Mental health disparities in solitary confinement

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,...

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Published inCriminology (Beverly Hills) Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 538 - 575
Main Authors Simes, Jessica T., Western, Bruce, Lee, Angela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Columbus American Society of Criminology 01.08.2022
Subjects
Correctional system
Criminalization
cumulative disadvantage
Health disparities
Health problems
Health status
Illnesses
Imprisonment
Mental disorders
Mental health
Misconduct
Penal system
Prisoner treatment
Prisoners
Prisons
Punishment
Solitary confinement
Stigma
Visitors
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ISSN0011-1384
1745-9125
DOI10.1111/1745-9125.12315

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Summary: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.
Bibliography:Thanks to Kendra Bradner and Samantha Plummer for their excellent research assistance. We gratefully acknowledge the significant support of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which provided access to administrative data used for the analysis. This research was supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant 77264, a grant from Arnold Ventures, National Science Foundation Grant SES‐1823846/1823854, the Project on Race, Class and Cumulative Adversity at Harvard University funded by the Ford Foundation and the Hutchins Family Foundation, the Justice and Poverty Project funded by the Ford Foundation, and a grant from the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University.
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ISSN:0011-1384
1745-9125
DOI:10.1111/1745-9125.12315