Incarceration: The Influence Of Research On Prisoners

This paper explores the topic of mental health within prisons and how it affects the inmates. The report of my findings were through research of twelve articles, two credible website sources, and a published textbook.

Imprisonment is one of the primary ways in which social control may be achieved; the Sage Dictionary of Criminology defines social control as a concept used to describe all the ways in which conformity may be achieved. Throughout time imprisonment and its ideas around social control have varied. Imprisonment has not always been used for punishment, nor has it always thought about the prisoners themselves. However when looking at imprisonment it is important to consider the new penology. Therefore, it needs to be clear what the new penology is. The new penology is said, not to be about punishing individuals or about rehabilitating them, but about identifying and managing unruly groups in society. It is concerned with the managerial

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

Prisons hide prisoners from society. “If an inmate population is shut in, the free community is shut out, and the vision of men held in custody is, in part, prevented from arising to prick the conscience of those who abide by the social rules” (Sykes, 1958, 8). The prison is an instrument of the state. However, the prison reacts and acts based on other groups in the free community. Some believe imprisonment

MK Asante, in his book Buck: The Memoir, highlights the devastation of mass incarceration on the family structure and on individuals, particularly young individuals, who are incarcerated. Asante utilizes an informal tone and jargon the way in which the penal and justice systems dehumanizes those it is meant to reform. Asante’s informal approach and use of jargon turns the issue of mass incarceration into a conversation that engages readers. His feelings about the penal system and justice system are spelled out in the form of a narrative, thus making it easier for the reader to remain engaged. Brian Stevenson focuses on a variety of factors and their contribution to mass incarceration such as a lack of knowledge about mental health and the deterioration of one 's well being as a result of imprisonment. He utilizes anecdotes

Incarceration has grown so much in the past three decades. Majority of these prisoners are parents to small children. More than ever, we need the cooperation between corrections, health and human service to work together to help these prisoners to get back to a good life. As we know incarceration and probation occurred in 1813 when Judge Peter Thatcher began placing youthful offenders under the supervision of officials. He also helped drunks and other unfortunates by bailing them out and provide “friendly supervision” to help them to

Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means

The author of Descent into Madness discusses how systems of criminal justice that engage in high levels of disorganization become nothing short of a breeding ground for discontentment among prison inmates. The other main point is that prison staff psychologically are hungry for power. This manifests in the myriad of ways that they treat the inmates in an effort to feel powerful through by retribution through their

Prison culture or the “values, norms and attitudes that inmates form in terms of institutional survival” (Bartollas, 2013), can be described in one of three models. The Deprivation Model describes the inmate’s behavior as the product of the environment, more specifically the attempt to adapt to that which he is deprived of as a result of incarceration (Bartollas, 2013). An example of such would be the pseudo family unit or physical relationships that inmates form as a result of the absence of such relationships while incarcerated.

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

“Crime control view: Inmates are criminals who have harmed others and must be made to pay for their misdeeds. Convicted criminals have, by definition, forfeited their right to freedom and liberty. The suffering they endure in confinement serves to deter future criminal behaviors. The fewer rights inmates have, the greater the deterrent effect of punishment.” (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg. 209)

According to the prisons inspectorate, the ‘health’ of a prison should be measured according to safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement (HMCIP, 2013). Choose one of these factors, and using academic research to support your argument, discuss to what extent this represents a critical element of imprisonment in contemporary society.

When we do research on daily prison life, we come across two typical but less than ideal situations: either social imaginaries cloud our judgment or information provided by the prisons themselves hide certain weak or bad aspects that they do not want to make public. We can also find information on TV, but most of the time it either exaggerates or minimizes the facts. In order to obtain more reliable information, we have to have access to people who are working or have worked in this institution, and such will be the sources of this essay. We will be describing and giving examples of prison violence according to three types of violence: sexual, physical and psychological violence.

When the average person thinks of jails and prisons, they typically think of horrible criminals being locked up in order to protect the rest of society. They think justice has been served, and those who did the crime are now doing the time. But what goes on inside a prison, and inside the minds of the inmates? What about after those offenders have served their time, and are now being released back into the general public? People don’t really think about how prison affects a person’s mentality, or how incarceration impacts both relationships the inmate currently has, or ones that will develop in the future. Although it isn’t something most people think of first, incarceration is an experience that can have a negative psychological impact on a person for quite some time.

The aims of the research were to explore the awareness professionals have of the adversities families may experience when loved one is incarcerated. In addition to this awareness the study went on to explore what options of support these professionals currently offer to prisoner 's families and their perceptions of the barriers to support services. The study firstly explored previous literature surrounding the adversities of prisoner 's families to identify which professionals would be most beneficial to meeting their needs. Through this approach, it was possible to hypothesise that education, welfare and social work would be strong focus areas for this research. Semi-structured interviews were utilised to explore the knowledge and viewpoints a sample of one home school liaison officer, a primary school head teacher, a looked after children 's social worker and a welfare rights officer. The data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to identify codes and themes within the data. The analytical software NVIVO was used to organise the data. From this analysis it has been possible to conclude that all the professionals had a good awareness of the adversities prisoner 's families may experience and were able to draw upon their knowledge and experiences of ways in which they would work to support both the adults and children within the families. This exploration has also highlighted the important