Psychology 3.1 Imprisonment

Psychology Learning outcome: Planned behaviours once freed from jail (factors affecting recidivism, Gillis, C. A. and Nafekh, M. (2005) ‘The impact of community based employment on offender reintegration’, The Forum for Corrections 17 (1), 10–15) Depression/suicide risk (Dooley, E. (1990) ‘Unnatural deaths in prison’, British Journal of Criminology 30 (2), 229–34) The prison situation and roles (Haney, C. and Zimbardo, P. (1998) ‘The past and future of US prison policy, twenty-five years after the Stanford Prison Experiment’, American Psychologist 53 (7), 709–27)

Psychology Planned behaviours once freed from jail Key study: Gillis and Nafekh (2005) Aim to investigate the effect on recidivism rates of a community based employment scheme. Sample 23,525 federal offenders conditionally released between January 1998 and January % were men and the rest women.

Psychology Method Content analysis of data from Canada’s Offender Management System on the 23,525 offenders in the sample. A matched pairs design was used where offenders were divided into employed prior to release on a special programme and those who were unemployed. They were then matched for gender, risk level, release year, sentence length, family/marital relations, substance abuse, emotional orientation, community functioning and attitudes.

Psychology Results The average time for the whole sample to get employment on the outside was 6 months for men and 10 months for women. Those on employment programmes prior to finishing their sentence were more likely to remain on conditional release and less likely to return to custody with a new offence.

Psychology Results (cont.) The median time to return was also longer for the employed group (37 months versus 11 months). At the end of the study period 70% of the employed group remained on conditional release compared to 55% of the unemployed group.

Psychology Conclusions The implications are that employment based programmes have a very important role to play in the last few months of an offender’s sentence, giving them some of the skills they need and helping them to integrate into the community. The programmes focus on job search techniques, individual psychometric assessments and on-the-job placements.

Psychology Conclusions (cont.) For offenders with more severe deficits in learning, more tailored programmes should be offered and these are just as important as drug rehabilitation and anger management programmes.

Psychology Depression/suicide risk Key study: Dooley (1990) Aim To investigate all unnatural deaths that occurred in prisons in England and Wales between1972 and 1987.

Psychology Method A content analysis of Prison Department personal papers. A checklist which included social, psychiatric and forensic history was used to analyse the papers. The groups getting a verdict of suicide were compared to those who did not.

Psychology Results 442 unnatural deaths were recorded in prisons in England and Wales between 1972 and got a verdict of suicide and the remainder a variety of verdicts including 52 from consciously self-inflicted injury.

Psychology Discussion The present level of suicide in British jails is much higher and is being attributed to overcrowding increasing the stress on the prisoners. Many prisoners suffer from mental health problems and addiction when they are admitted. The psychological effects of overcrowding particularly on younger inmates which “directly affects prisoners’ mental and physical health by increasing the level of uncertainty with which they regularly must cope”.

Psychology The prison situation and roles Key theory: Haney and Zimbardo (1998) Part one Summary of changes to the prison system over 25 years In the 1980s political pressure mounted to put more and more criminals behind bars. The concept of rehabilitation was publicly discredited and replaced with ‘incapacitation’ and ‘containment’. Whatever tariff was imposed, it had to be served in full with no parole.

Psychology Part one (cont.) The building of new prisons has escalated with the increase in the prison population. The US prison population also appears to show racial bias because African American men make up 48% of the prison population although they represent 6% of the general population. Another group who are over represented are drug offenders.

Psychology Part one (cont. 2) Haney and Zimbardo suggest that “the increased emphasis on sentencing rather than attempting to improve the life chances of the urban Black underclass reflect dispositional and discriminatory views of crime control”. A further development has been the rise of the “Supermax” prison which is where special ultra secure, long term segregated confinement is imposed on the offender.

Psychology Part one (cont. 3) The Supreme Court has shown an unsympathetic stance on appeals from prisoners who use the eighth amendment which states that ‘there should be no cruel and unusual punishments’.

Psychology Part two Zimbardo and Haney’s suggestions for improvement: First, prisons should be used very sparingly in the war on crime because they are psychologically damaging.

Psychology Part two (cont.) Second, the SPE (populated with psychologically healthy young men) was very minimalist in design and very short lived yet produced very powerful effects on all the participants. Third, the situations which exist when someone comes out of prison are equally as important as those on the inside. Therefore decompression programmes that gradually reverse the effects of the extreme environments inside should be in place.

Psychology Part two (cont. 2) Fourth, more situationally specific assessments should be made of the prisoners. Fifth, reform has to come from people outside of the system who are empowered to act on it. Finally they suggest that psychological knowledge should be used to improve the nature and effects of imprisonment.