NCJ Number
79882
Date Published
1980
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The types of studies which have been conducted on the side effects of long-term imprisonment are reviewed.
Abstract
Studies of adverse effects of incarceration serve not only to avert injury to prisoners' mental health but also to assist criminologists in evaluating deficits of treatment programs and in understanding the evolution of criminal personalities. Sociological studies have concentrated on social adjustment problems encountered by ex-convicts after release, while psychologists have devoted their efforts to examining psychological problems of adjustment. Most studies focus on behavioral and personality changes in prisoners. The psychological prison studies began to appear around the beginning of the 20th century. Since the Second World War the primary concerns of studies have been the impact of imprisonment in terms of isolated psychological variables such as aggression (effect studies) and the way in which prisoners adapt to the prison setting (coping studies). Effect studies, which generally use statistical techniques, indicate a general deterioration of cognitive processes with a slight improvement in verbal intelligence, personality changes such as introversion, self-destructive aggression, development of a negative attitude toward the law, and loss of a sense of future. Such studies are marred by methodological shortcomings, e.g., too heterogeneous study populations, and by fundamental theoretical problems relating to the validity of the personality model of human behavior, the stimulus-response model, behavioral variation, and misconceptions about the homogenous effects of the prison stimulus. Coping studies have identified a number of pathological and nonpathological syndromes resulting from imprisonment, as well as typical crisis situations, e.g., attempted suicides. Such studies have the advantage of connecting behavior to specific prison circumstances, but on the negative side they take a great deal of time and effort and tend to be metholologically weak. Neither type of study actually considers how long the negative prison effects endure after release. The author advocates more intensive study of variations in prison behavior, specifically of the relationship between particular prison conditions and the functionality of prisoners' adjustment. Extensive notes are supplied.