Solitary confinement

The project will contribute important new knowledge about isolation in Norwegian prisons.

About the project

The isolation of people who are deprived of their freedom is one of the most invasive powers a state can utilize. Prolonged isolation is considered a form of torture, and even short-term isolation can harm physical and mental health. The high use of isolation in Norwegian prisons has been criticized by national and international human rights organizations for decades. Nevertheless, we still lack knowledge about how much and how isolation is used in Norwegian prisons. The Isolation Project is a sub-project of the PriSUD project at the Center for Substance Abuse and Addiction Research (SERAF), in collaboration with the Norwegian Red Cross.

Objectives

The project will contribute important new knowledge about isolation in Norwegian prisons regarding who is isolated and the long-term health consequences. Better knowledge can assist the Correctional Service, health authorities, as well as the Red Cross to better meet the needs of the inmates and allocate the necessary resources needed to prevent isolation.

Specifically, the project will describe in what way and to what extent isolation was used from 2015 to 2023, as well as to describe who is being confined in solitary isolation, with a particular focus on their mental health. The project will also examine the consequences of isolation, in prison and after serving the sentence, with particular emphasis on health, recidivism, and death.

Methods

The project is based on data from the nPRIS cohort, which includes national registry data that covers all prison sentences carried out in Norway during the period 2015-2022, including records of isolation. The data is linked to the Norwegian Patient Register, social welfare data from Statistics Norway (SSB), and the Cause of Death Register. The linkages have been made in such a way that anonymity is maintained, and all data processing occurs within the University of Oslo's service for sensitive data (TSD).