This collection contains materials pertaining to the proliferation of control units and super-max prisons across the US. Since their emergence in the mid 1980s, these units now exist in every single state. Control units are often also called SHU (Secure Housing Unit); CMU (Communication Management Unit); Super-Max Prison and other names. No matter what the name, there are four major similarities one finds in all control units: 

1. Long-term incarceration - Once placed in a control unit, it is very difficult to get back into general population. 

2. Minimal Oversight - Administrators and guards have unchecked authority to punish and manage inmates, without outside review or prisoner grievance systems.

3. Prolonged Isolation/Solitary confinement - Rely heavily on intensive (and long-term) solitary confinement, which is used to isolate and punish prisoners as well as to protect them from themselves and each other. Communication with outsiders is minimal. Most prisoners are confined to their cells 23 hours a day.

4. No activities - Few opportunities are provided for recreation, education, substance abuse programs, or other activities generally considered healthy and rehabilitative at other prisons.

In particular, the collection features materials documenting conditions at FCI Marianna, opened in August 1988 in Florida and thought to be the replacement for the Women's control unit at Lexington; Marion Prison, located in Southern Illinois, this prison became the model for the proliferation of control units nationally and internationally following its lockdown and subsequent control unit;  and ADX Florence, an entirely underground prison which opened in 1994 and is often called the "Alcatraz of the Rockies.”