State Prison's "Supermax", by Lance Tapley
- Video Visitation a Growing Trend, but Concerns Remain
- Online Gaming Accounts of New York Registered Sex Offenders Restricted or Closed
- PLRA Does Not Permit Waiver of Court-ordered Answer
- Businesses, Members of Congress Not Happy with UNICOR, by Derek Gilna
- New Hampshire Prisoners Suspected of Breaching Prison Computer System
- Lawsuits filed over Oregon Jail Death
- Ninth Circuit Holds Staff Sexual Abuse Presumed Coercive; State Bears Burden of Rebutting Presumption
- News in Brief
More from Lance Tapley:
- “Natural Causes Killed Victor: A Death in Solitary,” a folk opera by George Swanson (DVD, 55 minutes), Jan. 10, 2017
- Bonnie Kerness: Pioneer in the Struggle Against Solitary Confinement, July 9, 2014
- No Death Penalty for Maine Prisoner, April 15, 2014
- A Rare Look Inside the Maine State Prison's "Supermax", March 15, 2014
- Prison Reforms Under Maine’s New DOC Commissioner, March 15, 2013
- Solitary Confinement: Bad for Chimps, Okay for Humans?, Oct. 15, 2012
- Reform Comes to Maine Supermax: New commissioner cuts population by more than half; prisoner rights advocates help in the reform, Sept. 15, 2011
- Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, by Robert Perkinson, Metropolitan Books/Holt, 484 pp (October 2010), $20.00 paperback, May 15, 2011
- Maine Governor Rakes in Private Prison Money, Shows Appreciation, April 15, 2011
- Mass Torture in America: Notes from the Supermax Prisons, Feb. 15, 2011
More from these topics:
- Oregon Agrees to $2.3 Million Settlement After Guards Toss Mentally Ill Prisoner in Solitary, Taunt Him Until He Kills Himself, Aug. 1, 2026. Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights, Deliberate Indifference.
- Seventh Circuit Holds Federal Law Prohibits County Jail from Forcing Immigration Detainees to Perform Custodial Labor by Threatening Solitary Confinement, Aug. 1, 2026. Prison Labor, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Statutory Construction/Interpretation, Immigration Detention, Monell Liability.
- Prisoners’ Risk of Death In Custody More than Doubles in Solitary Confinement, July 1, 2026. Statistics/Trends, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Confinement in Segregated Housing, Administrative Detention/Segregation.
- Ombuds Report Doesn’t Rule Out Racism or Retaliation at Red Onion State Prison, June 1, 2026. Guard Misconduct, Racial Discrimination, Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Failure to Treat, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement.
- $250,000 Paid by Maine to Former Prisoner Held in Solitary Confinement—Which the State DOC Says Doesn’t Exist, June 1, 2026. DOC/BOP misconduct, Americans with Disabilities Act, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- New York Juvenile Detention Officials Sued for Abusing Adolescents with Solitary Confinement, May 1, 2026. Sanitation, Lockdowns, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Juvenile Prisons, Confinement in Segregated Housing.
- Class Certification Granted to Suit Challenging Suspension of HALT Act in New York Prisons, April 1, 2026. Injunctions, Class Certification, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Guard Unions, Administrative Detention/Segregation.
- D.C. Judge Blocks Transfer of Biden-Commuted Federal Death Row Prisoners to “Supermax,” Citing Lack of Meaningful Due Process, April 1, 2026. Transfers, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Fifth Amendment, Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Prison Classification.
- New York City Mayor Appoints Ex-Rikers Prisoner as Corrections Commissioner, March 1, 2026. Prison Reform, Staffing, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Guard Unions, Administrative Detention/Segregation.
- After Exposing Prison Horrors, Incarcerated Whistleblowers Are Moved to Solitary, Feb. 1, 2026. Whistleblowing, Retaliatory Segregation, Work Strikes, Totality of Conditions, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement.

