Segregation Seekers
An Alternative Perspective on the Solitary Confinement Debate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8401454 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ben Laws (0000-0003-1126-2236, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1452-1468 |
| Publication date | 2021-10-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjc/azab032 |
| OpenAlex | W3158895402 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 21 |
Recent calls from senior managers, human rights groups and academics continue to scrutinize the impact of solitary confinement. But much less attention has been paid to prisoners’ own motivations for segregation. By analysing interviews with 16 segregated men in a high-security prison (Category-A) in England, this article foregrounds motivation. The argument involves a detailed description of the complex, and sometimes contradictory, motives that may lead prisoners into seeking isolation. It further attempts to explore the relationship between segregation and the wider prison environment. For many prisoners, segregation has a ‘negative benefit’ or amounts to a form of ‘lesser evil’. Such phrasing hints at the difficult decisions that prisoners navigate and offers an alternative perspective on solitary confinement
Argument (complex analysis) · Criminology · Isolation (microbiology) · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Prison · Seekers · Sociology · Solitary confinement · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology
Managing Prisons Through Extended Solitary Confinement
Work in Long-Term Restrictive Housing and Prison Personnel Perceptions of the Humanity of People Who Are Incarcerated
The (Non)Deterrent Potential of Prison Sanction Structure
Views From the Inside
Das Soziale Anstaltsklima aus Sicht von Menschen in Ersatzfreiheitsstrafen
Prison Personnel Solutions for Reducing and Improving the Appropriate Use and Effectiveness of Extended Restrictive Housing
Self-isolation as torture
The depth of imprisonment and the dilution of self
It's an awful thing, but it's better than being dead’
Measuring the uniquely painful incarceration experiences of LGB+ and trans people and the implications for mental health
How can restrictive housing be prevented or reduced? Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues confronting research and policy
Against optimization
Purposive Placement
Solitary confinement and the well-being of people in prison
The Oxford Handbook of Prisons and Imprisonment
Prisoners, Solitude, and Time
Prisoners of Isolation
Prisons and the Problem of Order
The return of the suppressed
Emotion regulation among male prisoners
Reimaging ‘the Self’ in Criminology
The Effects of Solitary Confinement on Prison Inmates
Fortress UK? Gated communities, the spatial revolt of the elites and time–space trajectories of segregation
The Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement
Solitude
Quantitative syntheses of the effects of administrative segregation on inmates’ well-being
| Citations per year | 2.8 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |