report back from StopMax 2008 Conference - With former prisoners and their families at the helm, the movement to abolish supermax prisons and end solitary confinement is gaining ground. (AlterNet, August 11, 2008)

Raise a toast to the decline of Supermax era - Supermax symbolizes the American political appetite for more incarceration—and more severe punishment—instead of drug treatment, counseling and other progressive services for the prison population. (The Baltimore Sun, October 19, 2003)

Report on State Prisons Cites Inmates' Mental Illness - One of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation—confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day—are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies. (New York Times, October 22, 2003)

A necessary evil? - California corrections officials say they need SHUs to control incorrigibly violent cons in the state's vast archipelago of prisons, teeming with nearly 160,000 inmates. While no one could argue with that goal, there are significant concerns about the tactic. For starters, it's not clear to what extent SHUs are indeed reducing prison violence. (LA Times, October 19, 2003)