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Objectives: To evaluate whether a history of incarceration was associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, and to determine if this association was further strengthened when combined with a history of solitary confinement. Methods: We collected cross-sectional data from a general population sample in New York City and Baltimore in March 2017. Participants were categorized based on their history of incarceration and solitary confinement: (1) no incarceration, (2) incarceration-only, and (3) incarceration plus solitary confinement. We compared these three groups, utilizing hierarchical adjustments for sociodemographic factors and adverse childhood experiences. Missing data were accounted for utilizing multiple imputation via chained equation. Results: A total of 1221 individuals were analyzed. Those who experienced both incarceration and solitary confinement consistently had higher odds of suicidal ideation (OR, 2.80; 95% CI, 1.43 to 5.48) and suicide attempts (OR, 6.98; 95% CI, 2.77 to 17.61) than never incarcerated individuals. Those who experienced incarceration without solitary confinement had higher odds of suicide attempts (OR, 3.77; 95% CI, 1.35 to 10.56) than never incarcerated individuals, whereas this association was not evident for suicidal ideation. Solitary confinement increased the odds of suicidal ideation even compared to incarceration without solitary confinement (OR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.09 to 6.74). Conclusions: Our findings support the need to address the higher likelihood of suicide-related outcomes among those in contact with the criminal justice system, and to consider alternatives to solitary confinement. HIGHLIGHTS: Those who experienced both incarceration and solitary confinement had higher odds of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts than never incarcerated individuals. Solitary confinement increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation, even more so than incarceration without solitary confinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the harrowing experiences of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition activist, during his imprisonment and after his release. Topics include the psychological and moral impact of prolonged solitary confinement, the emotional toll on political prisoners' families, and the necessity of human communication and support for those enduring such conditions.

Background: Children in custodial settings are a vulnerable group. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic there were concerns about the safety of children in these settings. COVID-19 has had an impact on everyone but given the vulnerability of children in custody, there were concerns about the impact of COVID-19 restrictions. All custody settings for children are independently inspected and this research aimed to analyse data from inspection reports. Twenty-six inspection reports undertaken between March 2020 and October 2021 were analysed to understand the impact of COVID-19 on delivery of usual care/regime. Results: Data showed that across all site's children spent considerable amounts of time isolated and in some cases, this was deemed to amount to solitary confinement. There was evidence of some positive experiences, in the smaller sites, around COVID-19 slowing the pace of life allowing staff and children could foster relationships. However, in the larger sites, isolation was extreme and COVID-19 policies such as 'bubbles' appear to have created unintended consequences as sites have moved into recovery, leading to increased violence and stress. COVID-19 directly impacted staffing levels. This and the COVID-19 policies to reduce mixing also had an impact on how children's behaviour, welfare and safeguarding was managed. In some larger sites, being COVID-19 secure was prioritised over the needs of the children. Conclusions: This research highlights the importance of multi-site longitudinal research to understand how children, staff and institution's function. The experiences of children in custody during COVID-19 differed by site type. The research suggests that the larger sites are struggling to keep children safe and there should be a shift towards smaller, more therapeutic environments. More research is needed to understand the longer-term unintended consequences of COVID-19 policy in custody, for these vulnerable children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Suicide rates are higher in prison than in the general population in most countries. The proximity of some suicides to prison events has only received little attention in comparative studies. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between suicide and four prison events: conviction, disciplinary solitary confinement, nondisciplinary solitary confinement and inter‐prison transfer, in a national retrospective cohort study of people in prison. Methods: All incarcerations in France that occurred during 2017–2020 were eligible. Data were collected from an administrative database of the National Prison Service. Survival bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed with a Cox regression model. Results: Of 358,522 incarcerations were included, among which 469,348 events and 449 suicides occurred. In multivariate analysis, suicide risk was higher the first day of disciplinary solitary confinement (HR = 42.1 [21.5–82.7] and HR = 119.0 [71.5–197.9], before and after a government decree on the disciplinary system, respectively. It was higher within 2 weeks after a transfer (HR = 3.5 [2.3–5.2])) or entry in nondisciplinary solitary confinement (HR = 6.7 [3.4–13.3]) and lower within 2 weeks after a conviction (HR = 0.6 [0.4–1.0]). Conclusion: Solitary confinement and transfer were found to be precipitating factors of suicide in people who are incarcerated. These results offer interesting perspectives on prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a recent study of disparities