One of the things that came out of the Unlock the Box conference in 2005 was the need to expand the exchange of information between prisoners and their supporters in both directions. The newsletter, Under Lock & Key is an example of providing a voice for prisoners and a forum for prisoners and activists on the outside to share information, campaign ideas and strategies. Participating organizations' extensive network of contacts in prisons is also a great resource for answering a lot of the questions people have about what is really going on.

One of the research projects initiated from this is the tallying of control units throughout the united states, how many people are held in them, who is in them, and how they are expanding. Most of the statistics to date are around 20 to 25,000 people in Supermax prisons. Recent articles are still stating the 20,000 number published in 1998. The year 2000 U.S. census data shows over 25,000 prisoners in just 25 "Supermax" prisons in 18 states. This is based on prisons that are self-described as "Supermax" and supermax only. This list does not include any prisons in New York State, in which we have documented 44 different prisons with Special Housing Units (SHU) or S-Block, almost all of which were built in the 1990s.

In our preliminary survey of public records, and individuals with regional knowledge on control units, we have come up with a list of prisons with an estimated population in long-term isolation of 90,000+. But there are still gaps in our data. We still need numbers for some prisons and even whole states. Some prisons on our list are not of confirmed status. We welcome your input on completing this data, which will continue to be updated online, here at www.abolishcontrolunits.org.