The Oberlin cell is 84 sqare feet; the Youngstown cell is smaller by 16 square feet.
			Oberlin Students Simulate Prison Experience in Senior Art Show By Tarika Powell
	Visitors to the exhibit can observe the prisoner on a monitor in the next room of the gallery. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADAM KOWIT		NOVEMBER 18, 1999--Fisher Hall became a maximum-security prison Friday, November 13. The prison, an eight-by-eight-foot cell, houses a single Oberlin-student prisoner. The prisoner has no human contact and receives food through a slot. Fisher Hall's latest change is the senior art show of Conor Durand, a student from Concord, Massachusetts. Collaborating on the project are Elisabeth Kautz '98 and Eric Suquet, a junior from Miami. Supermax: Out of Sight, Out of Mind is a commentary on the maximum-security prison system, especially a maximum-security prison in Youngstown, Ohio, that opened two years ago. At Youngstown, prisoners inhabit a six-by-eight-foot cell without human contact 23 hours a day, and may enter a larger cell for the remaining hour shackled hand and foot, says Kautz, who protested the opening of the prison and gathered testimonies from inmates on their conditions. There, prisoners receive food through a slot in the door. The cell's lights are always on. "Some prisoners go into a maximum-security prison for only a few days as punishment," says Durand. "Other have been there since Youngstown opened." Durand says some prisoners who spoke with Kautz did not know why they had been transferred to Youngstown and had no idea how long their stay would last. Over 200 people have been incarcerated at Youngstown so far, he says. Kautz's collection of prison testimonies is on display at the exhibit. Each day a different volunteer occupies the cell to simulate the role of a prisoner in a maximum-security prison. The Fisher Hall prison sentence lasts from 9 one morning to 9 the next with a one-hour break. "The piece is an attempt to bring the situation to a wider audience," says Durand, "--to get people thinking about it." In Durand's prison, the prisoner may bring into the cell one book, some paper, and a writing implement. Most inmates in maximum-security prisons may bring two books or a shoe box of possessions. Durand's cell also contains a bedroll, a five-gallon bucket to use as a toilet, sawdust to cut the odor of the toilet, tissue paper, and two gallons of water. As at Youngstown, prisoners receive two cold meals a day. Visitors to Supermax are unable to see directly inside the cell. In another room, however, they may view the inhabitant on a TV monitor. A video camera projects the inmate's activities throughout the day except during use of the toilet. "Hopefully, people will feel what it must be like to be locked up staring at four walls for years on end," says Durand. "We want people to see beyond the outside of the prison to the inside, to what the prison officials don't want you to see." Durand has accepted twice the volunteers he can use for the project because he anticipates prisoners' wanting to leave early. "Very seldom do people spend this much time alone in this culture," he says. For this reason, each volunteer has a backup. The door to the cell is never locked. "I refuse to lock up a human being," Durand says. Durand plans to use footage from video taping to make a documentary, which he will show later. He also hopes to show the video at prison conferences and film festivals. At the exhibit, visitors may register to become pen pals with prisoners at Youngstown. They may also sign a letter to Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. The letter expresses concern with Youngstown conditions, such as poor treatment of prisoners; visiting hours' occurring only on weekdays, when prisoners' families are at work or school; and two suicides since the prison opened. It asks the department to make the sender aware of changes made in Ohio state-penitentiary policies. The Fisher Hall show runs through November 23.
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