Solitary Confinement: Acts of State-Sanctioned Violence Against Youth

• In Event: Roundtable: Critical Criminology

Abstract

Prior research confirms that solitary confinement is informed by racial disparities and amounts to abuse resulting in trauma and developmental harm in youth. State-sanctioned violence is legal, structural, and documented the most lethal type of violence. Despite solitary confinement’s systemic application and the violence informed harm it inflicts on youths, the conceptualization of solitary confinement as acts of state-sanctioned violence against youth, has been understudied. The present study’s objectives seek to develop a foundation to identify youth at increased risk of segregation, to illuminate the effects of entrenched and intersecting discriminatory factors, and to continue building on the foundation of juridical re-evaluation of youthful prisoners’ rights. I use qualitative interview data to discuss survivors’ experiences with solitary confinement as youth. The evidence presented largely suggests that racial discrimination informs incarcerated youths’ level of exposure to solitary confinement, which is perceived as violence with subsequent trauma responses placing youth at risk of long-term adverse impacts. The findings illustrate how the processes of segregation, as captured via a racialized state-sanctioned violence lens, effectively debilitate youth in their journey to desistance. I discuss future research recommendations concerning further evaluation of youthful prisoners’ rights in view of a youth-centered solitary confinement policy reform.

Author

• Cathrine Jacobsen, University of California, Santa Cruz