Mental health disparities in solitary confinement
Files
First author draft
Date
2020
DOI
Authors
Simes, Jessica
Western, Bruce
Lee, Angela
Version
First author draft
OA Version
Citation
Jessica Simes, Bruce Western, Angela Lee. "Mental Health Disparities in Solitary Confinement."
Abstract
Harsh prison conditions have been widely examined for their effects on the
mental health of incarcerated people. Few studies of punishment examine
how mental health status could expose individuals to greater risk of
harsh and punitive treatment in the criminal justice system. With prisoners
confined to their cells for up to 23 hours each day, often deprived of visitors
or phone calls, solitary confinement is an important case for studying
both harsh treatment and cumulative disadvantage. Routinely used as punishment
for prison misconduct, the quasi-legal process leading to solitary
confinement may be subject to the same forces that criminalize the mentally
ill in community settings, and drive disparities in treatment. Analyzing
a large administrative dataset showing admissions to solitary confinement,
we find very high rates of punitive isolation among those with serious mental
illness that result from the cumulative effects of disciplinary tickets and
disciplinary hearings, in which long periods of solitary confinement are disproportionately
dispensed to the mentally ill. We estimate that prisoners
with serious mental illness could expect to spend three to four times longer
in solitary confinement than a similar person with no history of mental
illness. These findings suggest the stigma of dangerousness follows individuals
into prison, providing new evidence of how the criminalization of
mental health conditions also accompany greater severity of incarceration.