Against optimization: Solitary confinement and the research-policy nexus

Publication Date

7-1-2025

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume

99

DOI

10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102470

Abstract

This article identifies and analyzes interrelated research and policy debates over how to appropriately define, measure, and operationalize different aspects of solitary confinement. Specifically, we focus on five persistent and emergent debates: competing definitions of what constitutes solitary confinement, ambiguity about procedures sorting people into solitary confinement, confusion over whether solitary confinement is a singular or repetitive experience, challenges isolating and describing the harms of solitary confinement, and lack of attention to the experiences and influence of line staff working in solitary confinement. Drawing on our own work studying solitary confinement in California and Washington over more than a decade, as well as a growing body of solitary confinement research across multiple U.S. and international jurisdictions, we argue for the importance of understanding institution-level contexts, integrating qualitative observational and interview data with quantitative administrative data, and re-thinking assumptions about how solitary confinement is defined, deployed, and experienced. Better understanding what solitary confinement is, how it is used, and how it is experienced by those living and working in these spaces will generate new theoretical insights about how we study and understand punishment more broadly, as well as new policy insights with the potential to de-legitimize a perpetually harmful practice.

Funding Sponsor

Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation

Keywords

Mixed methods, Prison conditions, Solitary confinement

Department

Justice Studies

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS