KINGSTON, R.I. – Dec. 9, 2025 – University of Rhode Island Criminology and Criminal Justice Department Chair and Associate Professor Natalie Pifer was part of a multi-institution research team that conducted a multiyear study to better understand how extended and repeated stays within solitary confinement impacts prisoners both physically and psychologically.

Pifer co-authored “Unexceptional Patterns of Solitary Confinement: Cycling and Re-entry Shocks Within the Prison,” published earlier this year in the British Journal of Criminology. Researchers, including Pifer, spent two summers traveling to five different super-max or maximum-security correctional facilities in Washington state conducting surveys and interviews with staff and prisoners living and working in long-term solitary confinement units, called “Intensive Management Units” in the Washington State Department of Corrections. Original data was supplemented by secondary data provided by the Department of Corrections.

Pifer and her team found that prisoners who experienced lengthy and repeated stays in solitary confinement during their incarceration–being on lockdown for more than 20 hours per day on average in isolation–were severely affected in a negative way. 

On average, the prisoners who Pifer’s team interviewed experienced 6.3 stays in solitary confinement, with each stay lasting about 120 days, over the course of their incarceration. Nearly 70% of individual stays in isolation were longer than 15 days, which is significant because many agencies, including the United Nations, condemn prolonged stays in isolation. For example, the U.N.’s Mandela Rules define “prolonged” as a duration “in excess of 15 consecutive days.”

Prisoners with significant time in and repeated exposure to solitary confinement experience significant mental and physical impacts upon their release from solitary into the prison’s custody levels, such as general population, according to the study. Those impacts include hypersensitivity, where prisoners have difficulty experiencing many people in a space at once and, essentially, being “on edge.” Having high levels of anxiety and withdrawal also affects prisoners after being released from solitary.

Other challenges prisoners face include trusting other people, major feelings of distorted time–where they have no idea of the concept of time–and wanting to be further isolated because they can’t handle being around others, per the report.

“So much work on solitary confinement reform has focused on reducing long term stays in isolation, which are typically thought of as some of the most problematic experiences that people have in solitary confinement.” Pifer said. “What we’re doing in this study is focusing on how people are cycling within custody levels and, for one of the first times ever in this piece, we’re researching how people are cycling in and out of solitary confinement during the same incarceration days and what those experiences look like.”

Pifer says the study’s findings highlight that solitary confinement reform efforts must focus on two elements. The first is the length of time someone spends in isolation, while the other is how often people are cycling in and out of isolation during a single incarceration, she says. 

“As a first step, our research shows how important it is to understand how people are experiencing re-entering a lower custody level from solitary within prison,” Pifer said. “This kind of research can help policymakers better understand what supports are needed as people who have spent time cycling through these different custody levels make the transition back to the community.”

Pifer says the team homed in on Washington to understand how long-term solitary confinement reforms the state implemented were working and being experienced by staff and prisoners. When prison policies are reformed, people living and working in those prisons do not always experience the differences in the way policymakers might hope, she says.

Policy changes to solitary are especially complicated because people end up in long-term isolation for a variety of reasons, Pifer says. Sometimes, it’s for disciplinary infractions that may be minor or major violations or for protective custody reasons, such as not identifying with the gender of the overall population of the facility, severe mental illness, being a gang dropout, or being at risk for experiencing harm from another person. 

Issues with people cycling in and out of solitary confinement are further complicated by larger patterns with the criminal justice system as people are being incarcerated repeatedly, Pifer says.

“One of the reasons to really care about this study is that we have a problem of recidivism in this country,” Pifer said. “We do have a reason to be concerned about whether our punishments are in fact supporting the goal of public safety by reducing recidivism.” 

Researchers such as Pifer and her team are focused on understanding strategies that seek to potentially reduce long-term solitary confinement use in the overall context of criminal justice policy reform. One challenge with reform, though, Pifer says, is that agreeing on a reform is only the first step. Putting that plan to action and working properly, however, is another, she says.

“Reform advocates may have a victory in the courts or in the legislature, but that reform has to be implemented on by stakeholders. It can be very difficult for prison administrators and staff to do when issues that may be outside the scopes of the criminal justice system, such as dealing with mental health, may complicate factors,” she said.

Pifer has recently collaborated with URI associate professor in criminology and criminal justice Chelsea Farrell on two projects with two local nonprofits and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. Pifer and Farrell have been evaluating programs that are providing incarcerated people access to in-custody vocational programming that can potentially improve re-entry into society by facilitating their access to stable careers in skilled labor. 

Pifer and Farrell expect to have initial findings from these local projects later this academic year. 

This story was written by Kiera Wrage, a senior majoring in public relations at the University of Rhode Island. Kiera is interning in URI’s Department of Communications and Marketing.