Abolish Control Units! Shut Down Security Housing Units (SHU)! End Torture in Prisons! Stop Supermax! abolishcontrolunits.org

Mainstream Press

Note: As Control Units have received more and more press we have not actively kept this list up. For the latest news see prisoner reports below.

Lawsuit First to Challenge use of Solitary Confinement in California County Jails - The lawsuit argues that Santa Clara's sheriff is locking up hundreds of inmates in small filthy jail cells and allowing them out for as few as three hours a week. Inmates held in isolation, the lawsuit argues, are subjected to conditions that "serve no penological purpose." In addition to having very little out-of-cell time, inmates receive limited visiting time and are completely shackled whenever they leave their cells. (The Intercept, December 12, 2015)

Solitary in California Jails Still Hellish Despite State Reforms - Four days after his arrest, Carroll committed suicide. Because of his small stature and age — he was 51 — he'd been placed in protective custody, a classification reserved for inmates deemed too vulnerable to be housed in the jail's general population. (The Intercept, October 29, 2015)

Trapped in Tamms: In Illinois' only supermax facility, inmates are in cells 23 hours a day - Faygie Fields' escape from years of solitary confinement on the toughest wing of Illinois' only state-run supermax prison began with food. He claimed there were rat droppings in his rice, bugs in... (Belleville News-Democrat, August 2, 2009)

Hellhole - The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? (The New Yorker, March 30, 2009)

Do special units go too far? - They're the worst of the worst in the state prison system. Fifty-five men out of 48,900 inmates whose behavior led them to the hole beyond the hole... (Patriot-News, December 12, 2008)

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)

News from Prisoners by State

News from Alabama

Rekindle the fire in Alabama ( 17 September 2018)

Resistance from within Management Control Units ( 1 April 2003)

News from Alaska

Solitary Confinement in Anchorage CC used to punish prisoners avoiding gangs ( 27 June 2018)

News from Arizona