Does Race Affect the Usage of Solitary Confinement as Punishment Within Prisons?

Does Race Affect the Usage of Solitary Confinement as Punishment Within Prisons?

Presenter(s)

Bradlee Elders, Christopher Miller

Comments

Presentation: 1:00-1:20 p.m., Humanities 109

Description

The criminal justice system has faced much scrutiny in recent years due to the prejudice that police are letting, consciously or unconsciously, influence the way that they conduct their duties. Does this subjection to racism and prejudice stop with policing or does it go even further to the correctional side of the criminal justice system? The current study looks a little deeper and asks the question “Does race affect the usage of solitary confinement as punishment within prisons?”. A few prior studies have been conducted with the hope of answering this question and have found that there are racial disparities in the use of solitary confinement as punishment, however, most results were insignificant enough to make a sound conclusion. By analyzing data provided by the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities in 2004, composed of self-reported responses from 18,185 incarcerated individuals, the current study found evidence of disparities within the use of solitary confinement in prisons, however, not due to race as the results were not significant enough. The current study, however, has found that there are significant disparities in the use of solitary confinement as punishment in prisons when the mental health of the incarcerated individual is taken into consideration.

Publication Date

4-19-2023

Project Designation

Capstone Project

Primary Advisor

Mark Morgan

Primary Advisor's Department

Criminal Justice and Security Studies

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Critical Evaluation of Our Times; Diversity; Scholarship

Does Race Affect the Usage of Solitary Confinement as Punishment Within Prisons?

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