in solitary confinement (SC) placements in Florida, we examined related dis-parities in the use of extended restrictive housing in Ohio (SC conditions) while expanding the analysis to short term restrictive housing, a substantially more common prison experience. Analyses of 183,872 incarcerated persons (IPs) revealed substantive disparities in prevalence and incidence of placements in both short- and long-term restrictive housing (RH). Controlling for types of rule violations and other risk indicators, disparities emerged based on an IP's sex, age, race, education, learning skills, substance abuse risk, and mental health. Many findings are consistent with the Florida study and extend to the more routine short term RH. Similar studies will be critical for generating a body of knowledge that may demonstrate the same types and levels of RH disparities regardless of prison system, contributing greatly to RH policy debates and critical criminological perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an uncollected letter from John Galsworthy to Charles Masterman in 1909, where Galsworthy highlights the inhumane conditions of solitary confinement in prisons based on his visits to Lewes and Chelmsford prisons. Galsworthy advocates for penal reform, emphasizing the need to move away from closed-cell confinement and reduce separation periods for prisoners. The letter sheds light on Galsworthy's consistent advocacy for a more humane approach to incarceration and his contributions to the humanitarian prison reform movement, enriching scholarly discourse on the topic. [Extracted from the article]

For the millions of people incarcerated in United States' prisons and jails during the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation took many forms, including medical isolation for those sick with COVID-19, quarantine for those potentially exposed, and prolonged facility-wide lockdowns. Incarcerated people's lived experience of isolation during the pandemic has largely gone undocumented. Through interviews with 48 incarcerated people and 27 staff at two jails and one prison in geographically diverse locations in the United States, we document the implementation of COVID-19 isolation policies from the perspective of those that live and work in carceral settings. Incarcerated people were isolated from social contact, educational programs, employment, and recreation, and lacked clear communication about COVID-19-related protocols. Being isolated, no matter the reason, felt like punishment and was compared to solitary confinement—with resultant long-term, negative impacts on health. Participants detailed isolation policies as disruptive, detrimental to mental health, and dehumanizing for incarcerated people. Findings point to several recommendations for isolation policy in carceral settings. These include integrating healthcare delivery into isolation protocols, preserving social relationships during isolation, promoting bidirectional communication about protocols and their effect between facility leadership and incarcerated people. Most importantly, there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current approach to the use of isolation in carceral settings and to establish external oversight procedures for its use during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay challenges solitary confinement in immigration prisons and examines how solitary confinement is an extrajudicial segregation designed by courts and congressional plenary power. Topics discussed include evolution of immigration prisons that led to solitary confinement, state claims against private officials, Section 1983 claims for violations of Fifth, Eighth and 14th amendment rights, federal tort claims, habeas and international law claims, and harm-reduction legislative options.

Prior work on extended restrictive housing (ERH) has focused primarily on incarcerated persons rather than on potential impacts of this housing on personnel. Drawing on scholarship on the get-tough era, prison personnel, and ERH, we seek to shed light on contemporary correctional management practices and how doing so can illuminate the broad-ranging impacts of the get-tough era. We hypothesize that operational and organizational stressors differ for ERH personnel and may contribute to greater stress and adversely affect their mental and physical health. After presenting analyses from a mixed-methods study of Florida prisons, we discuss implications of the results for research and policy. We conclude that the get-tough era has led to harms, such as negative effects for personnel, that extend beyond those who are punished to those who play a role in systems of punishment and that have implications for understanding and addressing prison system safety and order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary American corrections, extended solitary confinement (ESM) as a management tool has emerged as a strategy for avowedly controlling the most violent individuals and, in so doing, creating a safer prison system. We theorize that the emergence of this unique form of housing may also be viewed as a signal of prison system failure. To advance this argument, we identify how different theoretical perspectives can be used to anticipate the effects of ESM on prison system violence and order and then investigate the plausibility of this account by grounding it in analysis of qualitative data from a study of one state's prison system. The analysis suggests theoretical and empirical warrant for both views of ESM—as an effective tool and as a symptom of system failure. Implications of the study research and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous perpetration of unjustified harms by the carceral state through its use of solitary confinement justifies the creation of a novel process of automatic sentence review. This process is necessary to account for such state-perpetrated harms and communicate censure more accurately. This article proposes the use of a communicative theory of