shira e. gordon, a university of michigan law student, argues that solitary confinement leads to an increase in recidivism and violence. to substantiate this conclusion, she cites two quantitative research based studies that support this nexus and counters those who argue that solitary confinement deters recidivism. daniel mears and william bales “compared recidivism rates by matching…prisoners who were incarcerated in solitary confinement with prisoners who had been in the general prison population.” they found that "24.2 percent of the prisoners held in solitary confinement were reconvicted of a violent crime compared to 20.5 percent of prisoners held in population." and this behavior may be attributed to the mental illnesses prisoners may develop, as well as the dehumanizing treatment they are subject to.