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Sentencing Inside Prisons: Efforts to Reduce Isolating Conditions
Resnik, Judith
Resnik, Judith
Abstract
Discussions of sentencing reform generally focus on limiting the scope of criminal sanctions through decriminalization, on lowering penalties of individuals who are convicted, and on shortening the duration of sentences imposed. We add another arena of sentencing: the penalties imposed on persons who have been sentenced and are serving time in prison. This essay brings sentencing in prisons to the fore. In doing so, we aim to make plain the link between the need for sentencing reform and the need to rethink the types of punishment imposed inside prisons.
Across the United States, prison systems separate some individuals from the general population and place them into special housing units under isolating conditions. An array of terms and rules govern what is variously called "administrative confinement," "administrative segregation," "close supervision," "behavior modification," "departmental segregation," "enhanced supervision housing" (ESH), "inmate segregation," "intensive management," "special management unit" (SMU), "security (or special) housing units" (SHU), "security control," and "maximum control units." The stated rationales for putting people into such confinement
include punishment ("disciplinary segregation"), protection ("protective custody"), and incapacitation (often termed "administrative segregation"). In the media and in many reported decisions and commentary, these practices are termed "solitary confinement." Correctional departments and associations have come to use "restrictive housing" as an umbrella term to encompass all the many forms of segregation.