Solitary confinement of women in the United States

An offender who has committed a “serious disciplinary offense” may be put in solitary confinement as a punitive measure.[4] Inmates put into disciplinary segregation are not required to be given the same privileges as those put into administrative segregation,[4] but the duration of their stay in isolation tends to be shorter.[7] According to a magazine written by inmates in a California prison, the practice operates under a “guilty until proven innocent” protocol, holding prisoners in solitary confinement even before it is clear that they committed the infraction.[8]

Inmates who are considered to be politically threatening are sometimes put into isolation; although the United States does not officially hold political prisoners, some inmates in solitary confinement are there because of their political activism. This justification often means that minorities are more likely to end up in solitary confinement.[9]

Administrative segregation, or “ad seg," is typically more common than disciplinary segregation, and serves to protect either the inmate being placed in solitary or others in the prison.[4] An offender may be put into administrative segregation if they are thought to be dangerous to others or if their own safety is in danger, or if “the inmate has the potential to interfere with an ongoing investigation."[4] Often women who vocalize the fact that they feel threatened by someone else will be put into solitary confinement, and similarly, if they are accused of acting threatening in any way, they are put into solitary without being able to defend themselves.[10] Women who are put into administrative segregation tend to be those women who have had trouble adjusting to prison life and who are seen as “high-risk” and “high-needs” when they enter the prison.[7] Because this type of segregation is not intended as punishment, inmates in administrative segregation are legally required to be treated in the same way as those in general confinement in prison.[4]

Women prisoners sometimes request to be put into solitary confinement, most often for their own protection.[7] Specifically, some women are thought to request solitary confinement to avoid “further assaults on their identity” that might arise from their interactions and experiences in prison.[11] Studies have found that women who have been in voluntary administrative segregation tend to have high personal or emotional needs, and some have struggled with substance abuse, although few have difficulty with “community functioning.”[7]

Women prisoners who are deemed to be dangerous to other prisoners are sometimes put into administrative segregation; a prisoner can also be put in segregation if the officers determine that she herself is in danger and needs this protection.[7] Like women who are voluntarily put into segregation, these women tend to have high personal and emotional needs, but many of them also have difficulties functioning in the community or associating with other people.[7]

In general, women tend to be subjected to harsher disciplinary practices in prisons than men.[3] In the case of solitary confinement, women are often put into segregation for committing small errors while in prison, for example spitting at a guard, while men must commit more violent infractions, such as attacking a guard, for segregation to become necessary.[3] This could arise from the fact that women in prison are held to especially high standards of femininity, and prisons encourage them to conform to very traditional ideas of being a woman.[3] This model of femininity requires women to be “pure, passive, heterosexual, and located in motherhood."[3] When women do not comply with this standard while imprisoned, they are punished further. In fact, some prisons specifically isolate women who seem “butch” or not traditionally feminine.[12]

Another catalyst for being put into solitary confinement that applies overwhelmingly to women is that prisoners who complain of abusive treatment by guards are often segregated as retaliation. In particular, women who speak out after guards have sexually harassed them are often put into segregation.[6] Not only does this mean that guards who are guilty of sexually harassing inmates go unpunished, it also decreases the likelihood that women will report harassment.[6]

In some prisons, women may be put into solitary confinement because their mental health issues prove to be too difficult for the authorities to deal with or are exhausting their resources.[11] If the prison authorities are unable to address their inmates’ health concerns, they may put them into solitary confinement to avoid solving the problem. This means that the women in solitary confinement are often already at risk for mental health or other challenges, due to previous health concerns or sexual abuse.[6]

Being put into solitary confinement can be very damaging to the mental health of female inmates, particularly those with a history of mental or physical illness, as has been found in a number of studies that observed and interviewed women who were being held in solitary confinement.[13] Being held in a small space without access to objects, recreation, or human contact can lead to claustrophobia, anger, depression, hallucinations,[14] insomnia, and obsessive ideation or fixation on dying.[13] On a psychosomatic level, inmates in solitary confinement often experience a loss of appetite and/or weight, dizziness, or heart palpitations.[14] Prison staff often do not respond adequately to complaints of any of these symptoms, and sometimes refuse to offer medical care or medication.[14]

Some of the anxiety that inmates, particularly female inmates, experience in solitary confinement comes from a loss or confusion of identity. Prisoners in solitary confinement are not allowed to decorate the small rooms that they are in or to bring most of their possessions that they were allowed in general confinement.[14] This prevents the women from having any sort of entertainment, but also exacerbates feelings of a loss of individuality and of personal identity.[14]

