Exploring the Goals, Uses, and Impacts of Restrictive Housing

• In Event: New Research on the Use and Impacts of Restrictive Housing

Abstract

The roots of restrictive housing lie in the Quaker model of silent contemplation to achieve reform. However, in contemporary times, restrictive housing entails the confinement of individual inmates by themselves for varying durations of time and for different purposes, including punishing misconduct, protecting inmates, and managing prison systems. A recent national survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics highlights that use of restrictive housing occurs with considerable frequency. Even so, questions exist about the precise goals that prison systems seek to achieve with restrictive housing, the precise uses to which it is put, and the range of potential impacts that the housing may have on those confined in it, other inmates, staff, prison systems, and society at large. Drawing on a National Institute of Justice-funded study of restrictive housing in Florida, we explore potential answers to these questions.

Authors

• Daniel Mears, Florida State University

• William D Bales, Florida State University

• George Pesta, Florida State University