punishment developed in sentencing to characterise and account for the state's wrongdoing and harms in the context of a sentence that involves solitary confinement. Specifically, it outlines a justification for an automatic review process of the offender's carceral sentence based on an expanded and relational understanding of censure developed in the literature and proposes a two-step process to implement this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has been unprecedented in many ways, including the drastic changes to the activities and behaviors that shape our everyday lives, particularly the practice of physical distancing and self-isolation. Moreover, the pandemic has highlighted the damaging effects of going "stir crazy," loneliness, and the restrictions on people's civil liberties, as demonstrated by the impact that self-isolation is having on people's mental health and well-being. However, the science behind self-isolation and quarantine is designed to prevent the spread of disease and to save lives. Meanwhile, prisoners and prisoner's rights advocates have long been arguing that the curtailment of civil liberties in prisons, especially the use of solitary confinement, is a human rights violation and is intentionally designed to be punitive and proven to have devastating effects on one's mental (and physiological) health. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to highlight the need to revisit the practice of solitary confinement in prisons. In this article, by using Orlando Patterson's theory on social death, I will examine the practice of solitary confinement, and the detrimental impact it has on one's health amid this "new normal." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Albert Woodfox's Solitary, a memoir of four decades in solitary confinement, is a painful testimony of the violence of criminal justice and dramatic evidence of survival. This review essay considers Woodfox's account and contends that today African Americans live in a suffocating state displayed in law's numbers: high incarceration rates, police brutality, and summary killings. It argues against viewing Woodfox's testimony as a redemption story so as not to undermine its transformative power. To bring solitary confinement to an end, one must acknowledge that there is no reversal to the damage caused by law's numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laurence Sterne develops his complex approach towards solitude throughout his fictional and non-fictional writings. Ranging between A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, Bramine's Journal, Letters from Yorick to Eliza, and Sterne's sermons, this article explores how Sterne juxtaposes the pleasures of retirement with more painful loneliness, and the opportunities that each opens up for sometimes challenging self-contemplation. Various locations stimulate Sterne's engagement with this relationship in differing ways: simply, the enjoyable solitude of country retreat contrasts with the superficial busyness of city life; but for Sterne the opportunity to attain greater self-knowledge comes through his interactions with others. Alone, he must construct imaginary forms of sociability, especially with his beloved but absent Eliza, whom he brings into a fictive conversation through his writing. In the process, the quixotism of Sterne's sentimental authorial persona leads not to a performance of feeling, but to an embrace of human frailty and hopefulness alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solitary confinement may affect incarcerated persons. Yet, what is known about those who work in solitary confinement units? Drawing on Sykes' classic, The society of captives, on the "pains of imprisonment," we argue that solitary confinement work may adversely affect correctional personnel. This study extends prior work on deprivation theory, solitary confinement, and research on work in prison by testing this argument through analyses of qualitative data. We find that those who work in solitary confinement units report deprivations analogous to what incarcerated persons experience. The article concludes with a call for expanding theoretical and empirical research on solitary confinement and the impacts of contemporary penal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An estimated 84,000 incarcerated individuals face solitary confinement in the United States criminal justice system. Solitary confinement is seen as a cruel punishment, with lasting effects, for incarcerated individuals. Human rights organisations, medical associations, policymakers, and incarcerated people have argued for the discontinuation of solitary confinement. After being in solitary confinement for an extended period, incarcerated people can suffer worsening and future mental health issues, physical health concerns and issues with relationships during and after serving their time in prison. This article reviews the available research and the purpose of the article is to show the detrimental effects solitary confinement has on incarcerated individuals. Clinical and policy implications for prisons that use solitary confinement are discussed to dissuade usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continued use of solitary confinement has sparked international public health and human rights criticisms and concerns. This carceral practice has been linked repeatedly to a range of serious psychological harms among incarcerated persons. Vulnerabilities to harm are especially dire for persons with preexisting serious mental illness ("SMI"), a group that is overrepresented in solitary confinement units. Although there have been numerous calls for the practice to be significantly reformed, curtailed, and ended altogether, few strategies exist to minimize its use for people with SMI and histories of violence against themselves or others. This case study describes the "Oregon Resource Team" (ORT), a pilot project adapted from a Norwegian officer-led, interdisciplinary team-based approach