Best Documentary – Supermax, The American Prison Hell

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.