(2026 Exams) Effects of Prison

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The Effects of Prison on Criminals: Mental Health

The prison environment can have damaging psychological effects. These include: mental health problems, institutionalisation, reinforcing criminal behaviour, and labelling.

Method:

Mental health problems can be a result of being in prison.
It has been found by Dooley (1990) that prisoners are more vulnerable to depression and suicide.
- They studied prison suicides between 1972 and 1987 in England and Wales.
- The study size was 295 cases out of 300 suicides that had occurred in that time period.

Results:

The study found that those who were serving life sentences and those who were imprisoned because of sexual or violent crimes were at most risk for suicide.
Dooley determined that there was a relationship between guilt about the crime committed and suicide.
Self-harm in the prisoners was common before their suicides.
Finally, in about 100 cases (one third) there was a history of psychiatric problems.

Conclusion:

There is a relationship between depression and suicides in prison.
There was a high contributing factor of depressive illness to suicide.
Dooley concluded that to reduce the suicide rates, there need to be better communication between the prisoners and the staff.

Evaluation:

This was a non-random study with no control group.
It was a selected sample of prisoners.
It was also difficult to control for other variables such age, background, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, marital status and employment status.
Therefore, it is difficult to accurately determine how much more prone prisoners are to depression and suicide than the general public.

Stanford Prison experiment

Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment (1973) found that the prisoners, even in a fictional prison setting, experienced high levels of emotional distress.
The study was ended early as a result of this distress.

Research limitations

It is important to note that causal effects of prison on depression is difficult to determine.
It may be that prisoners were already depressed or at risk for suicide before being placed in prison.

Further Effects of Prison on Criminals

The prison environment can have damaging psychological effects. These include: mental health problems, institutionalisation, reinforcing criminal behaviour, and labelling.

Institutionalisation

Institutionalisation is when prisoners develop deficiencies or abnormal behaviour as a result of being in prison.
Prisoners often have little to no autonomy or independence and so can struggle to become independent once released.

Examples

Zimbardo (1973) in the Stanford prison experiment demonstrated how quickly prisoners (and the guards) become institutionalised.
A fictional example would be Red from the Shawshank Redemption; he had difficulty adjusting to life outside prison because he was in prison for so long.

Reinforcement of criminal behaviour

Sutherland’s theory of differential association stated that criminal behaviour is learned by associating (being around) criminals.
Therefore by being put in prison with other criminals people are more likely to learn other criminal behaviours.
Prisons can become breeding grounds for crime (drug smuggling, theft, rape).

Recidivist

These criminal behaviours can either be manifested while still in prison or once the offender has been released.
Once the prisoner has been released, due to the reinforcement of the criminal lifestyle while in prison, they are more likely to be a recidivist.

Labelling

Finally, an effect of imprisonment is that the person is often labelled as a criminal for the rest of their lives, even if their sentence is short.
This labelling could make it difficult for them to resume a normal life, maintain healthy relationships or keep a job.

Example

A fictional example could be Aleida from Orange is the New Black, who has difficulty finding a job once she has been released from prison because of her criminal record.

Positives of imprisonment

It is important to note that there are some potential positive effects of being imprisoned.
- These include: the criminal experiencing remorse for the crime they committed, having the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves like becoming sober, and being provided new opportunities like an education or job training.