This study is a macrolevel longitudinal analysis testing the idea that supermax transfers improve prison social order.
The current paper, using ten years of data on 19 prison facilities in Ohio to examine the longitudinal, macrolevel associations between supermax transfers and future facility-level outcomes, found weak support for the idea that supermax transfers improve prison social order and no evidence of improvements in violence. These results suggest that supermax fails to achieve its theoretical goals and they advance an important policy conversation about whether potential benefits to facility normalization with no measurable change to violence are worth the fiscal and human costs of supermax incarceration. Supermaximum security prisons (or, “supermax”) are assumed necessary for the safety and order of prison systems. Sending people to supermax might be linked to minor improvements in program completion. The authors do find evidence of an overlooked harm—the release of alleged security threat group members from supermax to the general population was associated with increased violence. (Published Abstract Provided)