Solitary Watch

Special Management Unit

This account of life in Special Management Unit at SCI-Fayette in Pennsylvania comes to us via the Human Rights Coalition, a Philadelphia-based prison reform and social justice organization. As HRC describes it: “The Special Management Unit, or SMU, is billed by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections as a program designed to alter the behavior of […]

Voices from Solitary

Voices from Solitary: “An Insane Asylum Disguised As an SMU”

by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

May 22, 2011

Voices from Solitary

Voices from Solitary: A Man’s Strength Behind a Steel Door

by Voices from Solitary

September 8, 2012

Voices from Solitary

Voices from Solitary: Unnatural Disaster

by Voices from Solitary

April 5, 2014

News & Features

Audit of Solitary Confinement in Federal Prisons: An Inside Job Reaches Foregone Conclusions

by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

March 2, 2015

News & Features

Could This Be the Worst Solitary Confinement Unit in the Nation?

August 1, 2018

News & Features

The Maine Redemption: Bill Seeks to Restrict Use of Solitary in State’s Prisons

by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

January 11, 2010

News & Features

Prison Myth No. 1: “Prisoners Want to Go Into Solitary Confinement”

by Solitary Watch Guest Author

February 6, 2011

News & Features

Reducing Solitary Confinement in Maine

by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

November 9, 2011

News & Features

Maine Cuts Supermax Population, Reforms Solitary Confinement Practices

by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

June 2, 2011

News & Features

Another Suspicious Death in Maine State Prison’s Lockdown Unit

by James Ridgeway

August 3, 2010