[Supermax Housing]
Christi Parsons, "Convicts Find Prison Protest of Toughest Prison is a Tough Sell," Chicago Tribune, May 14, 2000.

Convicts in Springfield Illinois' Downstate Tamms super-max prison participated in a hunger strike to protest "inhumane" treatment in the facility. Among their objections were inedible food, exercise limited to handball in a cement cell, the use of tear gas, near-total isolation of prisoners, and refusal to allow them to wear arch supports. Although this strike has gotten more attention than others in the past, it is not drawing much sympathy. Most officials consider that the residents of Tamms got themselves into Tamms. All they have to do is behave themselves in order to be transferred to another facility.

• Is there harm in dismissing prisoners' complaints in light of their own actions that earned them a place in supermax housing to begin with? Why or Why not?
• Can these complaints about quality of life be justified as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment?