Theory and logic suggest that placement in restrictive housing (RH) may affect prison visitation, which may be counterproductive given the potential benefits of visitation. The goal of this paper is to examine the potential correspondence between RH and visitation. We use data on incarcerated people in Ohio to conduct two related analyses. One analysis assesses whether the first incident of short-term disciplinary segregation impacts prison visits shortly after segregation. The second analysis examines longitudinal patterns of RH stays and visits to understand the interplay of the two throughout a prison term. Findings suggest that disciplinary segregation might reduce the odds of visitation immediately. RH early in a prison term may also operate to “cut off” future visitation. These results highlight an important knowledge gap and suggest that more research is needed that disentangles how RH may lead to the dissolution of social ties. Implications for research are discussed.
AndersonC.CochranJ.TomanE. (2022). Social capital and its impacts on prison life: Is visitation a conduit?Crime and Delinquency, 68(4), 644–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128720977445
2.
ArrigoB. A.BullockJ. L. (2008). The psychological effect of solitary confinement in on prisoners in supermax units: What we know and recommending what should change. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 52, 622–640.
3.
BalesW. D.MearsD. P. (2008). Inmate social ties and the transition to society: Does visitation reduce recidivism?Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45, 287–321.
4.
BalesW. D.PiqueroA. R. (2012b). Assessing the impact of imprisonment on recidivism. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 8, 71–101.
5.
BalesW. D.PiqueroA. R. (2012a). Racial/ethnic differentials in sentencing to incarceration. Justice Quarterly, 29, 742–773.
6.
BarrickK.LattimoreP. K.VisherC. A. (2014). Reentering women: The impact of social ties on long-term recidivism. The Prison Journal, 94, 279–304.
7.
BlackwellM.IacusS.KingG.PorroG. (2009). Cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata. The Stata Journal: Communications on Statistics and Stata, 9, 524–546.
8.
BrameB.NaginD. S.TremblayR. E. (2001). Developmental trajectories of physical aggression from school entry to late adolescence. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42, 503–512.
9.
ButlerH. D.HaydenG.JohnsonW. W. (2013). What makes you the “worst of the worst?” An examination of state policies defining supermaximum confinement. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 24, 676–694.
10.
ButlerH. D.SteinerB. (2017). Examining the use of disciplinary segregation within and across prisons. Justice Quarterly, 34, 248–271.
11.
ButlerH. D.SteinerB.MakariosM.TravisL. (2020). An examination of the influence of exposure to disciplinary segregation on recidivism. Crime & Delinquency, 66, 485–512.
12.
Casey-AcevedoK.BakkenT. (2002). Visiting women in prison: Who visits and who cares?Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 34, 67–83.
13.
ChadickC.BatastiniA.LevulisS.MorganR. (2018). The psychological impact of solitary. Legal and Criminal Psychology, 23, 101–116.
14.
ChristianJ. (2005). Riding the bus: Barriers to prison visitation and family management strategies. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21, 31–48.
15.
ChristianJ.MellowJ.ThomasS. (2006). Social and economic implications of family connections to prisoners. Journal of Criminal Justice, 34, 443–452.
16.
CochranJ. C. (2012). The ties that bind or the ties that break: Examining the relationship between prison visitation and prisoner misconduct. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40, 433–440.
17.
CochranJ. C. (2014). Breaches in the wall: Imprisonment, social support, and recidivism. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 51, 200–229.
18.
CochranJ. C.BarnesJ. C.MearsD. P.BalesW. D. (2020). Revisiting the effect of visitation on recidivism. Justice Quarterly, 37, 304–331.
19.
CochranJ. C.MearsD.BalesW. (2017). Who gets visited in prison? Individual- and community-level disparities in visitation experiences. Crime & Delinquency, 63, 545–568.
20.
ComfortM. (2003). In the tube at San Quentin: The “secondary prisonization” of women visiting inmates. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 32, 77–107.
21.
ComfortM. (2008). Doing time together: Love and family in the shadow of prison. University of Chicago Press.
22.
DixeyR.WoodallJ. (2012). The significance of “the visit” in an English category-B prison. Community, Work, and Family, 15, 29–47.
23.
DooleyB.SealsA.SkarbekD. (2014). The effect of prison gang membership on recidivism. Journal of Criminal Justice, 42, 267–275.
24.
DuweG.ClarkV. (2013). Blessed be the social tie that binds: The effects of prison visitation of offender recidivism. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 34, 271–296.
25.
GaesG. G.BalesW. D.ScaggsS. J. A. (2016). The effect of imprisonment on recommitment. The Journal of Experimental Criminology, 12, 142–158.
26.
GendreauP.LabrecqueR. M. (2018). The effects of administrative segregation: A lesson in knowledge accumulation. In WooldredgeJ.SmithP. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of prisons and imprisonment (pp. 340–366). Oxford University Press.
27.
HaneyC. (2003). Mental health issues in long-term solitary and ‘‘supermax’’ confinement. Crime and Delinquency, 49, 124–156.
28.
