NCJ Number
141852
Journal
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (1993) Pages: 17- 28
Date Published
1993
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The experience of the author and other inmates at the Federal prison in Marion, Illinois confirm the stories and hearsay that circulate among inmates of the State and Federal prison systems regarding the use of inappropriate behavior control and human experimentation at the facility.
Abstract
Inmates fear the Marion prison, and prison officials at other institutions exploit these fears by threatening to send them there. The author was regarded as "incorrigible" by prison officials and was sent there after refusing to work following two accidents in a prison machine shop. Marion's physical appearance differed from what the myths suggested, but the prison functioned as a modern "behavior modification laboratory." Correctional personnel use four techniques of behavior modification: (1) Dr. Edgar H. Schein's brainwashing methodology, (2) Skinnerian operant conditioning, (3) Dr. Levinson's sensory deprivation design (the Control Unit), and (4) chemotherapy and drug therapy. These techniques are disguised behind pseudonyms and under the philosophical rhetoric of correction, but their nature and use violate both the Constitution and many widely recognized recognized correctional standards. Case examples, notes, and 1 reference