A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison
Background
This study was funded by the US Navy, as it and the US Marine Corps
were interested in finding out the causes of conflict between guards
and prisoners in the naval prisons. Attempts to explain the violent
and brutal conditions often found in prisons had previously used
dispositional attribution. That is, that the state of the prison is
due to the nature of the prison guards and the prisoners.
For example, it had been argued that prison guards bring to their jobs
a particular ‘guard mentality’ and are therefore attracted to the job
as they are already sadistic and insensitive people. Whereas prisoners
are individuals who have no respect for law and order and bring this
aggressiveness and impulsivity to the prison.
Philip Zimbardo was interested in testing this dispositional
hypothesis by demonstrating that the conditions of the prisons were
not a result of the type of individuals working and incarcerated in
the prisons and hoped to go on to help the Navy develop training,
which would eliminate the deplorable conditions in the prisons.
Zimbardo believed that the behaviour in prisons could be best
explained using a situational attribution. In particular he believed
that the condition were influenced by the social roles that prisoners
and prisoner guards are expected to play.
We all play many roles in society and these social roles do to some
extent shape our identity. Each role we play brings with it certain
rules or expectations about how we should behave.
Aim
The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of being assigned
to the role of ei...
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prisoners and guards may have arisen from the stereotyped expectations
of how prisoners and guards should behave. That is, the participants
were only role-playing. However, Zimbardo would strongly suggest that
the participants’ experiences were all too real and that even if they
were only role-playing at the beginning of the study, as the study
progressed they were internalising these roles and they could no
longer differentiate between role-playing and self.
It is also worth noting that Zimbardo’s argument can be seen as too
deterministic. For example in Zimbardo’s study not all of the
participants behaved in the same way. For example, some of the guards
were less willing to abuse their power. Perhaps the reason why some
of the participants were less willing was something to do with their
personalities.
A local newspaper ad reached out for volunteers to participate in a Psychological study, created by Philip G. Zimbardo and his research team, which sounded interesting for many individuals. Was it the best option to follow through with it? Volunteers were given a promise of being paid fifteen dollars a day of the study. Multiple members probably considered this a once in a life time event that could result in quick, easy money. Many may have heard about the Stanford Prison Experiment, but may not have been aware of the scars that it left upon the participants. Taking a deeper look into the study and the impacted outcomes on individuals will be elaborated on (Stanford Prison Experiment).
This case study focuses on a scenario describing the experience of Leon Smith, a fictional rookie correctional officer (CO) in a large jail in a Midwestern industrial city. Smith observed that the inmates in the jail were always talking about their criminal successes, and that many of them seemed eager (in a surreptitious way) to share intelligence information with CO’s. Rookie Smith was excited by the possibility of collecting intelligence in the jail and passing this on to law enforcement. Smith had ambitions of one day working in homicide investigations, and thought that sharing intelligence from the jail would both further his ambition, as well as a noble goal of helping law enforcement apprehend criminals and perhaps even terrorists. Smith became disillusioned, however, as he began to observe that his fellow COs were well aware of the ready availability of the information, but were not interested in much of what occurred outside of their immediate work sphere. In fact, they seemed more interested in their own particular shift or what went on inside of the jail. Smith learned more about his peers when speaking with his Shift Sergeant Griswold, who expressed the point of view that all inmates are liars. Griswold also stated that CO’s are not cops and that law enforcement would not want to hear from them, even if it was useful information. Griswold stressed this point by saying his Lieutenant would say the same thing if he brought intelligence to him. This scenario provides examples of barriers to communication, the strength of informal organizational socialization, a possible good application of linking pins to share information across work units, and opportunity to improve communication . Each will be discuss...
Gresham M. Sykes describes the society of captives from the inmates’ point of view. Sykes acknowledges the fact that his observations are generalizations but he feels that most inmates can agree on feelings of deprivation and frustration. As he sketches the development of physical punishment towards psychological punishment, Sykes follows that both have an enormous effect on the inmate and do not differ greatly in their cruelty.
The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo explored the moral impact of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. Zimbardo, a former classmate of Stanley Milgram who conducted his own obedience experiment (The Milgram Obedience Study), looked to expand upon Milgram's research. He sought to further investigate the impact of situational variables on human behavior. The main question the researchers asked was, how the participants would react when placed in a simulated prison environment. The participants that were chosen were undergraduate students who were physically healthy with no history of mental illness or a criminal record. They would be selected to fill either the role of prisoner or prison guard. The main question was “Would those good people,
The men who played the role of prisoner, like the guards, were selected at random. The harassment they endured, while all voluntary, was by any means less than humane. They were treated with very little respect, and denied basic rights, such as use of the restroom, and were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors for many nights as a form of punishment. When they arrived to the prison, they were stripped down, and given a change of clothes, but the “change of clothes”, was anything but what they expected to receive. They were actually dresses. The dresses were meant to emasculate the men even more than what they had been already. Rendered powerless, with lack of control of their environment, what other choice did they have than to accept what
Prisoner security categories are used as an assessment system to assign convicts to a category that is appropriate for their crime and/or for the safety of the public. There are four categories, each with their own criteria. The category a prisoner falls under depends on the nature of their crimes along with the potential danger to the community if they were to abscond from the prison . A convict’s category will be assessed once they first enter prison, the assessors within the prison service will consider the inmates likelihood of inflicting harm upon themselves or others. These categories are for prisoners who have been deemed mentally or physically able. These categories fall in to one of two prison types; open or closed prisons. Open prisons are institutions where prisoners have more freedoms and are able to move freely around their settings, prisoners will only be placed in Open Prisons if staff considers them as trustworthy. Lastly, closed prisons are considerably more secure and inmates must follow a strict schedule.
