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Psychological impact of prison
Psychology and prison
What is the psychological impact of imprisonment
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Prison
As I walk through the narrow hallway with my only worldly belongings being reduced to a thin white sheet, a pillow and a hard rough comforter covered with stains of blood never to be washed out. Feeling as if I am in a strange deserted land surrounded by blood thirsty wolves in cages waiting to see the slightest flinch to trigger the attack on my innocent fragile body. Soon as I walked in I felt as if I was trapped in the hot dampness of death breathing this air, which was strong as ammonia almost was overwhelmed me as if I was hit with a punch by Tyson. My lungs gasping for fresh air but there was none to be found. As I get to the end of the hallway I slow down to enter this cell.
This 5 x 10 x 10 cell, where two men must rub elbows for weeks, months, even years, creates mental sickness; a psychological condition that makes the most peaceful person irritable, angry, furious and absolutely desperate. His perspective capacity shrinks until he sees only his cellmates faults, while his good qualities are no longer recognized. Being locked up like this dehumanizes, degrades and tears down whatever good qualities a man has left.
In addition being, a "first timer" also experiences apprehension, fear of the unknown, being observed by peers, being tested by both peers and administration, loneliness and rejection, getting adjusted to a hostile and unnatural environment.
The type of crime a person commits has different effects on the way he or she serves his time. Child abuse, and rape are on the top of the list for crimes the majority of inmates will not tolerate.
Any crime against children are met with violence. Disrespect, rejection and humiliation from other inmates. Once the nature of this type of crime hits the prison grapevine, these offenders get tossed from cell to cell: no one wants to cell with them.
Rapists are next on the list of rejection. they tend to seek their own peer group and, in most cases, cell together. "Regular" cons tend to shun rapists. They see a rapist as someone who could have as easily raped their daughters, mothers, or sweethearts.
Friendships with other inmates are rare. Acquaintances are more frequent and safer. A friend isn't always a friend in prison. Loyalty and trust can be a dear price to pay for loneliness.
Not only do prisons separate the criminals from the innocent, to be effective, according to Lappin and Greene, they must also separate the criminals from the worse criminals. Convicts in prison for non-violent offenses are not supposed to be housed with violent offenders. “Unfortunately, our prisons are becoming more and more overcrowded maki...
A reality where the prisoner is dehumanized and have their rights and mental health abused. “I have endured lockdowns in buildings with little or no heat; lockdowns during which authorities cut off the plumbing completely, so contraband couldn’t be flushed away; and lockdowns where we weren’t allowed out to shower for more than a month” (Hopkins 154). A prisoner currently must survive isolation with improper shelter in the form of heat. Issues compound with a lack of running water and bathing, a proven severe health danger, especially for someone lacking proper nutrients such as a prisoner in lockdown. These abuses of physical well being then manifest into damage of prisoners’ mental well being. “Perhaps I should acknowledge that the lockdown-and, indeed, all these years-have damaged more than I want to believe” (Hopkins 156). Even for the experienced prisoner the wrath of unethically long lockdowns still cause mental damage. Each and every isolation period becomes another psychological beating delivered as the justice system needlessly aims to damage the already harmed inmates. The damage is so profound inmates even recognize the harm done to them by their jailors. An armed and widely used psychological weapon, the elongated lockdown procedures decimate mental health each and every time
The tour at Twin Towers Correctional Facility was a great experience. I had the opportunity to experience a brief overview of what inmates with mental illness go through everyday in jail. These inmates are mainly grouped by the severity of the crime they committed, severity of their mental illness, and sexuality. The tour took place in one of the twin towers, which has seven floors and each floor houses different level of inmates. The most severe mentally ill inmates, who have no free time, are housed in the seventh floor. These are the inmates that throw “gases” the most frequently, which are any form of bodily fluids/solids towards the staff. Examples of the typical gases are feces, urine, and blood. As the floors drop, the inmates’ degree of being dangerous to themselves and/or others decreases. Once inmates are put into a certain floor, inmates have the opportunity to go down floors based on their cooperation with personnel and if their mental illness appears to be controlled. Psychiatrists evaluate every inmate upon entering the facility and are able to see his or her progress. Some inmates never make it out of the facility even though they did their time for the crime they committed. These inmates are too mentally ill to be released to the outside world. In addition, inmates wear different color clothes and that lets jailers know how to behave around different inmates. Some are more dangerous than others; therefore, a jailer needs to be more careful with some inmates than others. Also, some inmates do not wear clothes because they are under suicide watch, thus they only wear a blue suicide vest.
...rulson, Marquart, Vaughn, Bever (2010). Additional research has revealed that individual-level risk factors, like gang history, recurrent prison confinements, active criminal justice status, previous arrests and convictions, substance abuse history, and others are associated with prison misconduct and violence among inmates (DeLisis, Caudill, Trulson, Marquart, Vaughn, Bever (2010). In other research inmates’ psychological characteristic were studied such as anger in relation to their criminal history, these variables also relate to misconduct in prison.
73). This model is designed to give convicts the control to decide if they serve on low end of the range of years or the high end of the range of years. The responsibility is on the inmate to take part in and complete the rehabilitation programs within the prison successfully, or spend a longer time in prison for failure to do so. One of issues with this sentencing model is that not all convicts want to change their behavior, and often end up serving most of, if not the entire sentence. This model leads to severe overcrowding, which affects the quality of life and the rehabilitation programs within the prison. “The core problems of an increasing prison population will result in administrative release compelled by overcrowding rather than an individualized and measured assessment” (Perrin, 2010). The mixing of violent and nonviolent offenders makes it difficult to distinguish who deserves to be released, and who should remain in
Another factor would be the unfriendly environment of the jail and prison. The prison environment can be frightening and upsetting for children and may lead them to not want to return. The child welfare caseworker needs to help the caregiver know how to prepare the child for the visit, giving the child some idea of what to expect about the security procedures and a description of the facility and assuring the child that it is all right to talk about his or her reactions (Appendix 4.16, pg3). The most common is a negative relationship between the caregiver and the incarcerated parent, the caregiver may feel that any contact with the inmate may harm the child mentally and physically. Which leads to the caregiver cutting all ties with the incarcerated parent. The main goal of the caregiver is to provide a safe living environment for the child.
