Restrictive housing stays and their implications for prison visitation

• In Event: New Research on Social Control and Social Organization in Prison

Abstract

Restrictive housing is controversial in part because it is routine. Most prison rule infractions, for example, result in at least several days of segregation in a restrictive housing unit. Although prisons use segregation to maintain order, this routineness raises questions about collateral harms that might emerge from the wide exposure of incarcerated people to the social isolating conditions restrictive housing. One possibility is that this routine isolation undermines other aspects of prison life that might improve behavior or otherwise be beneficial. The goal of this study is to explore one such possibility—that placement in restrictive housing has reverberating impacts on individuals' likelihood of receiving visits from outside social ties. We assess short term impacts, in the months following a restrictive housing stay, and also long term impacts, by examining variation in the prevalence of visitation across different types of restrictive housing trajectories.

Authors

• Joshua C. Cochran, University of Cincinnati

• Claudia N. Anderson, University of Cincinnati

• John Wooldredge, University of Cincinnati