NCJ Number
140398
Date Published
1992
Length
86 pages
Annotation
This essay examines research on inmate adaptation to prison life.
Abstract
Section I introduces sociological research on inmate subcultures, including the importation and adaptation models of inmate behavior, and introduces contemporary perspectives that derive from stress-coping research and from environmental psychology. Observational and descriptive studies of the stresses of prison life and coping strategies are examined, as are the major research strategies and important methodological issues. The remaining three sections, which constitute the body of the essay, review research on prison noncoping and maladaptation, chiefly as demonstrated by disruptive behaviors and by emotional disorders. The research assessment focuses on the influences of individual characteristics, environmental characteristics, and sentence characteristics. The findings are that although most inmates, including long-term inmates, adjust successfully to prison life, many do not cope well with the pains of imprisonment. Maladaptive responses such as emotional disorders, self-mutilation, suicide attempts, and prison misbehavior are most common during the early phases of incarceration. Most studies show that white inmates more often exhibit psychological distress than do black inmates or Hispanic inmates. Black inmates, young inmates, and recently arrived inmates are more likely to violate prison rules than their counterparts. Offenders who have the greatest difficulty adapting to prison tend to have difficulty functioning in other environments. Attributes of individuals and of environments combine to influence inmate adjustment. 200 references (Author abstract modified)