StopMax Video:
"Cruel & Inhuman"


Survivor Photos    Credits


What is StopMax?

AFSC’s STOPMAX Campaign works to eliminate the use of isolation and segregation in U.S. prisons. Our strategies include research, grassroots organizing, public education and policy advocacy to abolish solitary confinement or reduce its use.

What Is Solitary Confinement?

Solitary confinement of prisoners exists under a range of names; isolation, control units, supermax prisons, the hole, etc. Prisoners can be placed in these units for many reasons; as punishment, while they are under investigation, as a mechanism for behavior modification, when suspected of gang involvement, as retribution for political activism or to fill expensive, empty beds, to name but a few.

Featured Resources

Survivors
Survivors of solitary confinement tell their stories at the StopMax conference.


Buried Alive:
-California Report
-Arizona Report
StopMax special reports on the use of solitary in prisons and jails.


Hellhole
Article in New Yorker Magazine, Atul Gawande


36 Years of Solitude
Special Series, Mother Jones Magazine


View more resources