“US ‘supermax’ prison is condemned internationally for its abusive regime” @ The Guardian

Posted on September 19, 2012

Sadhbh Walshe — September 18, 2012: “In 1990, John Jay Powers was sentenced to time in prison for robbing a bank. While there, he witnessed the murder of another inmate and began suffering from post-traumatic stress. In 2001, after a brief escape attempt, he was transferred to Administrative Maximum (ADX) Florence, the federal government’s only supermax facility, where inmates are housed in conditions of such extreme isolation the prison is known, not so fondly, as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”.

Before entering ADX, Powers had no history or symptoms of mental illness, but since being installed there, he has become deranged and has engaged in numerous acts of self-mutilation, including amputating his testicle and scrotum, biting off his finger and trying to kill himself on several occasions……………”

Read more at The Guardian.