by Andy Mager

About the author: Andy Mager is a freelance writer and activist for peace and justice in Syracuse, New York.

Locked in a dull colored cell for at least 23 hours daily, unescapable lights, no human contact, besieged with dozens of petty regulations, subject to “arbitrary and excessive use of force by guards.” This is the wretched life facing men imprisoned, sometimes for many years, in the Maximum Control Facility (MCF) in Westville and the Secured Housing Unit (SHU) at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, Indiana’s two super-maximum security prisons. Conditions in these institutions are again under increased scrutiny following the October 1997 release of a damning report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), an internationally respected human rights organization.

Cold Storage: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Indiana details “cruel...