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Follow-Up Report on the Effects of Confinement in the High Security Unit at Lexington

NCJ Number
112322
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 15 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1988) Pages: 20-29
Author(s)
R Korn
Date Published
1988
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Interviews conducted on November 5, 1987, with the five women confined at the high security unit (HSU) for women at the Federal institution at Lexington, Ky., indicate the unhealthy regime of the unit has not changed since the National Prison Project team assessed HSU on July 20, 1987.
Abstract
The physical and psychological condition of the women has deteriorated to the point of danger. The primary causes of this deterioration are a worsening of HSU conditions, including a marked increase in staff hostility and escalation in the character and intensity of harassment and provocation. There has been no effort by corrections administrators to change the HSU regime in spite of promises of reform. The women must be transferred immediately to the general population of a facility where they are treated humanely. HSU guidelines should be independently investigated along with the questionable legal and ethical assumptions which inspired them. Apparently the HSU is a new kind of prison within a prison for radical political offenders (Three of the HSU inmates have radical political associations). 1 reference.