The Effects of Prison: Part 1

The Effects of Prison: Part 1

A study of the effects of prison upon individuality

Worcester State University

Psychology 101

Dr. Soysa

June 28, 2012

Abstract

There have been studies on the affects of prison on inmates for years. Prisons have a way of stripping away prisoners’ individuality and numbering them to make them feel like less of a human being. The Stanford Prison Experiment, however, did not take place in an actual prison. Even so, prisoners were, shaven, given uniforms, and called by their numbers instead of their names. As a result of this loss of individuality, these prisoners forgot that it was just an experiment, and psychological effects were the result. This cause-and-effect makes us wonder if in fact there’s a more effective way of “punishment.”

For years, there have been studies about the effects of prison on inmates. One could make the same statement about the effects of the military on enlisted members. The individuality of members of these “institutions” is compromised in more ways than one can imagine. Without one’s sense of individuality, what does one have to call his/her own?

Individuality

Consider the police procedures that make arrestees feel confused, fearful, and dehumanized. There are countless procedures that can be done without when it comes to detaining a suspect in a correctional facility or even in the military. The suspects in this particular experiment were blindfolded so that their location had a sense of anonymity (Zimbardo, 2012). Each prisoner was systematically searched and stripped naked, and a degradation procedure took place in part to humiliate prisoners and to be sure that they weren’t bringing in any germs to contaminate the jail (Zimbardo, 2012). The prisoner was then issued a uniform that consisted of a dress, with a prison ID number (Zimbardo, 2012). On each prisoner’s right ankle was a heavy chain, bolted on and worn at all times (Zimbardo, 2012). The use of ID numbers was a way to make prisoners...