Solitary confinement

====Racial and other disparities====

Statistics indicate that members of marginalized groups are disproportionately likely to end up in solitary confinement. A 2019 Correctional Leaders Association/Yale Law School study found that Black women make up 21.5 percent of the United States female prison population, but 42.1 percent of the U.S. female prison population held in solitary.<ref>{{cite web |title=Time-in-Cell 2019: A Snapshot of Restrictive Housing |url=https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/liman/document/time-in-cell_2019.pdf |publisher=Association of State Correctional Administrators and the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program |access-date=9 July 2023 |date=September 2020}}</ref> Another study found that 11 percent of all Black men born in Pennsylvania between 1986 and 1989 had been held in solitary by the age of 32.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pullen-Blasnik |first1=Hannah |last2=Simes |first2=Jessica T. |last3=Western |first3=Bruce |title=The Population Prevalence of Solitary Confinement |journal=Science Advances |date=26 November 2021 |volume=7 |issue=48 |pages=eabj1928 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abj1928 |pmid=34826243 |pmc=8626064 |bibcode=2021SciA....7.1928P }}</ref> Disparities in the use of solitary have also been found to exist for [[LGBTQ|LGBTQ+]] people, Latinos, and Native Americans.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beck |first1=Allen J. |title=Use of Restrictive Housing in U.S. Prisons and Jails, 2011-12 |url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/urhuspj1112.pdf |publisher=Bureau of Justice Statistics |access-date=9 July 2023 |date=October 2015}}</ref><ref name = race/>

The disproportionate use of solitary on marginalized groups has been attributed to [[racism]] and other forms of [[discrimination]] which are exacerbated by the correctional environment. People of color may be more likely to be perceived as threatening and consequently receive more disciplinary tickets that land them in solitary;<ref name = race>{{cite web |last1=Eskender |first1=Melat |title=Racism and Solitary Confinement |url=https://solitarywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SW-Fact-Sheet-1-Racism-v230228.pdf |publisher=Solitary Watch |access-date=10 July 2023 |date=2022}}</ref> LGBTQ+ individuals may be placed in solitary as [[protective custody]] (either voluntarily or involuntarily) to prevent them from being assaulted or otherwise victimized.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Truman |first1=Jennifer L. |last2=Morgan |first2=Rachel E. |title=Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2017-2022 |url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/vvsogi1720.pdf |publisher=Bureau of Justice Statistics |access-date=9 July 2023 |date=June 2022}}</ref> Notably, some [[transgender]] individuals have stated that they would rather risk their safety in the general prison population than being held in the isolation of protective custody.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Law |first1=Victoria |title=Maryland Solitary Confinement Reform Bill Stalls in Democratic State Legislature, Despite Rare Support From Corrections Union |url=https://solitarywatch.org/2023/05/25/maryland-solitary-confinement-reform-bill-stalls-in-democratic-state-legislature-despite-rare-support-from-corrections-union/ |publisher=Solitary Watch/The Nation |access-date=9 July 2023 |date=25 May 2023 |quote=One month after [Scheibe] was placed in segregation, staff offered her a choice. She could sign a body waiver, in which she would accept the purported risk of returning to general population, or she could remain in isolation. 'Had I not signed the body waiver, I very well might have killed myself,' Scheibe told Solitary Watch and The Nation. 'I would rather take my chances in general population than be locked in a six-foot cell.'}}</ref>

As Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith have written, "Solitary confinement is a place where [the] racial history [of the United States] is on full display... Not only are the majority of the staff white and the majority of the prisoners Black and brown, but the very premise of solitary confinement relies on the foundation of [[white supremacy]] on which this country was built."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hattery |first1=Angela J. |last2=Smith |first2=Earl |title=Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy, and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement |date=2022 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |isbn=978-1978823785}}</ref>