So now institutional behavior has less meaning for the futures of 1,300 demonstrably dangerous lifers. The quickest way to get that coin is to hurt someone-usually another prisoner, sometimes a correctional officer. Then there is the explosive force of boredom. For the few untamable prisoners, there is supermax. There prisoners are in their cells 23 hours a day, without radios or televisions until those amenities have been earned by good behavior.
Prisoners eat in their cells, the food coming through slots in solid metal doors.
When they come out for showers or exercise, they back up to their cell doors, are shackled and accompanied by two officers. No prisoner even sees another prisoner. The average stay is 16-18 months. The only prisoners permanently there have killed while in prison or are under sentence of death. Before California built a supermax, one in 1,200 prisoners was murdered.