What do you think of supermax prisons?

Prisoners in a supermax are isolated from other prisoners and from prison staff. They spend 23 hours a day alone in their cell and one hour in an exercise space with minimal human contact. We don’t have such prisons in the UK but there are lots in the USA and more are being built.

I ask the question as a book has recently been published which examines this phenomenon. Its author is Sharon Shalev and it is titled Supermax Controlling Risk Through Solitary Confinement

You can listen to an interview with the author here