Surviving Solitary: Living & Working in U.S. Restricted Housing Units
by Dr. Danielle Rudes, Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology - Sam Houston State University

ABOUT THE SEMINAR: On any given day, an estimated 60,000–80,000 people are housed in restricted housing units (RHUs) across the United States. Although often associated with the most serious misconduct, RHUs are frequently used for a wide range of disciplinary and administrative reasons, and up to 40% of incarcerated individuals will spend time in these settings. Characterized by heightened security, limited human interaction, and minimal access to programming, RHUs also shape the daily work of the staff assigned to supervise them - often with little specialized training. Drawing on more than six years of research across seven U.S. prisons, Surviving Solitary offers a rare inside look at life and work in RHUs, centering the voices of residents and staff and highlighting documented mental health and safety impacts.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Danielle S. Rudes, Ph.D. is a Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology at Sam Houston State University. She is also the Deputy Director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!). Dr. Rudes is an expert qualitative researcher whose methods include ethnographic observation, interviews, and focus groups with over 20 years of experience working with corrections agencies at the federal, state, and local/county levels including prisons, jails, probation/parole agencies, and problem-solving courts. She is recognized for her work examining how social control organizations and their middle management, street-level workers, and clients understand, negotiate, and at times, resist change. Her book, Surviving Solitary: Living and Working in Restricted Housing Units (2022, Stanford University Press) offers an unprecedented look inside RHUs—and a resounding call to more vigorously confront the intentions and the realities of these carceral structures.

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