Racialized Social Group Position Among Correctional Officers and Prisoners in Solitary Confinement

This study analyses data derived from hundreds of hours of ethnographic observations and 100 interviews with both prisoners and staff working in solitary confinement in a state prison system. Specifically, Blumer's theoretical framework illuminates four group processes that function to facilitate racialized group solidarity that were evidenced in the data. We conclude with a discussion of the slippery slope from racial solidarity and group position to the total dehumanization that results in staff defying them their basic, constitutionally guaranteed human rights.