A Window Into Solitary Confinement and Its Many Alternatives

Many U.S. correctional systems are implementing innovative alternatives to prolonged solitary confinement with promising results both for safety and order within prisons and outcomes for those who otherwise would have been segregated.

Key points:

• Ensuring safety and order is of paramount importance in prisons, but growing research and recent experience suggest that there are less-damaging alternatives to prolonged solitary confinement.
• Government is at its most restrictive when it imposes solitary confinement on inmates in correctional facilities, so it is appropriate for conservatives to bring a critical perspective on solitary confinement rather than to succumb to an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality.
• Correctional officials should implement policies to ensure solitary confinement is not utilized to the detriment of public safety, taxpayers, and justice.