Effects of Imprisonment
November 27, 2011 | Society
Throughout history the act of imprisonment as a punishment against people who commit offences against society has been carried out in some form or another. In earlier times the punishment was administered to fit the crime, and commonly administered on an ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ basis.
Today imprisonment still serves as the form of punishment for offenders, but the bias of the type of punishment has changed into one of changing the offender’s attitude by punishment, followed by teaching deterrence, and finally rehabilitation.
These concepts may be quite valid in theory, but seldom deal with case hardened habitual criminals, terrorists who are happy to become martyr’s, and massive drug cartels who pay no heed at all to any kind of law, and are frequently aided and abetted by the people who make the law in the first place!!
Despite all of this the effects of imprisonment can have negative effects on the common criminal serving out his or her prison sentence.
Effects of Imprisonment.
- The initial adjustment to prison life is extremely difficult and causes claustrophobia, depression, panic attacks, and in some cases insanity. These conditions are referred to as chronophobia or prison neurosis.
- The prisoner will face many scenes of brutality and violence. This will create an immediate worry about personal safety.
- A continual state of fear will be experienced, both emotional and a psychological.
- The prisoner will learn to threaten or be threatened, bringing about a change in personality in the person who previously may have been totally non violent.
There is a loss of contact with family, and frequently prisoners will return to the outside world having lost the power to think, having domiciled in a system of repetitive routine, with little opportunity for freedom of expression, or choice.