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Other prominent Supermax prisoners include unabomber Ted Kaczynski; Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh (before his execution) and Terry Nichols; Robert Hanssen, the FBI supervisor turned Soviet spy; Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber, alleged Al Qaeda terrorists who bombed US African embassies, and mob informant Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.
Perhaps heading there are the Fort Hood shooter, and alleged 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and his four co-conspirators, now at Guantanamo. They'll likely be tried in rigged military tribunals with no right of appeal, are already pre-judged guilty, face certain convictions and the death penalty, followed by isolated confinement until executed - even though no evidence substantiates their guilt.
So-called "terrorists" are denied due process and judicial fairness. Charges against them are bogus. The rule of law is undermined. Secret evidence is unavailable to the defense. Extremist judges allow it. Major media reports are viciously biased, and juries are intimidated to convict.
Definitions
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) National Institute of Corrections calls the term "supermax" the most common one to describe "special housing unit(s), maxi-maxi, maximum control facilit(ies), secured housing unit(s), intensive management unit(s), and administrative maximum penitentiar(ies.)." It describes them as:
"a highly restrictive, high-custody housing unit within a secure facility....that isolates inmates from the general prison population and from each other due to grievous crimes, repetitive assaultive or violent institutional behavior, the threat of escape or actual escape from high-custody facility(s), or inciting or threatening to incite disturbances in a correctional institution."
In a 1999 report titled, "Supermax Prisons: Overview and General Considerations," the DOJ said although "concentration, dispersal, and isolation are not new, the development of 'supermax' prisons is a relatively recent trend." Prisons always had "prisons within the prison" for their worst inmates (usually called administrative segregation), and most states operate one or more facilities for their "most threatening inmates." Florence, CO is the sole federal one and 100% Supermax.
Other definitions describes "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons providing the most secure levels of custody for the "worst of the worst" criminals and those threatening national security. They're maximum security facilities or prison wings in which inmates are held in long-term solitary confinement under constant surveillance by closed-circuit TV.
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