Special Prisons Within Prisons: Control Units

Article by Caylor Roling

In 1972, the federal government created a special kind of prison at Marion Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. This unit of sixty prisoners, called the “Control Unit,” was going to be on permanent lockdown. The design and methods developed at Marion spread to other federal and state prisons and even jails across the U.S. “Control unit” is now a term referring to any prison or part of a prison where conditions of extreme isolation exist. This includes places named “Admax,” “SHU” (Security Housing Unit), “AdSeg” (Administrative Segregation) or “IMU” (Intensive Management Unit). An entire prison that operates under permanent lockdown is now often referred to as a “supermax” prison, and the use of supermax prisons has been growing for years. At the same time, activists inside and outside prison have been identifying and resisting the abuse of prisoners within these units… these “prisons within prisons.”

The Reasoning Behind These Prisons

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said the Marion prison and its replacement, the ADMAX prison in Florence, Colorado, were created to house the “worst of the worst” criminals. It was argued they would decrease violence in prisons by isolating the most dangerous people, and that incarcerating people in control units would permit a decrease in the need for security in other prisons. Some violent people are housed in control units, but there is no research to show that these “prisons within prisons” have decreased overall violence in our penitentiary systems, or how they have affected security levels in other prisons.

Different states wind up with a different proportion of their prisoners in the control units, a discrepancy that flies in the face of the “worst of the worst” idea. (After all, how many “worst of the worst” are there?) There are no uniform standards to determine who will wind up in extreme isolation. But once these units are built there is a temptation to keep those beds occupied, especially as prisons may face a shortage of low-security beds or other beds.

In practice, control units contain mentally ill people (the severe isolation worsening their illness), political prisoners, prisoner organizers and people who file lawsuits and voice other complaints about the system. Looking at who is in control units gives us some insight into the real reasoning behind their construction: extreme isolation as a way to achieve extreme control over individuals.

What’s So Special About Control Units?

For one thing, prison officials can use administrative rather than disciplinary transfers to move people into control units. People facing disciplinary measures have (limited) access to due process; people transferred for administrative reasons do not have any due process. Because these units are isolated from the even the prison community (by definition) there is less scrutiny about day-to-day conditions. People literally disappear from sight while in these conditions of extreme confinement. Inside control units:

• People have limited access to visits and phone calls.
• They are confined alone in tiny cells up to 23 hours a day. 
• People are isolated, and yet under intensive surveillance.
• The short exercise period is typically permitted in a small outdoor cage – in one supermax prison, the corrections officers called the yard “the kennel.” 
• There are no communal eating areas, no opportunities to work or attend educational programs, and often there are no communal religious services. 
• Most cells don’t have windows, and many have solid doors with slots for passing food trays.
• The cells are designed to keep out sound so incarcerated people rarely hear another human voice.
• Often, lights are on for 24 hours a day.  

In some instances people are confined in these conditions for years at a time.

Control Units are Especially Hard on Incarcerated People’s Mental and Physical Health

Reports from people confined in control units reveal that psychological and physical abuse happens in control units from California to New York. People have reported being gassed, beaten, pepper sprayed, covered in urine and feces, and tied down with restraints for up to three days - one prison had rings installed on bed frames for tying people down. People are strip-searched even though they have little or no contact with any other people.

The isolation and abuse has damaging mental and emotional effects, especially for mentally ill prisoners. Healthy people begin to cut themselves and have attacks of anger and paranoia. Even when released, people report psychological problems that started during isolation continuing to plague them.

Internationally, extended periods of isolation are considered to be torture. The United Nations Committee Against Torture determined in 2000 that the conditions in America’s supermax prisons violated the Convention Against Torture.

What Can Be Done?

Several groups in the United States are working to abolish control units. California Prison Focus works to end human rights abuses and torture in California’s prisons. A key part of the organization’s work is documenting abuses in Security Housing Units and demanding that the SHUs be abolished.

The Criminal Justice Program of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the AFSC affiliated Prison Watch are working to abolish control unit prisons. The Criminal Justice Program gathers testimonies from people who have survived incarceration in control units, lobbies legislatures for change, and organizes lawyers, clergy, activists, families and other everyday folks to oppose control units. Prison Watch focuses on stopping isolation and torture in New Jersey and New York. The AFSC also publishes a Survivor’s Manual for people in control units and general information about the prisons. Information about how to get these publications follows.

The inhumanity of these units is unacceptable. While the international community recognizes these units violate the most basic of human rights, the only realistic hope for change lies in the vocal action of people here in the United States. Though the men and women who endure these units are supposed to feel utterly forgotten, we can remember them and then take the next steps: advocacy and education.

Sources & Resources on Control Units and Surviving Solitary

California Prison Focus, www.prisons.org, 2940 16th Street #B-5, San Francisco, CA  94103, they work to close the Security Housing Units (SHU’s) in California’s prison system.

From Alcatraz to Marion to Florence – Control Unit Prisons in the United States Committee to End the Marion Lockdown, This history and analysis of control unit prisons is available on the web.

Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It
By Terry Kupers, 1999, $29, Book about mental illness in prison that includes information about mental health problems caused by security housing units and supermax prisons.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) web site , has a number of resources available, including:

Lessons from Marion: The Failure of a Maximum Security Prison, A History and Analysis with Voices of Prisoners ($3), and Survival in Solitary: A Manual Written By and For People in Control Units/Solitary Confinement (free to prisoners, $2 for others), send orders to: AFSC, Literature Resources Unit, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102.

The Prison Inside the Prison: Control Units, Supermax Prisons, and Devices of Torture by Bonnie Kerness and Rachael Kamel. This 2003 AFSC briefing paper about control unit prisons and the campaigns against them is available on their website . Printed copies available from the National Criminal Justice and Anti-Death Penalty Program, AFSC, 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia PA 19102. Copies are free to prisoners and $1 for everyone else.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of Justice Matters.