Sunday, May 18, 2003

Shortage of vicious criminals in Virginia?

As detailed in this interesting report by Laurence Hammack of the Roanoke Times, Virginia has quietly reduced its capacity for "supermax" inmates. The article notes that "[c]ritics of the supermax philosophy have said Virginia grossly overestimated its number of violent and predatory inmates when it spent $147 million on two prisons to isolate them under the tightest of security." The article focuses on the Red Onion and Wallens Ridge prisons, both built in the 1990s in Southwest Virginia.

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