The idea of experimentation of prison life achieved by the Stanford University students was intriguing and the results were interesting. Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo’s study due to a result of their curiosity of the reactions of subjects when placed in prisoner or prison guard roles. Their inspiration for the study was somewhat unclear; however, hypothetically reasoning was placed on determining aspects of the actual reality of incarceration. The experimenters also strived to test the theory on whether prisoners face abhorrent conditions due to their interpersonal evils, or do to the aggressive and deviant behaviors of prison guards (Haney, Banks, Zimbardo, 1973).
Freedom in any society is a condition that is directly correlated to the compliance of society’s rules, regulations, and laws. This right afforded to citizens under the constitution is surrendered by those who choose to disregard and trample on the set of standards and behavior needed for a society to maintain order and avoid anarchy. When loss of freedom is the tool used to punish this segment of society, prisons become the instrumentality used to carry out the various freedom restrictions under the law for each individual. Citizens who find themselves incarcerated in prison will be exposed to an entirely different environment than those in free society. In addition, there is a psychological impact on those being reintroduced into society after having completed long-term sentences, an impact many believe contribute to the high recidivism rates in the United States. The criminal justice system with all of its connected inner workings may not address all of the concerns inside and out of our current prison system, but just as we have improved on our prisons from the past, we will continue to improve and implement new techniques and design precise programs in our future prisons.
Prisoners must always address the guards as "Mr. Correctional Officer," and the warden as "Mr. Chief Correctional Officer."
Have you ever wondered what happens behind prison doors? Prisons are defined as a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment. A prison is also referred to a place of detention. Embodiment of the United States is a concrete power under the Constitution of the United States, which means that prisons are under authority of both the federal and state governments. Different United State prisons contain different prisoners based on the crime or felony committed. Security levels range from minimum-security prisoners to Supermax facilities that house the more dangerous criminals. Dangerous criminals are usually sent to the state prison and less serious offences such as misdemeanors are sent to the local county or city jails to serve short terms of confinement. Prisons are located at the national, state, and local levels that each confines a number of people. At each prison level, a variety of programs are offered to help the prisoners and teach them how to act properly in today’s society. More happens behind the prison doors then the United States leads the population to see.
The ethical theory of utilitarianism and the perspective on relativism, of prison labor along with the relativism on criminal behavior of individuals incarcerated are two issues that need to be addressed. Does the utilitarianism of prisoner’s right laws actually protect them? Or are the unethical actions of the international and states right laws exploiting the prison labor? Unethical procedures that impact incarcerated individuals and correctional staff, the relativism of respect as people and not just prisoner’s; the safety of all inmates and correctional staff, are all issues worth continuous reflection.
Prison has been around in human society for many millions of years. Having someone who disobeyed the law of that village, town, city or country punished in some form of institution, cutting them off from people, is a common concept – a popular and supposedly “needed” process society has taken to doing for many years now has been put under the spotlight many times by many different figures and people in society. The question remains – do prisons only make people worse? Many articles have been published in many journals and newspapers of the western world (mainly the USA, UK and Australia) saying prison only makes a person worse yet no complaint of the method has come from the less liberal eastern societies; this only proves how in countries where the rights of humans are valued such issues as if prisons only make people worse are important and relevant to keeping fair to all.
In final analysis, this research project looks to provide a new way of understanding the current prison situation and its various manifestations. A comprehensive report of how things might be for those closely involved in the punishment and rehabilitation process might enable policy-makers and the public alike to change their ideas and help them perceive what it might mean to be in the position of officers or prisoners. The higher objective of this project will be to bring, through new knowledge, the necessary reforms that could leave both the taxpayer and those in the prison system more satisfied.
In "Prison Studies" Malcolm X briefly details how, during his incarceration, he embarked on a process of self-education that forever changed him and the course of his life. Malcolm writes of his determination to learn to read and write, born out of his envy and emulation of Bimbi, a fellow prisoner. His innate curiosity, sense of pride, and ambition to learn and be someone of substance motivated him to study relentlessly. As he learned more about the world he developed a great thirst for knowledge that left him with a lifelong desire that only his continued studies could satisfy. He believed that prison offered him the best possible situation in which to educate himself.
Over 2.1 million inmates occupy the cells of prisons in the United States of America (Highest). Since the mid-1800’s, the prison population has almost doubled in size and still continues to grow. The amount of time spent in prison by an individual has also raised from 1993 (Espejo 21). Routines, crimes, and security contain similar structures in all prisons, but some involve worse circumstances and criminals; here is a look into the life of a prisoner.