Solitary confinement

== Purpose ==
===Extracting confessions===
Solitary confinement is often used to induce a confession from a prisoner in [[pre-trial detention]].<ref name=pss>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Peter Scharff |title=The Effects of Solitary Confinement on Prison Inmates: A Brief History and Review of the Literature |journal=Crime and Justice |date=January 2006 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=441–528 |doi=10.1086/500626|s2cid=144809478 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shalev |first1=Sharon |title=Solitary Confinement: The View from Europe |journal=Canadian Journal of Human Rights |date=2015 |volume=4 |pages=143 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/canajo4&div=12&id=&page=}}</ref> This practice has been more common in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.<ref name=pss/>

===Protective custody===
{{main|Protective custody}}
Solitary confinement is used on incarcerated individuals when they are considered a danger to themselves or others. It is also used on individuals who are at high risk of being harmed by others, for example because they are [[transgender]], have served as a [[witness]] to a crime, or have been convicted of crimes such as [[child sexual abuse|child molestation]] or [[child abuse|abuse]]. This latter form of isolation is known as [[protective custody]], and can be either voluntary or involuntary. 

Though proponents of solitary have often expressed the belief that solitary confinement promotes safety in correctional facilities, there is substantial evidence that points to the contrary.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rain Tree |first1=Sara |title=Solitary Confinement and Prison Safety |url=https://solitarywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SW-Fact-Sheet-4-Prison-Safety-v230228.pdf |publisher=Solitary Watch |access-date=9 July 2023 |date=2023}}</ref> In 2002, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America, chaired by [[John Joseph Gibbons]] and [[Nicholas Katzenbach]], found that "the increasing use of high-security segregation is counter-productive, often causing violence inside facilities and contributing to recidivism after release."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/Confronting_Confinement.pdf |title=Confronting Confinement: A Report of The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons |date=8 June 2006 |author=John J. Gibbons |author2=Nicholas de B. Katzenbach |access-date=18 June 2011 |format=PDF <!--publisher-The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons--> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228043635/http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/Confronting_Confinement.pdf |archive-date=28 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Shira E. Gordon has argued that solitary confinement "has not come close to solving the very problem it was meant to reduce: [[prison violence]]." In support of this view, Gordon cites a 2012 study showing that the rate of violence in California prisons is 20 percent higher than it was in 1989, when California's first supermax prison opened. Gordon also cites the Northern District of California court in ''Toussaint v. McCarthy'', which found that solitary confinement "increase[d] rather than decrease[d] antisocial tendencies among inmates" at [[Folsom State Prison|Folsom]] and [[San Quentin State Prison|San Quentin]] State Prisons in California.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gordon |first1=Shira E. |title=Testimony Presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights 'Reassessing Solitary Confinement II: The Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences' |url=https://solitarywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Shira-Gordon-solitary-confinement-submission1.pdf |access-date=28 June 2023}}</ref>
===Punishment===
Solitary confinement is also commonly used as [[punishment]] for those who have violated prison rules or committed other disciplinary infractions.<ref name="Lobel29"/><ref name="Browne2011"/> The practice is the norm in [[supermax prison|super-maximum security (supermax) prisons]], where individuals who are deemed dangerous or high risk are held.<ref name="Browne2011"/><ref name="Bottos2007" />

===Suppressing protest===

Solitary confinement has been used to punish and suppress organizing, activism, and other political activities in carceral facilities, a practice that has drawn criticism from human rights watchdogs and other concerned groups.<ref name = hungerstrikers>{{cite web |title=Behind Closed Doors: Abuse and Retaliation Against Hunger Strikers in U.S. Immigration Detention |url=https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/aclu_phr_behind_closed_doors_final_1.pdf |publisher=ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights |access-date=28 June 2023 |date=2021}}</ref> In [[Immigration detention|immigration detention centers]], reports have surfaced that immigrant detainees are being [[Immigration detention in the United States#Solitary confinement|placed in solitary]] to keep those knowledgeable about their rights away from other detainees.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Homer|last1=Venters |first2=Dana|last2=Dasch-Goldberg |first3=Andrew|last3=Rasmussen |first4=Allen S.|last4=Keller |title=Into the Abyss: Mortality and Morbidity Among Detained Immigrants |journal=[[Human Rights Quarterly]] |date=May 2009 |volume=31|number=2|pages=474–495 |doi=10.1353/hrq.0.0074 |s2cid=143979116 }}</ref> Individuals who go on [[hunger strike]] to protest poor conditions in immigration facilities are also frequently placed in solitary. Although immigration officials have claimed that their policy of isolating hunger strikers is for the protection of the detained person, medical and legal experts have pointed out that there is no medical basis behind the policy, and that, in the United States, it constitutes a violation of the detainee's [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] rights.<ref name = hungerstrikers />

Solitary confinement is similarly used as retaliation in prisons and jails, including against [[whistleblower|whistleblowers]] who raise awareness of inhumane conditions and [[jailhouse lawyer|jailhouse lawyers]] who assist others in litigating their rights.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gladden |first1=Alex |title=Prisoner advocate says inmate put in solitary for talking to reporter |url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2023/05/12/prisoner-advocate-says-inmate-put-in-solitary-for-talking-to-reporter/70212678007/ |website=Montgomery Advertiser |access-date=29 June 2023 |date=12 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Barnes |first1=Roxanne |title=Jailhouse Lawyers Are Often Punished With Solitary Confinement |url=https://solitarywatch.org/2021/12/22/jailhouse-lawyers-are-often-punished-with-solitary-confinement/ |publisher=Solitary Watch |access-date=29 June 2023 |date=22 December 2021}}</ref> There have been further reports of people being placed in solitary based on their race, religion, or sexual orientation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=James |first1=Kayla |last2=Vanko |first2=Elena |title=The Impacts of Solitary Confinement |url=https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/the-impacts-of-solitary-confinement.pdf |publisher=Vera Institute of Justice |access-date=29 June 2023 |date=April 2021}}</ref>