Northern is a “supermax” – a high-tech super maximum security prison and the only one in Connecticut. The prison is designed to incarcerate the so-called “worst of the worst” problem inmates. They spend 23 hours a day in their cells, frequently in solitary confinement, with one hour of recreation in a concrete enclosed outdoor pen. The Worst of the Worst follows the story of three lead characters whose lives have been shaped by Northern. We follow Misael, a former inmate, in the days after his direct release from solitary confinement on the streets of Hartford. We watch Pete, a Northern correctional officer, as he copes with the aftermath of a nearly fatal inmate assault. We accompany Ros, a mother determined to support her incarcerated son, as she makes endless visits to Northern. An estimated 80,000 people in the U.S. are currently incarcerated in supermax prisons like Northern. Thousands more correctional officers work double shifts in these conditions, driving themselves to alcoholism, divorce, and mental illness. The Supreme Court has said solitary confinement is “perilously close to a state-sponsored effort at mind control." Meanwhile, Connecticut pours hundreds of millions of dollars each year into a prison system that costs more than all of its public universities combined. Produced by filmmakers at Yale Law School’s pioneering Visual Law Project, the film includes analysis from legal scholars and calls into question the role of supermax prisons and solitary confinement in the U.S. criminal justice system.