The Story Behind Bars: Supermax Prisons Currently there are four types of prisons: minimum-security, medium-security, maximum-security and supermax. The minimum-security prisons currently hold about 1/5 of the prison population and it usually holds those that are in for nonviolent crimes such as tax evasion and forgery. The medium-security prisons currently hold about ½ of the prison population and hold those that have committed crimes such as theft. The maximum-security prisons hold dangerous offenders that are in for sex offenses, kidnapping, murder, etc. These inmates are serving much longer sentences. Supermax prisons are super-maximum security facilities that house the most violent, "the worst of the worst", dangerous and likely to escape in a single prison system. In 1934, the USA Penitentiary Alcatraz Island was the 1st so called prototype of the supermax prisons to come. Alcatraz Island Between the 1970s and 1980s, these supermax facilities moved towards using more high-tech technology because there was a wave of violence that was killing masses of both inmates and guards. The most notorious methods used at these supermax facilities are solitary confinement and lockdowns. These methods were used to keep the inmates isolated with the idea of keeping the general and prison population safe. Currently the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons only has one entire supermax prison known as ADX Florence located in Florence, Colorado and there are 44 states that have prisons with supermax units in them. (Engdahl 2010) This notion of solitary confinement sets supermax prisons apart from other facilities. Many prisons use the disciplinary tactic of solitary confinement at their location but the main tactic of the supermax design is isolation. At the supermax facilities the inmates spend 23 out of 24 hours a day alone in a concrete soundproof cell. These cells are normally no bigger than 100 square feet. Many of these cells have no windows so that the inmate doesn't have any type of view neither in nor out and in turn completely limits or eliminates any access to the outside world. (S