to reduce isolation and improve outcomes for incarcerated persons with SMI and histories of trauma, self-injury, and violence against others. We describe the ORT's innovative approach, the characteristics and experiences of incarcerated people who participated in it, its reported impact on the behavior, health, and well-being of incarcerated persons and correctional staff, and ways to optimize its effectiveness and expand its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of solitary confinement (SC) is established within the literature as a common occurrence of torture within the prison system, and many international and national human rights organizations have called for its abolition. A somewhat more contentious topic in the literature is the practice of force feeding (FF) of hunger-striking prisoners. The paper aims to make a case against FF by establishing a parity argument that states the following: If SC is considered an immoral practice (and indeed it should be), it should follow that FF is morally impermissible as well. In conclusion, this paper will argue that FF of hunger-striking prisoners is a violation of their fundamental moral rights and constitutes cruel and inhumane treatment and, therefore, should be abolished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That international law progressively recognises and prohibits emergent forms of torture and related ill-treatment has become widely accepted in the anti-torture discourse. The premise that torture's techniques and contexts change is taken to shape juridical recognition, representation and response. Authoritative international treaties, such as the UN Convention Against Torture , the European Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture , are therefore deemed 'living instruments' – influenced by social and scientific change as channelled through the doctrine of dynamic interpretation. This article argues, however, that these premises are not sufficiently empirically grounded and, far from faithfully reflecting social and scientific changes, invoke critiques around the ideological and epistemological registers of advocates and adjudicators. Taking scholarship on dynamic interpretation and forms of state violence which do not leave overt physical marks as paradigmatic entry points, this article problematises torture's juridical conceptualisation and contextualisation through a critical theoretical lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1627, at the height of the Bamberg witch-hunt (1595–1631), the prince-bishopric erected the Malefizhaus ("witchcraft-house"), the first cellular prison purpose-built for solitary confinement. This article recovers the history of the Malefizhaus to establish the importance of imprisonment and carceral institutions to the early modern witch-craze. The prison at once concretized the ideology of the hunt and furnished a fearsome weapon of persecution, extracting the confessions without which no inquisitorial campaign could function. By reconstructing the singular architecture and internal regimen of the Malefizhaus, this article demonstrates the sophistication of early modern interrogations, a process distorted by an outsized interest in torture. Having recognized the Malefizhaus as a driver of the witch-hunt, it is possible to recognize the prison's impact upon Bamberg's seventeenth-century history—disrupting political and economic relationships, displacing populations, and disciplining social life. The case of the Bamberg witches' prison counters the modernist slant of the study of the prison, proof that medieval and early modern carceral institutions shaped the history of their societies, despite smaller scales and weaker state apparatuses. In turn, the essay argues that the critical tools of carceral studies, developed to study contemporary mass incarceration, can profitably be applied to premodern practices and institutions, offering insight into patterns of violence, the development of repressive structures, and the problems of "crime" as a historical category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some evidence suggests that the practice of solitary confinement in incarceration settings is linked to poor mental health outcomes; however, prior research has not yet examined associations between experiences of solitary confinement and psychosis symptoms. To address this gap, authors conducted a cross-sectional survey of 201 formerly incarcerated men and women in the United States to examine the relationship between solitary confinement and psychosis symptoms in the postrelease community setting. Results indicated that solitary confinement was significantly associated with higher levels of current psychosis symptoms after controlling for demographic factors and clinical characteristics. These findings highlight the need for short-term and long-term community-based mental health interventions and prevention efforts in the postrelease community setting. Social workers and practitioners in community mental health settings should be cognizant of patients' histories with solitary confinement and consider how these experiences may present risks to current mental health symptoms (i.e. early onset psychosis). Future studies are needed on protective mechanisms that may buffer the effects of prior solitary confinement on psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity is high among incarcerated individuals. Severe mental disorder is five to ten times higher among prisoners compared to the general population. Several factors are held to be responsible for the high prevalence of depression in prison: mainly poor living conditions (narrow room, loss of privacy), limited interpersonal relationships, and lack of mental health access. Inmates are at increased risk of all-cause mortality, suicide, self-harm, violence, and victimization while those with mental disorders are involved in conflicts and are more likely to be charged with prison rules. Purpose: To explore depression among male inmates. Methods