Psychological Impact of Incarceration: Implications for Post-Prison Adjustment

• NCJ Number: 222812
• Author(s): Craig Haney
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: The Urban Institute
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper prepared for the conference, "From Prison to Home," January 30-31, 2002; downloaded May 22, 2008.

Annotation

This paper identifies the psychological impact of prison life on many inmates and discusses implications for inmates' transition into home communities after release.

Abstract

In focusing on the psychological changes that occur in routine adaptation to prison life, the term "prisonization" is used to describe the process by which inmates are shaped and transformed by the prison environments in which they live. The process of institutionalization has been studied extensively by sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and others. It involves a distinctive set of psychological adaptations that often occur, albeit in varying degrees, in response to the demands of prison life. In general terms, the process of prisonization involves the incorporation of the norms of prison life into an inmate's habits of thinking, feeling, and acting. The process of prisonization includes some or all of the following psychological adaptations: dependence on institutional structure and the relinquishment of autonomy; hypervigilance, interpersonal mistrust, and suspicion; emotional over-control, alienation, and psychological distancing; social withdrawal and isolation; incorporation of exploitative norms of prison culture; diminished sense of self-worth and personal value; and posttraumatic stress reactions to the pains of imprisonment. Inmates likely to experience these prisonization effects to a greater degree are mentally ill and developmentally disabled inmates and prisoners in solitary confinement or "supermax" facilities. These prisonization effects jeopardize the personal and behavioral characteristics required to be effective parents and employees upon release, while facilitating the stress that perpetuates and aggravates drug use as a means of coping with adjustment difficulties. This paper outlines reforms in three areas in order to address prisonization and adverse impact on the transition from prison to home. These three areas are prison conditions, policies, and procedures; transitional services that prepare prisoners for community release; and community-based services that facilitate and maintain reintegration. 29 notes