Supermax prisons are typically reserved for convicted political criminals such as terrorists and spies and for other inmates who are considered to pose a serious ongoing threat to the wider community, to the security of correctional institutions, or to the safety of the people within. This examines why nine prominent advanced industrialised countries have adopted the supermax prototype, paying particular attention to the economic, social, and political processes that have affected each nation.

Foreword: Probing the Meta-Prison, by Loic Wacquant
Acknowledgments

1. The Globalization of Supermax Prisons: An Introduction, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
2. The Invention of the American Supermax Prison, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
3. How Canada Built Its Supermax Prison, by Jeffrey Ian Ross
4. Supermaxes South of the Border, by Patrick O'Day and Thomas O'Connor
5. The Growth of the Supermax Option in Britain, by Angela West Crews
6. Analyzing the Supermax Prisons in the Netherlands: The Dutch Supermax, by Sandra L. Resodihardjo
7. Supermaximum Prisons in South Africa, by Fran Buntman and Lukas Muntingh
8. From "Secondary Punishment" to "Supermax": The Human Costs of High-Security Regimes in Australia, by David Brown and Bree Carlton
9. The Emergence of the Supermax in New Zealand, by Greg Newbold
10. The Rise of the Supermax in Brazil, by Jose de Jesus Filho
11. Guantanamo: America's Foreign  Supermax in the Fight Against Terrorism, by Jeffrey Ian Ross and Dawn L. Rothe
12. A Globalized Militarized Prison Juggernaut: The Case of Abu Ghraib, by Dawn L. Rothe
13. Conclusion: Globalization, Innovation, or Neither?, by Jeffrey Ian Ross

Notes
References
Notes on Contributors

JEFFREY IAN ROSS is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice and a fellow of the Center for International and Comparative Law at the University of Baltimore. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of numerous books, including Beyond Bars: Rejoining Society after Prison, Convict Criminology, and Special Problems in Corrections.