and material: In the study, 101 male inmates were enrolled. Data were collected by the completion of a "self-rating depression scale (SDS)-Zung" which included participants' characteristics. The statistical significance level was p < 0.05. Results: Of the 101 participants, 51.4% of inmates were under 40 years old, 54.5% were married, 45.6% had been convicted of homicide and 38.6% had a life sentence. Normal depression levels were experienced by 62.4% of the participants, while 21.8% were mildly depressed, 14.9% were moderately depressed and 1.0% severely depressed. Foreign prisoners had statistically significant higher scores of depression compared to Greeks (median 48 vs. 45, p = 0.012); those suffering from a chronic disease compared to those who did not (median 48 vs. 45, p = 0.038); those who had spent time in solitary confinement compared to those who had not (median 46 vs. 43.5, p = 0.038) as well as those who had not considered harming themselves compared to those who had thought of it (median 46 vs. 44, p = 0.017). Conclusion: Given that prison populations are marginalized and deprived of the rights that people in the community benefit from, establishing the prevalence of depression in male inmates and its associated characteristics may help to formulate recommendations for future prison health care services. Clinical, research, and policy efforts are needed to improve prison mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to assess the experiences of death row inmates using a phenomenological constructivist approach. This approach involves using philosophy and methods of analysis to study the lived experiences of death row inmates. To do this, the researchers used a semi-structured interview schedule with open-ended questions to gather data from a sample of five male inmates aged 30 to 60. The results, analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis, showed that the inmates had experienced major childhood events that contributed to their criminal behavior in adulthood. The major themes identified through the analysis included the inmates' mental health, predisposition towards criminality, psychological and physical changes after being sentenced to death, social and interpersonal experiences, coping strategies, and perspectives on themselves, others, and the world. In addition to the challenges of solitary confinement and the uncertainty of execution, death row inmates may face other difficulties, such as limited access to visitors, legal counsel, and educational and recreational activities. Overall, the experience of being on death row is often described as one of the most difficult and challenging experiences a person can go through. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides recommendations of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) regarding the use of seclusion in schools. It updates the CCBD's position on this topic first published in 2009 and includes (a) key definitions, (b) a summary of problems with the use of seclusion, (c) strategies to eliminate the use of seclusion, (d) a summary of law and policy related to seclusion, (e) a summary of research on seclusion, (f) a declaration of principles, and (g) recommendations regarding the elimination of seclusion in educational settings. A parallel document provides recommendations related to the use of physical restraint procedures in educational settings, which is often associated with the use of seclusion procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quite a few years back. The plight of prisoners was even more brutal and disgusting since the struggle with the state that the idea of a new dawn of recognizing human rights for prisoners was espoused. A criminal should not be treated inhumanely and should have the complete right to live with dignity. To guarantee the same, the authors of the fundamental law via Article 21 have enshrined the prohibition of any cruel or unacceptable behaviour toward any person being Indian or foreign. In any infringement of the right above, Article 14 comes into the picture, which provides for equality of rights and equal protection of the laws, to which prisoners are of no exceptions. Moreover, the judiciary has played a pivotal role in pronouncing prisoners' basic human rights within the past few years. One such cornerstone was the legal aid for them, which is no longer a matter of empathy and sympathy but now an obligatory constitutional right. This right is an ingredient of fair procedure1. Another in the row is the right to trial speedily, exclusively for those looking towards justice for decades behind bars. This paper is an endeavour to restrict the role of due process of law with that of the prisoner's rights against cruelties of inhumane treatment, torture, solitary confinement and uncalled-for handcuffing in many cases. Life is not just an animal existence, and people in jail should not be ashamed of the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the term 'solitary confinement' does not appear in Australian legislation, prisoners in all states and territories can be placed in isolation for periods of time that exceed United Nations standards. Solitary confinement is an embedded strategy used to manage 'difficult' prisoners, but legal and psychological research indicates that placing a person in solitary confinement, even for a short period of time, can result in serious psychological harm. Most prisoners will be released, and if they are disturbed and distressed, or so institutionalised that they are unable to reintegrate into society, they may pose an increased risk to members of the community. Courts in Canada, New Zealand, and Europe have condemned the use of solitary confinement on human rights grounds, particularly the right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty, the right to life, and the right to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This paper considers how the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) could be used to challenge