Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Restrictive Housing in America's Prisons and Jails, Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, 2015-2019 (ICPSR 38091)
Version Date: May 17, 2023 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
David Pitts, Vera Institute of Justice;
Gary Cuddeback, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
Kerry Kuehl, Oregon Health & Science University
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38091.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The overall purpose of this mixed methods, multi-site study was to explore the use of restrictive housing in United States prisons and jails from the perspective of incarcerated individuals and corrections officers who work in restrictive housing units. Restrictive housing, also known as solitary confinement or segregation, is defined as keeping an incarcerated person in their cell for 22 or more hours per day.
To study the extent to which exposure to restrictive housing affects outcomes (i.e., mental/physical health problems, deterrence from future misconduct) for incarcerated individuals, the research team collected administrative records of housing moves ("stints") from the Colorado Department of Corrections and Missouri Department of Corrections. Records are available for all individuals incarcerated between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2017. Data from Colorado includes roughly 1.3 million observations from 39,849 incarcerations. Data from Missouri includes roughly 1.1 million observations from 79,208 incarcerations. To study the impact of working in restrictive housing units on officers' physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing, the team administered surveys to officers working in correctional facilities in Missouri (n=376), North Carolina (n=249), and Oregon (site 1 n=47, site 2 n=133).
The research team also conducted officer focus groups, interviews with agency leadership, observations of restrictive housing and general population units, and a national comprehensive survey about the use of restrictive housing in jails. Only the administrative records and officer wellbeing survey data are available in this collection.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
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State
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The goals of the study were to understand the primary causal effects of restrictive housing on outcomes for incarcerated people, and to explain how working in restrictive housing units affects the wellbeing of correctional officers.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Administrative records were shared by the Colorado Department of Corrections and the Missouri Department of Corrections. Records were organized so that each row is represented by a single housing stint (i.e., each time an individual moves to a new cell, this is represented by a new observation). The datasets consist of all individuals incarcerated in Colorado and Missouri between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2017. The entire incarceration period of any individual housed during the time period is included.
Officer wellbeing surveys were administered to correctional officers working at facilities in North Carolina, Missouri, and Oregon at the time of survey administration. For North Carolina and Missouri facilities, officers were provided a link to the study website (Qualtrics) through flyers distributed directly to officers or to superintendents to give to officers in facilities, especially those where restrictive housing unit beds were concentrated. For Oregon facilities, only two sites were selected for data collection due to the size of their restrictive housing units and corrections officer workforce comparative to other sites in the state. Paper surveys were distributed by a site liaison on location for each shift. Interested staff could visit the site liaison while on shift and complete the survey. Respondents were offered a $10 gift card from a local vendor for their participation.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
- Individuals incarcerated in Colorado and Missouri between 2015 and 2017
- Correctional officers working in Missouri, North Carolina, and Oregon facilities between 2018-2019
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Colorado Department of Corrections
Missouri Department of Corrections
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Variables in administrative records data include housing type, duration of incarceration, duration of housing stint, custody level, age, race, sex, mental health level, and number of self-harm and suicide attempts.
Variables in officer wellbeing surveys are grouped by topic: Job-related stressors, hypervigilance about surroundings, workload demand and expectations, burnout, work-life balance, psychological distress, depression symptoms, physical health symptoms (e.g., headache, insomnia, fatigue, loss of appetite), PTSD symptoms, adverse events (experienced or witnessed), sleep quality, alcohol and tobacco use, exercise, and techniques for relieving stress.
Survey respondent demographic variables include housing unit assignments, years worked in corrections, current job title, age, height/weight, gender, marital status, race, education level, and veteran status.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Not available
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
- Organizational Social Context (OSC)
- Work-Family Conflict Scale
- Maslach Burnout Inventory
- Perceived Stress Scale
- Hypervigilance Scale
- Physical Symptoms Scale
- Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale
- COPE Inventory
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2023-05-17
Version History View help for Version History
2023-05-17 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.