Solitary confinement, parole, and criminalization

Claudia N. Anderson, Jonathan Ben-Menachem, Samuel Donahue, Jessica T. Simes and Bruce Western

Journal of Criminal Justice, 2025, vol. 98, issue C

Abstract: To explore the criminogenic effects of incarceration, a burgeoning research literature aims to estimate the impact of solitary confinement on recidivism. While solitary confinement has been found to be associated with re-incarceration, it also reduces the likelihood of parole. Parole, in turn, has the criminalizing effect of increasing re-incarceration net of criminal offending. Accurately estimating the criminogenic effect of solitary confinement thus involves accounting for parole status. Using prison administrative data for 2007 to 2020, we conduct a survival analysis to estimate the association between solitary confinement and reincarceration, accounting for parole status and other covariates. Survival analysis shows that the risk of reincarceration is about 6 % higher for those in solitary confinement, once parole is accounted for. Reincarceration rates are 15 to 25 % higher for those held in solitary confinement for 90 days or longer. In this observational analysis, unobserved and nonrandom selection into solitary confinement may account for the estimated effects, but results are robust to controls for a large set of covariates and data subsets.

Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s004723522500056x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102407

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