decisions to place prisoners in solitary confinement in Queensland. It is argued that since there are a number of less restrictive alternatives available, placement in solitary confinement may not be a reasonable or justifiable limitation on prisoners' human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of judges in authorising the extension of placements in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons for lengthy periods of time. It qualitatively examines, through content analysis of 354 Israeli court decisions, how judges negotiate and rationalise the harmful effects of solitary confinement when balanced against the prison authorities' reasoning for subjecting prisoners to it. Finding an overall tendency to defer to the expertise of prison authorities, we examine what Sykes & Matza termed 'techniques of neutralisation' used by judges to distance themselves from the responsibility for solitary confinement placements and the hardship they inflict. The paper further discusses the socio-legal and organisational structures and contexts which incentivise the prioritisation of prison security/discipline over the protection of prisoners from the 'pains of solitary confinement'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last five decades, gangs have been a criminal justice priority, commanding the attention of police, courts, and corrections. Legislative bodies and local, state, and federal agencies have adapted or engineered policies and practices to combat the influence of gangs. While these efforts have been subject to inquiry by researchers and media, they have largely been uninformed by public opinion. We surveyed 1000 adults in the United States to understand public support for five common yet controversial responses to gangs spearheaded by the criminal justice system. There was a widespread consensus of support for police gang databases, civil gang injunctions, Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), and sentencing enhancements, but not solitary confinement. Respondents were not swayed by the experimental presentation of evidence of racial disparities in gang databases or the psychological impacts of solitary confinement; support for civil gang injunctions fell when learning of potential constitutional violations but not violence reduction; support for RICO fell when learning of the organizational structure of street gangs and the potential for guilt-by-association; and sentencing enhancements were no longer supported upon learning the financial cost. Public opinion maintains a significant role in criminal justice policy and practice on gangs that criminologists should subject to research and evaluation. This research underscores the importance of evidence-based policy formulation and the need for ongoing dialogue between the public, researchers, and policymakers to address challenges as complex and inexorable as gangs and gang violence in communities. • There is widespread consensus of support for most anti-gang policies and practices of the criminal justice system. • The public was favorable toward police gang databases, civil gang injunctions, criminal enterprise prosecution, and gang sentencing enhancements, but not solitary confinement. • The public could be swayed toward less support with the experimental presentation of criminological, economic, legal, psychological, and sociological information. • There is a need for evidence-based policy formulation and ongoing dialogue between the public, researchers, and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dark Tetrad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism) are associated with various adverse and destructive social outcomes. However, the data about the functioning of dark personalities in institutional settings are relatively scarce. In the present research we analyzed the links between Dark Tetrad traits, the prison social climate (measured by prisoners' quality of life) and institutional misconduct (assessed by the number of disciplinary corrections, special measures, solitary confinements, and control measures) in a sample of Serbian convicts (N = 582). Our main hypothesis was that negative prison social climate mediates the link between Dark Tetrad and institutional misconduct. Correlation and regression analysis showed negative association between the Dark Tetrad and prison social climate, together with negative links between social climate and institutional misconduct; associations between Tetrad traits and misconduct were positive. The best predictor of misconduct was the prison social climate but Machiavellianism and sadism independently contributed to the prediction as well. Finally, the structural model showed that negative prison social climate represents a mediator in the links between Machiavellianism, sadism and institutional misconduct. Therefore, our main hypothesis was confirmed, but only for Machiavellianism and sadism as the Dark Tetrad traits. The current data reveal novel socially-aversive outcomes of the Dark Tetrad traits and depict personality and contextual factors that can be practically important for enabling the better functioning of convicts in the prison wards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risen from sleep, her only true respite, a young patient Louise is led by nurse Genevieve, who instructs her on conduct, even hair style, as she has done countless times before. Eugénie, heroine of the novel, is a middle-class girl, whose strong will and social aspirations, including an interest in the then fashionable spiritualism, falls out of favour with her family, who trick her into admission. One inmate (a real person), an abused young teenage, was Louise Augustine Gleizes, who regularly performed for Charcot and whose anatomist colleague remarked, "the camera loves her". [Extracted from the article]

