The effect of imprisonment

• The UK and US both have high levels of recidivism when offenders have been punished in prison, particularly those with shorter sentences.
• Negative effects of prison (Dooley):

  • high levels of suicide
  • high levels of self injury
  • high levels of anxiety and depression
• Planned employment schemes - Gillis and Nafekh

  these schemes help ex offenders give structure to their day, financial security and reduce the need to commit criminal acts. they found that 70% of the offenders who were a part of a planned employment scheme successfully completed their conditional release period compared to 55% of the unemployed group.
• HANEY

  Aim- Investigate if the role of guard or prisoner influences behaviour

  Method- A volunteer sample of 24 male college students where the guards were given a guard uniform and the prisoners given a prisoner uniform. They had to spend 24 hours a day in this environment.

  Results- Prisoners adapted a passive response they showed extreme depression under obedience. The guards misused the power they believed they had.
• APPLICATION - Imprisonment

  Whilst in prison the offenders are taken out of society and are punished with a removal of rights if they engage in more aggressive or criminal behaviour so they may learn to self govern when they are released.
• APPLICATION - Planned employment (Gillis and Nafekh)

  This gives offenders some financial stability, daily structure and reduces their need to commit crime to survive. This reduces recidivism rates as it puts offenders on the right path.
• APPLICATION - Anger management

  (Ireland)

  Offenders learn how to deal with their anger in healthy ways in terms of controlling it and releasing it. This makes them less likely to lash out once they’re out of prison. Ireland aimed to assess the effectiveness of a CALM programme with young male offenders. He found a significant reduction in angry behaviour in the CALM programme group.