HaneyC. (2018). Restricting the use of solitary confinement. Annual Review of Criminology, 1, 285–310.
29.
HaneyC.LynchM. (1997). Regulating prisons of the future: A psychological analysis of supermax and solitary confinement. Review of Law and Social Change, 23, 477–570.
30.
HaynieD. L.WhichardC.KreagerD. A.SchaeferD. R.WakfieldS. (2018). Social networks and health in a prison unit. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 59, 318–334.
31.
JiangS. L.WinfreeT. (2006). Social support, gender, and inmate adjustment to prison life: Insights from a national sample. The Prison Journal, 86, 32–55.
32.
KapoorR.TrestmanR. (2016). Mental health effects of restrictive housing. In GarciaM. (Ed.), Restrictive housing in U.S.: Issues, challenges, and future directions (pp. 199–232). National Institute of Justice.
33.
KreagerD. K.SchaeferD. R.BouchardM.HayneD. L.WakefieldS.YoungJ.ZajacG. (2016). Toward a criminology of inmate networks. Justice Quarterly, 22, 1000–1028.
34.
LabrecqueR.MearsD.SmithP. (2020). Gender and the effect of disciplinary segregation on prison misconduct. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 31, 1193–1216.
35.
LabrecqueR.SmithP. (2019). Assessing the impact of time spent in restrictive housing confinement on subsequent measures of institutional adjustment among men in prison. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 46, 1445–1455.
36.
LahmK. (2008). Inmate-on-inmate assault. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35, 120–137.
37.
LiuS.PickettJ. T.BakerT. (2016). Inside the black box: Prison visitation, the costs of offending, and inmate social capital. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 72, 766–790.
38.
McNeeleyS.DuweG. (2020). Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Justice Quarterly, 37, 571–589.
39.
MearsD. (2006). Evaluating the effectiveness of supermax prisons. Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute.
40.
MearsD.BalesW. D. (2009). Supermax incarceration and recidivism. Criminology, 47, 1131–1166.
41.
MearsD.CochranJ. C.SiennickS. E.BalesW. D. (2012). Prison visitation and recidivism. Justice Quarterly, 29, 888–918.
42.
MitchellM. M.SpoonerK.JiaD.ZhangY. (2016). The effect of prison visitation on reentry success: A meta-analysis. Journal of Criminal Justice, 47, 74–83.
43.
MowenT. J.StansfieldR.BromanJ. H. IV. (2019). Family matters: Moving beyond “if” family support matters to “why” family support matters during reentry from prison. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 56, 483–523.
44.
NaginD. S. (2005). Group-based modeling of development. Harvard University Press.
45.
NaserR. L.La VigneN. G. (2006). Family support in the prisoner reentry process: Expectations and realities. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 43, 93–106.
46.
NaserR. L.VisherC. A. (2006). Family members’ experiences with incarceration and reentry. Western Criminology Review, 7, 18–29.
47.
PierceM. B. (2015). Male inmate perceptions of the visitation experience: Suggestions on how prisons can promote inmate-family relationships. The Prison Journal, 95, 370–396.
48.
ReidyT.SorensonJ. (2020). Visitation and misconduct among maximum-security inmates. The Prison Journal, 100, 447–467.
49.
RubensteinB. Y.TomanE. L.CochranJ. C. (2021). Socioeconomic barriers to child contact with incarcerated parents. Justice Quarterly, 38, 725–751.
50.
ShalevS. (2009). Supermax: Controlling risk through solitary confinement. Willan.
51.
TascaM.MulveyP.RodriguezN. (2016). Families coming together in prison: An examination of visitation encounters. Punishment & Society, 18, 459–478.
52.
TewksburyR.DeMicheleM. (2005). Going to prison. The Prison Journal, 85, 292–310.
53.
TomanE. (2022). Disciplinary confinement and misconduct patterns: An examination of gendered effects. Crime & Delinquency, 68(6–7), 945–974. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287211010484
TuranovicJ. J.TascaM. (2021). Conditions of contact: Reexamining the relationship between prison visitation and recidivism. Justice Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2021.1944284
56.
ValentineC. L.RestivoE.WrightK. (2019). Prolonged isolation as a predictor of mental health for waived juveniles. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 58, 352–369.
57.
VisherC.O’ConnellD. (2012). Incarceration and inmates’ self-perceptions about returning home. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40, 386–393.
58.
WildemanC.AndersonL. H. (2020). Long-term consequences of being placed in disciplinary segregation. Criminology, 58, 423–453.
59.
WildemanC.WesternB. (2010). Incarceration in fragile families. The Future of Children, 20, 157–177.
60.
WolffW.DraineJ. (2004). Dynamic of social capital of prisoners and community reentry: Ties and bind?Journal and Correctional Health Care, 10, 457–490.
61.
WooY.DrepelaL.CampagnaM.StohrM. K.HamiltonZ. K.MeiX.TollefsbolE. T. (2020). Disciplinary segregation’s effect on inmate behavior: Institutional and community outcomes. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 31, 1036–1058.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
