Super Maximum Security, Supermax. A code name that disguises the harshest prison system in the United States: total solitary confinement. Of the 2.2 million in American jails, it is said that 25,000 are locked up this way. Shut in a windowless cell for 23 hours a day, with no human contact other than with the guards. And for all exercise, just one hour’s walking around a concrete pit 16 feet by 10. Often for life. How do you live from day to day in total solitary confinement? A journey to northern California, to the corridors of Pelican Bay, the first Supermax prison in the country.
00:00 Particularly dangerous prisoners
02:05 Weapons made by inmates
02:58 A prison within a prison: Supermax
05:00 Meals are served directly in the cell
06:34 Fernando Medina, sentenced to life for murder
07:38 Eddie Mills neo nazi gang member
09:32 The walk yard
11:08 Cell search
Director: Stéphane Rodriguez