RT Article
T1 Getting boxed in: How race and gang labeling shape solitary confinement use
JF Punishment & society
VO 27
IS 4
SP 713
OP 744
A1 Tublitz, Rebecca
A1 Reiter, Keramet
A1 Augustine, Dallas
A1 Barragan, Melissa
A1 Chesnut, Kelsie
A1 Gonzalez, Gabriela
A1 Pifer, Natalie A.
A1 Strong, Justin
A2 Reiter, Keramet
A2 Augustine, Dallas
A2 Barragan, Melissa
A2 Chesnut, Kelsie
A2 Gonzalez, Gabriela
A2 Pifer, Natalie A.
A2 Strong, Justin
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1936157993
AB Restrictive housing imposes isolation in austere conditions on people who commit serious rule violations or are too dangerous (or endangered) to house in the general prison population. We contribute to a growing body of scholarship analyzing restrictive housing placements, asking how gang membership, race/ethnicity, and misconduct interact to predict placement and lengths of stay. We integrate analysis of qualitative interviews with a random sample of 106 people in long-term solitary confinement in 2017 with analysis of 15 years of administrative data, both from Washington state prisons. We find that official gang labels “stick” to people, amplifying their risk of solitary confinement placement. Being labeled a gang member doubles the odds of being placed in solitary confinement and significantly increases the duration of those stays, even controlling for criminal history characteristics and in-prison behavior. We find differences in the effect of gang membership on solitary confinement by racial/ethnic identity: Latino gang members experience substantial intensification of punitive conditions in Washington prisons relative to other groups. This has implications for understanding the role of the gang label across the criminal legal system and which people and behaviors solitary placements target.
K1 Native Americans
K1 Ethnicity
K1 Race
K1 Gangs
K1 Solitary Confinement
K1 Restrictive housing
DO 10.1177/14624745251344573