Studies of the conditions of segregation, and interviews with the women who are subjected to them, have shown that women may also experience a collapse or confusion of identity while in prison because of their removal from their community and because of the unusual experience of space and time while in solitary confinement.[11] Prisoners attach a lot of importance to the items that they have in their rooms; when they are placed into solitary confinement and no longer allowed to keep these identifying objects with them, they begin to lose their sense of self.[11] Further, because prisoners kept in segregation often interact little with the outside world, and because the routines of eating and cleaning may be different from in general confinement, the women lose their ability to mark time.[11] The Fire Inside magazine, written by offenders in California women's prisons, quotes one prisoner as saying that her recommendation for those held in solitary confinement is “to create a schedule” and figure out the time of day, because it “helps to assert control over your own life and not be totally defined by whatever ‘routine’ the prison is forcing on you.”[15]

Another aspect of their identity that is destroyed is their ability to form relationships with others. In most societies, women are perceived as being particularly social; having relationships with other people is seen as an essential element of their role as women in particular. This is of course impossible when in solitary confinement. It has been argued that this has a harmful effect on women especially. These conclusions were drawn from interviews with women who were still in solitary confinement, women who had been in solitary but had since been transferred back to the general prison population, and women who had been in solitary but had been released from incarceration, suggesting that these effects carry over beyond their time in segregation.[5]

Some prisons do allow inmates in solitary confinement to use recreation rooms and exercise yards, but these are often monitored by cameras, creating a sense of powerlessness and humiliating and deterring the women from using these facilities.[14] Feelings of powerlessness or hopeless are exacerbated by the fact that women are often unsure of how long they will be held in solitary confinement.[14]

All of these factors combined can have different effects on women, making them either increasingly anxious or increasingly indifferent.[11] While some women feel desperate and angry, others attempt to feel as little as possible in order to mitigate the effects of segregation.[14] Because of the detrimental effect on their mental stability, inmates in solitary confinement often resort to self-harm; this behavior is more common in women than in men.[5] This can sometimes lead to women being held in solitary confinement for longer, as punishment for their destructive actions.[5] Similarly, it reinforces the guards’ perceptions of these women as particularly violent or dangerous to the rest of the prison community.[3]

Women in solitary confinement are often watched over by male guards, which can result in sexual harassment ranging from discomfort caused by guards watching them during private moments to non consensual sexual contact.[6] Male guards often are present while women shower or undress.[6] Because women in solitary confinement experience so little human contact, the gaze of their guards is often the only interaction that they have with another person; this can exacerbate the feelings of loss of privacy.[6]

Similarly, the clothing the women are required to wear is sexualized and humiliating.[5] In some prisons, women in segregation wear a "baby doll," a long shapeless dress, with no underclothes.[5] Although men sometimes are required to wear the “baby doll” as well, women find that wearing it while being watched by their male guards is degrading and makes them feel powerless.[5]

Beyond this, women in segregation are sometimes subjected to sexual abuse or physical harassment by their male guards.[6] They are often forced to undergo thorough strip searches, during which the guards are more forceful and invasive than is strictly necessary[14] and serves mostly to demonstrate the guards’ authority over the inmates.[13] Because so many female inmates have been victims of sexual or physical abuse, this forces them to relive the trauma of their previous abuse.[6] This can be especially devastating for women whose mental states are already deteriorating, due to prior mental illness or to the effects of being in segregation.[6] It can also result in pregnancy, and pregnant women in solitary confinement—whether the pregnancy was a result of a rape by a guard or not—are often denied proper medical care.[6]

Women have also reported stories of being publicly humiliated when asking for additional sanitary pads during their menstrual periods,[5] or being forced to hand in their used pads in order to acquire a new one, according to the women who contributed to The Fire Inside magazine.[15] They are entirely dependent on male guards, even for such personal needs as this.[14]

Women are more likely than men to be the primary guardian of a child or children; having a mother who is in solitary confinement, then, can be very detrimental to the children.[6] Inmates in solitary confinement have much less frequent contact with family members, and when they do, they are usually separated by a partition.[6] Although inmates are allowed some visits from immediate family members, a long background check is required.[9] Children with mothers in prison are at a greater risk for depression or anxiety, substance abuse, or involvement in crime.[6] These factors are only furthered by the more distanced relationship that becomes necessary with a mother in solitary confinement and the restrictions on visitation that accompany that.

Women who are released from solitary confinement into the general prison population are more likely than men to experience stigmatization and humiliation from the prison guards.[5] This often leads to them isolating themselves and not interacting with other prisoners even when they are not in solitary confinement.[5]

Once they are released from prison, too, they often have a harder time adjusting to being a part of society again, and frequently end up back in prison.[7] Ex-offenders who were held in solitary confinement are more likely to commit violent acts against others once released than those who spent all their time in the general prison population.[9] As one California prisoner who wrote for The Fire Inside prison magazine put it, “We go through these kind of mental, emotional, and spiritual stages. At first when you get here you’re angry and disoriented…Paranoia sets in…I slowly began to think of this cell as my safe place…What happens next year when they take the box away?” She, and other women in solitary confinement, become unequipped to deal with the outside world and the knowledge of technological advancement, social interaction skills, and mental stability that it requires.[16]