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Overall, there's very little human contact. Most inmates are incarcerated for life but other sentences are determinate. No federal entry or release standard is observed. Some states use Supermax facilities for different reasons, including when a shortage of segregation beds exist elsewhere.
Those in them describe the experience with horror because long-term isolation contributes to anti-social behavior and mental illness, so released inmates may be violent and unemployable. Yet proponents say they're the most effective way to deal with dangerous offenders. Opponents believe they do more harm than good, and the expense compounds the problem.
They're for society's most incorrigible (or ones authorities want to punish for political or other reasons) on the notion that solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, and punitive treatment will change behavior, only for the worst according to experts.
The facilities are extremely harsh. They crush the human spirit, mind and body through isolation and cruelty enough to turn ordinary inmates into sociopaths. Physical abuse and extreme deprivation are common, inflicted as punishment. Inmate contact with staff is restricted and none allowed with other prisoners. They're confined in windowless cells 23 hours a day, have no work, social contact, education, recreation, rehabilitation or personal privacy. Nearly everything is delivered - food, medical supplies and other materials. Outside their cells, they're escorted by 4-man teams, painfully handcuffed and shacked. Inside, they're treated like caged animals.
Department of Justice (DOJ) Charges
On February 22, 2005, a DOJ press release announced a six-count indictment, charging Abu Ali with:
-- conspiracy to provide material support and resources to Al Qaeda;
-- providing material support and resources to Al Qaeda;
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