Stop Solitary - Websites and Articles

A diverse range of lawyers, judges, faith community leaders, scholars, journalists, prisoner rights advocates and law enforcement professionals have called for limitations on the use of solitary confinement, and proposed safer, more humane, cost-effective alternatives. Below are links to more of the broad array of resources now available on this topic.

Websites

• Human Rights Coalition – www.HRcoalition.org
• Solitary Confinement – www.SolitaryConfinement.org
• Solitary Watch – www.SolitaryWatch.com
• Supermaxed – www.Supermaxed.com
• AFSC – www.afsc.org/category/topic/stopmax-campaign
• National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) – www.nrcat.org
• Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress
• Vera Institute of Justice, Segregation Reduction Project
• Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) Campaign to Prohibit the Design of “Supermax” Prisons

Selected Media

• The Worst of the Worst: Supermax Torture in America (11-1-2010) Boston Review
• Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons. (Nov/Dec 2012), Mother Jones
• Unlock The Box: The Fight Against Solitary Confinement in New York (10-2-2012), The Nation
• The Abuse of Solitary Confinement (6-20-2012), New York Times opinion
• Senators Start a Review of Solitary Confinement (6-19-202), New York Times
• Fighting a Drawn-Out Battle Against Solitary Confinement (3-30-2012), New York Times
• Incarceration in America: Rethinking Solitary Confinement (3-21-12) The Takeaway
• Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives and Sanity … (3-10-2012), New York Times
• Tortured by Solitude (11-5-2011), New York Times opinion
• Solitary confinement should be a last resort (8-21-2011), Washington Post opinion
• Smart on Crime Coalition Declares Isolated Confinement Is Overused and Harmful (2-10-2011), Solitary Watch
• Hellhole: The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? (3-30-09), The New Yorker

Reports & Studies

• Alone and Afraid: Children Held in Solitary Confinement and Isolation in Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facilities (2013), ACLU
• Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York’s Prisons (2012), New York Civil Liberties Union
• Change is Possible (March 2013), Zachary Heiden, American Civil Liberties Union of Maine
• Growing Up Locked Down (October 2012), ACLU and Human Rights Watch
• Inside the Box, ACLU of New Mexico & The New Mexico Center on Law & Poverty (October 2013)
• Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Colorado’s Continued Warehousing of Mentally Ill Prisoners in Solitary Confinement (July 2013), ACLU of Colorado
• A National Overview of State and Federal Correctional Policies (2013) Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School
• Invisible in Isolation: The Use of Segregation and Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention (September 2012) Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center and Physicians for Human Rights
• The edge of endurance: Prison conditions in California’s security housing units (September 2012) Amnesty International
• Lifetime Lockdown: How Isolation Conditions Impact Prisoner Reentry (8-8-12) The American Friends Service Committee
• The American Friends Service Committee’s survivors manual for people living in control units
• USA: Cruel Isolation: AI’s Concerns About Conditions in Arizona Maximum Security Prisons (3-4-12) Amnesty International
• Kathryn DeMarco, “Disabled by Solitude: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Its Impact on the Use of Supermax Solitary Confinement,” University of Miami Law Review, Vol.66:523, Dec. 16, 2011.
• The Cost of Long-Term Isolation: A Need for Accountability and Policy Safeguards in Supermax Prisons Across the United States (2009), Aaron Ceresnie, Adler School of Professional Psychology
• A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement (2008), Sharon Shalev, Mannheim Centre for Criminology
• Locked Up Alone: Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo (2008), Human Rights Watch
• Confronting Confinement (2006), The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons
• The Effects of Solitary Confinement on Prison Inmates: A brief history and review of the literature (2006), P.S. Smith, Crim Just 34:441–568
• Wardens’ Views on the Wisdom of Supermax Prisons (2006), D. Nears & J. Castro, Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 52/no. 3, p. 398-431
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Supermax Confinement (2006), Daniel P. Mears, Urban Institute
• Supermax Prisons Myths, Realities, and the Politics of Punishment in American Society (2006) J.M. Pizarro, et al, Criminal Justice Policy Review,Vol. 17/no. 1, p. 6-21
• Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison (2005), Lorna Rhodes. A.J. Public Health, vol. 95, no. 10
• Benefit-Cost Analysis of Supermax Prisons: Critical Steps and Considerations (2004), S.Lawrence & D.P. Mears, Urban Institute: Policy Brief
• Ill-Equipped: US Prisoners and Offenders with Mental Illness (2003), New York: Human Rights Watch
• Out of Sight: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in the United States (2000), Human Rights Watch
• Supermax Prisons: Overview and General Considerations (1999), Chase Riveland, U.S. Dept. of Justice, National Institute of Corrections
• Cold Storage: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Indiana (1997), Human Rights Watch

Videos, Films & Broadcasts

• The Gray Box: An Investigative look at solitary confinement
• “Solitary Confinement: Torture in Your Backyard” (National Religious Campaign Against Torture)
• Cruel and Inhuman: This 5-minute exposé on the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons today. “Cruel and Inhuman” was produced for the AFSC to promote their campaign against supermax prisons.
• Enduring Solitary Confinement (ABC News): See what it’s like to be locked away in solitary confinement
• Explorer: Solitary Confinement, (National Geographic)
• In the Land of the Free (documentary film re: the “Angola 3” in Louisiana)
• Survivors (NPR): Tens of thousands of inmates in American prisons live in total isolation. They don’t see anyone. They don’t talk to anyone. They are completely alone, sometimes for years, in a cell the size of a small bathroom. Producer Claire Schoen shares the voices of nine survivors of solitary confinement, who paint a vivid picture of what solitary looks, sounds, and feels like.
• Solitary Confinement: A Question of Morals: A short video describing the first-ever Senate hearing on solitary confinement and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s 23-Hour Fast to End 23-Hour Solitary.