Although some say the high disparity of minority to white prison sentences is due to repeat offenses by second and third time offenders, the disparity in the population between black and white Americans in the U.S. doesn't support the fact there are more minorities than whites in American prisons. The make- up of judges, juries and law enforcement officials in the judicial system are a factor. The high disparity amongst minorities in prison is due to the societal issues such as racial discrimination, racial inequality of lawmakers in the court system, and presumptive sentencing guidelines.
A common theme in many of the stories is that of self-preservation, because for most of the prisoners, focusing one oneself
A deep look into juveniles in adult prisons. Touch bases on several smaller issues that contribute to juveniles being in and effects of adult prisons. The United States Bureau of Prisons handles two hundred and thirty-nine juveniles and their average age is seventeen. Execution of juveniles, The United States is one of only six countries to execute juveniles. There are sixty-eight juveniles sitting on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Forty-three of those inmates are minorities. People, who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive are held to the same standard of responsibility as adults. In prisons, they argue that the juveniles become targets of older, more hardened criminals. Brian Stevenson, Director of the Alabama Capital Resource Center said, “We have totally given up in the idea of reform of rehabilitation for the very young. We are basically saying we will throw those kids away. Leading To Prison Juvenile Justice Bulletin Report shows that two-thirds of juveniles apprehended for violent offenses were released or put on probation. Only slightly more than one-third of youths charged with homicide was transferred to adult criminal court. Little more than one out of every one hundred New York youths arrested for muggings, beatings, rape and murder ended up in a correctional institution. Another report showed a delinquent boy has to be arrested on average thirteen times before the court will act more restrictive than probation. Laws began changing as early as 1978 in New York to try juveniles over 12 who commit violent crimes as adults did. However, even since the laws changed only twenty percent of serious offenders served any time. The decision of whether to waive a juven...
Children commit adult crimes. The problem is how do we punish them? Should they be treated in juvenile facilities, or punished with adult criminals? In some states, you are considered to be an adult at 17 years old, therefore, as criminals get placed “in adult prisons for more sophisticated training in violent crimes and victimization.”(Pg. 637)
In adult prisons, children are not protected from getting harmed by adult prisoners. According to the Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-year Old Children to Die in Prison it elucidates that “Young inmates are at particular risk of rape in prison. Children sentenced to adult prisons typically are victimized because they have “no prison experience, friends, companions or social support.” Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities.” (Equal Justice Initiative, 2008). Juveniles are the utmost beleaguered in adult prisons to be sexually mistreated. In Just Mercy, Joe “In prison…was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted. He developed multiple sclerosis, which eventually forced him into a wheelchair. Doctors later concluded that his neurological disorder might have been triggered by trauma in prison.” (Stevenson, 2014, pg259). Stevenson (2014) shows how unsafe juveniles in adult prisons are by sharing Joe’s story. In the document, Equal Justice Initiative it says “…one Alabama inmate who…was incarcerated in an adult prison…has been repeatedly raped. He was forced to prostitute himself in exchange for protection from physical beatings and sexual assault by other inmates.” (Equal Justice Initiative,
Prisons exist in this country as a means to administer retributive justice for those that break the laws in our society or to state it simply prisons punish criminals that are to receive a sentence of incarceration for more than one year. There are two main sub-cultures within the walls of prison the sub-culture of the Department of Corrections (which consists of the corrections officer, administrators, and all of the staff that work at the prison and go home at the end of their day) and the actual prisoners themselves. As you can imagine these two sub-cultures are dualistic in nature and this makes for a very stressful environment for both sides of the fence. While in prison, the inmates experience the same conditions as described in the previous
Today?s court system is left with many difficult decisions. One of the most controversial being whether to try juveniles as adults or not. With the number of children in adult prisons and jails rising rapidly, questions are being asked as to why children have been committing such heinous crimes and how will they be stopped. The fact of the matter is that it is not always the children's fault for their poor choices and actions; they are merely a victim of their environment or their parents. Another question asked is how young is too young. Children who are too young to see an R rated film unaccompanied are being sent to adult prisons. The only boundaries that seem to matter when it comes to being an adult are laws that restrain kids from things such as alcohol, pornography, and other materials seen as unethical. Children that are sent to adult prison are going to be subjected to even more unprincipled ideas and scenes. When children can be sent to jail for something as minor as a smash and grab burglary, the judicial system has errors. The laws that send juveniles to adult prisons are inhumane, immoral, and unjust. Kids are often incompetent, which leads to unfair trials. Adult prisons are also very dangerous for minors, and in many cases this leads to more juvenile crimes.
In the United States juveniles who committed status offenses or misdemeanor offenses are punished in a similar way to adults. For the kids that were acting out while incarcerated in a youth detention center they would be sent to solitary confinement, which often gave kids more psychological issues instead of treating
.... Also, by being away from prisoners’ friends and family members, they may learn the value of the family. Towl (2003) stated that prison presents opportunities to improve prisoners’ abilities to serve as productive members of their families once they are released (p.149). Prisoners live away from society and family or friends’ supports and also lack of communication, so they learn the value of social life. As a result, the atmosphere of prisons has social effect and psychological effects on offenders.