This article is a single case analysis of trouble talk taking place between teachers and care workers at a Swedish special residential home for boys and young men (aged 12–20). The topic of the talk is a potentially unwarranted solitary detention of a student. Using sequential- and Membership Categorisation analyses, we examine the participants' methods for talking about the event as institutionally problematic while avoiding to blame the teacher responsible for the disciplinary action. Specifically, we demonstrate how the grounds for the confinement were initially disputed by the care workers and how an extended negotiation with the teachers eventually lead to a jointly acceptable account of the event. This involved recasting the event as a real-life experience that should afford the student important opportunities for socialisation into the social and institutional orders which inform daily life at the residential home. More generally, the analysis demonstrates how presumed knowledge of social and institutional structures and practices is mobilised and negotiated – through 'categorial ordering work' (Hester & Eglin, 1997) – in the service of coming to terms with the complex accountability arrangements of the special residential home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resulting in pervasive feelings of despair, the culture of incarceration in the U.S. relies on punitive correctional strategies such as solitary confinement to control the behavior of incarcerated individuals. Inevitably, correctional culture which focuses primarily on punishment is dysfunctional, rife with gang violence, drug use, suicide, and violence perpetuated by and against staff. Our dialogic essay is voiced by (a) a currently incarcerated, Native American person who has survived solitary confinement and the spiritual drain of castigating correctional culture; and (b) a music educator who founded a prison choir for both non-incarcerated and incarcerated individuals in an effort to erode and transform some of the revengeful structures of US incarceration. We draw from Indigenous educator, language specialist, and member of the Lil'wat First Nation, Dr. Lorna Williams' research on Indigenous Knowledge in our efforts to understand the relationships among group singing, spirituality, and our experiences in the Oakdale prison choir. Our dialogue charts a search for spiritual healing in the unsympathetic atmosphere of prison and offers an experience-based account of ways in which group singing can function as a medium of spiritual healing and growth in environments of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the two thousand Americans living under a sentence of death spend twenty-three hours a day in a concrete box the size of a parking space. Often the only human touch they feel is being handcuffed and the only natural light comes from a small grill at the top of an exercise cell. However, change is at hand. The Supreme Court has emphasized that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments draws its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. To date, there has been a dearth of information available regarding the historical and modern conditions on death row. This Note addresses this gap. Part I provides, for the first time, a complete historical narrative of the development of the American death row from the Colonial Era to the Twenty-First Century. Part II reviews the findings of a survey of every jurisdiction with capital punishment to capture a national snapshot of conditions on America's death rows. The findings in both Parts suggest that the system of permanent solitary confinement on death row has neither the weight of history nor the support of the majority in either contemporary practice or social values. Indeed, there is an accelerating trend away from the practice. Part III places this evidence in constitutional context and argues that the twelve states that retain permanent solitary death rows are out of pace with America's evolving standards of decency and violate the Eighth Amendment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional thinking proposes that naming and shaming pushes publics to oppose government policies that are claimed to violate human rights. We explore the extent to which international organizations' (IOs') efforts to name and shame target governments can be frustrated by the target governments' efforts to advance a counter-narrative. We test this using a survey-based experiment that focuses on the use of prolonged solitary confinement in US prisons. The results suggest that government messaging has powerful effects on public opinion. These effects are more readily discernible than the effects of IO signals. We also find some limited evidence to suggest that messages from international nongovernmental organizations can, by themselves, elicit a backlash among the respondents. Surprisingly, we found similar effects among both Democrats and Republicans. This demonstrates important limitations to IOs' naming and shaming tactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harsh prison conditions have been widely examined for their effects on the mental health of incarcerated people, but few studies have examined whether mental health status exposes individuals to harsh treatment in the penal system. With prisoners confined to their cells for up to 23 hours each day, often being denied visitors or phone calls, solitary confinement is an important case for studying harsh treatment in prisons. Routinely used as punishment for prison infractions, solitary confinement may be subject to the same forces that criminalize the mentally ill in community settings. Analyzing a large administrative data set showing admissions to solitary confinement in state prison, we find high rates of punitive isolation among those with serious mental illness. Disparities by mental health status result from the cumulative effects of prison misconduct charges and disciplinary hearings. We estimate that those with serious mental illness spend three times longer in solitary confinement than similar incarcerated people with no mental health problems. The evidence suggests the stigma of dangerousness follows