Supermax Prison Case Study

Solitary confinement is used for a variety of reasons—some that are quite absurd. A prisoner can be sent into isolation if they have commited a serious crime like killing another inmate or creating a fight or even assaulting a guard. Sometimes inmates are placed in solitary confinement because they need protection from other people—but is it really protection if they end up with a mental illness? Now listen to this, many inmates in solitary confinement aren’t in there because they have committed a serious crime, but because they have simply upset the guards and broken minor

Entering a prison can and will be a culture shock, prison changes you overtime either positive or negatively. If I were to be entering prison for the first time I would have a couple concerns regarding my well-being and safety. From the moment I get arrested I will start prisonization, which is understanding the norms in prison and adjusting to the environment (Clear, Reisig, Cole, 2016). A concern of mine walking into prison is trying not to get too close to other inmates. Going into prison is a scary experience and once you enter typically you do not know anyone.

When men are incarcerated, gender issues often become heightened as they seek power or control in the prison. According to Kupers (2005), toxic masculinity involves “the need to aggressively compete and dominate others.” This concept may contribute to certain groups holding more power over others, and leads to the formation of dynamics between sub-communities within the prison. Toxic masculinity frequently results in male offenders resisting mental health treatment or other psychotherapy, since it could be perceived by other inmates as a “vulnerability”. Therefore, male offenders often underreport their emotional issues, and may not reach out for help until they have developed suicidal ideation or psychotic symptoms, (Kupers, 2005). Many prisoners adopt this survival mindset, in which there is no room to express pain or emotion that could in any way lessen their “masculinity”.This can become a major challenge in trying to incorporate treatment programs in prisons, especially if they are constantly being resisted.

Warden Norton was a prime example of how authority figures can become power-hungry when put in an environment such as a prison. They become domineering and disassociated with the outside world because, in prison, they are at the top. The vulnerability of inmates allows prison authority figures to be even more ruthless; their criminal status does not give them the opportunity to expose the wrongs of prison. Once people, like Norton, become resocialized into a megalomaniac, they lose who they were before. Their sense of self is demolished, so they contradict their prior beliefs and motivations.

The power given to prison guards over prisoners can puts prison guards in the position to become evil. A great example of prison guards turning evil is seen through the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment was conducted using normal mentally stable volunteers and assigned them to be either a prisoner or a prison guard. The roles were selected at random. Once the people who were assigned as guards received the power in the prison, they began to perform humiliating acts towards the prisoners; humiliating acts such as striping the prisoners naked and other sexually graphic acts.

He started to behave in a way that was cruel and far harsher than the rest of the guards and at the end of the experiment claimed it was because he was conducting his own experiment to see how far they would let him go until they retaliated. The way he behaved portrayed that, even though he might not have come into the experiment with the intention to release that behavior from within, but his actions became a roll that he took too far. A sociocultural component shown in the film were the ways that the volunteer guards interpreted the stigmas around being a prison guard. That they should be cold, strict, and unnervingly verbally abusive. Time upon time in the film, the volunteer guards were verbally abusive of their power with the prisoners.

Privacy is taken away from both to force a change. Remorse and rehabilitation is a judges and parents hope of outcome from both punishments, being grounded and being in prison. By being stuck in a room thinking about the previous actions taken they expect you to learn a lesson and not do it again. The government expects the prisoner to change and obey the laws in the future. Reflecting on the actions taken while learning a lesson is the point of both punishments.

Undoubtedly, militaries around the world train individuals to do extremely violent things to other humans. Often times transitioning away from a high tempo, hyper violent environment back to civilian life is a difficult process. William C. Gentry, a San Diego County prosecutor was once quoted saying “You are unleashing certain things in a human being we don’t allow in civic society, and getting it all back in the box can be difficult for some people.” Andrew Chambers is a veteran who had such problems adjusting. During a night out with some friends, Chambers severely beat someone who had pulled out a knife during an argument. At his trial the judge said to him, “Mr.

Penal Policy: Restorative Justice over Punishment In the 1800s, the penal system in England with inhumane punishments was appalling. Activists sought to reform the system and create new forms of rehabilitation for prisoners, one of these forms being the treadmill. While prisoners were believed to not only be physically fit and contribute to society by crushing grains on the treadmill, it was obvious that this ‘rehabilitative’ method was rather a punishment. Inmates accumulated around 5,000 to 14,000 feet a day while working 6 or so hours on this torturous device. While the 1898 Prisoners Act banned this form of rehabilitation, it is apparent that most prisons today retain the ineffective mindset of inhumane prisoner justice with punishment

Glancing is a quick and often careless action which demonstrates how the superintendent isn’t that affected by the hanging that just occurred. Again, Orwell also dehumanizes the superintendent by continuing to make him seem like he has no sympathy or heart-warming emotions inside of him. The terrible conditions of the prison are described again when a story is told about a prisoner who “clung to the bars of his cage” (page 4). The fact that the prisoner was staying in what was called a cage is inhumane since cages are supposed to be for animals and not humans. The story continues, and it mentions that the officers felt pain and trouble because of the resistance by the prisoner.