A decade of disciplinary, administrative, and protective control of inmates in the Washington State Penitentiary: A research note

Abstract

Although prisons and their residents have been subjected to much empirical scrutiny, one area has received very little attention, solitary confinement as a mechanism of social control in prison. This study reports the results of an investigation of the uses of punitive isolation, administrative segregation, and protective custody during the decade between 1966 and 1975, at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Findings show significant fluctuations in the use of segregation. These changes were related to administration shifts at the Washington Department of Corrections.