people into prison, and the criminalization of mental illness accompanies greater severity of incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document, from the Council for Exceptional Children, Division of Emotional and Behavioral Health (DEBH), provides clear and compelling support for the abolishment of solitary confinement with incarcerated youth and young adults in juvenile and adult correctional facilities. This is the first position statement from DEBH on the topic, and the information includes (a) a definition of solitary confinement, (b) discussion of its use, (c) an explanation of the impacts of solitary confinement on youth, (d) identification of systemic issues that perpetuate the use of solitary confinement, (e) an examination of U.S. laws concerning the use of solitary confinement, (f) a declaration of principles, and (g) recommendations for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archives are not straightforward repositories of history. Instead, they authorize which stories are remembered. In this article we apply the insights of cultural geographers and other influential scholars of archives to analyze the political dimensions of archiving activist histories. A small group of antiprison activists produced a personal archive during the 1990s and 2000s documenting brutality behind bars and efforts to dismantle solitary confinement in California prisons. After being deemed too dangerous to be opened to the public by university archivists, and without a permanent home, the papers were at risk of being lost to history. By presenting our work building this archive, we analyze the limitations of institutional libraries and the vital role played by individuals and independent institutions willing to preserve dangerous papers, and we show how preserving histories of state violence and opposition can become a deeply personal and risky endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is mixed evidence on whether incarcerated persons with mental illnesses have increased odds of being placed in solitary confinement. This study answered this question using a large system-wide sample and a propensity score matching design that accounted for a wide range of individual and facility confounds. Having a mental illness was associated with an increase of up to 170% in the odds of extended solitary confinement, depending on the diagnosis. A wide range of mental illnesses predicted extended solitary confinement. The association between having a mental illness and being sent to extended solitary confinement was only partially explained by misconduct. The findings suggest that incarcerated persons with mental illness may garner differential responses from the prison system, similar to those seen in studies of arrest and incarceration. Studies are needed that examine how incarcerated persons with mental illnesses are perceived by, interact with, and are sanctioned by prison staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taken collectively, Rudes argues that the features of solitary produce a "masked malignancy" (p. 8), comprised of a set of harms that "may exist for years without notice, and yet it is present ... and potentially killing" (pp. 8-9). In I Surviving Solitary i , Danielle Rudes uses an immense set of qualitative data collected from seven prisons in an unnamed state to explore the perceptions and views of people living and working in the prisons' solitary confinement units. So, figurative survival, Rudes suggests, means possessing the capacity to feel, even if those feelings are reflective of the "cavernous wounds and festering sores" (p. 184) inflected by solitary. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Solitary confinement is still used in prisons in the USA, despite its links to poor health. Past research suggests that there may be disparities by race, ethnicity, sex and mental disorders regarding who is placed in solitary confinement, although nationwide studies have been sparse. Aims: To explore possible disparities by race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, adverse childhood experiences and mental disorders in solitary confinement as a disciplinary action for adults incarcerated in USA prisons. Methods: Data come from a recently released national survey of 24,848 adults incarcerated in the USA—the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates. Logistic regression models were used to identify disparities in the use of disciplinary action and solitary confinement as a disciplinary action, while controlling for type of rule violation. Results: After controlling for rule violation type, solitary confinement was used as a disciplinary action at higher rates for people who: were multiracial, as compared to white (aOR = 1.30), male, as compared to female (aOR = 1.46), bisexual, as compared to heterosexual (aOR = 1.64), had multiple mental disorders, as compared to none (aOR = 1.22) or had more adverse childhood experiences (aOR = 1.13). Conclusions: Findings highlight demographic and health disparities in the use of solitary confinement, which may further widen health disparities. More effective implementation of policies to reduce the use of solitary confinement are still needed. Mental health professionals should have an active role in advising on measures when mental disorder is a factor and must ensure adequate treatment of disorders in prison or transfer to health facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether the interpretation of Article 30 of Geneva Convention III that allows the use of solitary confinement for prisoners of war with psychosocial disabilities is still valid in light of the new standards of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It proposes two alternative interpretations of Article 30 to demonstrate why isolation based on disability is unlawful and concludes that the use of solitary confinement on prisoners of war with psychosocial disabilities should be prohibited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]