The Stanford Prison Experiment Article Addresses The Psychology Of Power Essay

When put into the position of complete authority over others people will show their true colors. I think that most people would like to think that they would be fair, ethical superiors. I know I would, but learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment has made me question what would really happen if I was there. Would I be the submissive prisoner, the sadistic guard, or would I stay true to myself? As Phillip Zimbardo gave the guards their whistles and billy clubs they drastically changed without even realizing it. In order to further understand the Stanford Prison experiment I learned how the experiment was conducted, thought about the ethical quality of this experiment, and why I think it panned out how it did.

"The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics"(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the

Social psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, has lead one of the most infamous experiments in the modern history with the Stanford Prison Experiment. The immense popularity of the experimental research on situational power, although having cultivated great recognition, has overshadowed the multiple contributions and accomplishments that Zimbardo continues to assume in his lifetime. Many of Zimbardo’s recognitions have been brought upon due to the Stanford Prison Experiment, yet in this paper will extensively examine Zimbardo’s psychological career from the beginning to the current date to recognize his notable influence in the field of Psychology, specifically the field of Social Psychology. This brief review of Zimbardo’s lengthy career will include various facts and personal accounts of Zimbardo’s regarding his life and work. Zimbardo’s lifetime of work has mainly focused and researched the multiple flaws of human’s beings, and it’s through his findings that society is truly able to progress forward positively. Zimbardo’s long career exemplifies that of an unrestricted devotion; he has and still works to better society through its various flaws, making him undoubtably impactful.

Through the obvious statistical evidence of the United States Prison system and the exploration of detrimental prison culture it becomes apparent that the system needs to be reformed. Prisons are not cost effective and they do not provide the right correctional help. The United States prison system is deeply flawed. Prison creates a culture that is detrimental to prisoners and all

From its early inception as a necessary aspect of modern society to its broken state that can be seen today, the American penal system has changed radically in recent history from an institution that performed the duty of safeguarding the public from those too dangerous to be left unsupervised to a business model concerned more with generating a profit for shareholders. With a 500% increase in inmates that is rivalled by no other country, the United States leads the world in imprisoning a fast-growing portion of its population. It is without a doubt that adverse changes in policy regarding imprisonment along with the formation and privatization of the prison industrial complex contributes substantially to the state of mass incarceration in the United States and will continue to shape its future for the years to come.

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

The American population is overwhelmingly uninformed about the inner workings of the justice system. If the average American was privy to the harsh reality of the injustices suffered by the exorbitant prison population and the shortcomings of the justice system, I suspect a large portion of the population would support prison reform. Indeed, recently there has been major public discourse regarding the justice system. This discourse, among other reasons, made me personally invested in the flaws of the criminal justice system. I am aware of America’s mass incarceration, and that there are legitimate arguments to reduce the prison population. One of the most frequently used argument is that it is too expensive to maintain such a high

The prison system in America is far from perfect. When Reagan took office, the idea of private prisons took off (Chang & Thompkins, 2002). With the increase of private prisons in America, comes the increase of incarceration rates. Private prisons were designed to keep money in taxpayers pockets; therefore, private corporations came into play to make money in the prison system (Chang at el., 2002). Chang at el. (2002) states, “ Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) is the largest correctional corporation in the US, thus it holds 50 percent of the U.S market”. The capacity of private prisons has increased 300 percent in the last 30 years (Chang at el., 2002). Additionally, private prisons operate at 90 percent of their capacity (Chang at

Today, the United States has the largest number of people behind bars than any other country in the world. According to Pew Research Center data, that with just five percent of the world population, the United States accounts for twenty-five percent of the prison population. The American penal system exists in theory to protect society from the criminals who committed horrible transgressions; instead, the politicians and judges, both conservatives and liberals who look for votes by feeding fear of crimes to the public to pave ways for their catastrophic policies’ and the justice system to serve as a catalyst for the industrial prison complex multibillion dollar business. The advocate for the prison system argue that it’s necessary to build

“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime

One of the conclusions is the nature of absolute power and its tendency to corrupt human behavior. Although in the very beginning, guards and the warden devised baseline rules for prisoners, guards eventually reversed all the rules and substituted the notion of the basic rights granted to the prisoners with the notion of privilege. These privileges were provided only on the basis of good behavior. Naturally guards themselves were the judges and criteria-setters of what constituted such a behavior. In the post-experiment interviews, guards described such a sense of absolute power as exhilarating.

Prison sentences are extraordinarily lengthy, disproportional to the crimes committed, and lacking in consistency throughout the legal system’s application of the punishments. Rather than endorsing a system that inspires growth and modification, the existing criminal justice system in the United States aims felons into lives of poverty and despair. Inmates, through reality television programs, are shown as living lives of ease and prosperity, with little to do besides relaxing in front of television screens and whiling away each day while the government provides for all their needs (Yamato). From this perverse standpoint, society is at risk of becoming even more outraged at the government for the prison system, which is neither supporting or restructuring inmates, but increasing taxpayer costs (Gilson). The efficacy of prison privatization is also largely without benefit for the United States’ economy. If responsibility for crimes committed shifts to the private sector, the need for and methods of punishment for criminals or those who commit wrongdoings must be revalued, as the benefits amassed by society through a given criminal justice system are the predicators for its effectiveness (Mulch).

In the last few centuries, jails have been utilized as the major punishment for criminal acts. Some of the common punishments used earlier include public humiliation, corporal punishment, and penal bondage. However, capital punishment along with banishment was used for severe offences. In the recent past, according to the statistics from the Department of Justice, an estimated 2338,000 individuals are in state prisons, more than 90,000 are in the federal prison, and more than 5,000 are in juvenile facilities. In the same way, more than 20,000 are in territorial prisons and military prisons, as well as local jails. By October 2013, America had the highest rate of incarceration across the globe at 718 per 100,000 people. It is equally important to note that as of December 2014, the International Centre for Prison Studies reported that there were 2, 783,689 prisoners from the total population of 319 million. The major causes of increased incarceration rate increased sentencing laws, privatization of the prisons, and drug sentencing laws. It has resulted in prisons not serving their purpose of correcting the inmates as well as being a habitable place for everyone. Therefore, reform aims at enhancing the conditions that are inside the jails. In the same way, it also entails coming with alternative ways of incarceration. Drawing on a variety of sources, the

Austin, J., Irwin, J. (2001). “It's About Time: America's Imprisonment Binge.” Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co

It has been said many times that one can learn a great deal about a society by looking towards its prisons. Look towards its dungeons and there you will see in concentrated and microcosmic form the sickness of the entire system. Moreover, today in the United States of America in 1972 there is something that is particularly revealing about the analogy between the prison and the larger society of which it is a reflection. (Davis)