Incarceration And Prisonization Analysis

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Incarceration and Prisonization:
A Comparison of the Impacts of Punishment and Alternative Sanctions In a punitive justice system there is little room for rehabilitation. Criminals are caught and sentenced. Once confined to prison they are out of sight and out of mind. This avoidance can result in a lack of insight as to the problems with the current system. Prisoners in the United States alone comprise of 25% of the world’s total prisoners (NeSmith, 2015). This makes the United States the country with the greatest level of imprisonment, even though the United States only accounts for 5% of global population (NeSmith, 2015). Ultimately, however, the punitive system of incarceration and deprivation of rights does not have the desired effect …show more content…

These issues can be divided between what occurs while the individual is incarcerated and the aftereffects of incarceration. The main issue related to being incarcerated, prisonization, looks at the institution of prison and the variety of impacts it has on inmates (South & Wood, 2006). Clemmer (1940) describes prisonization as “the adoption of the folkways, mores, customs and general culture of the inmate subculture” (as cited in South & Wood, 2006, p. 491). This suggests that when an individual enters a prison environment they are enveloped by a community that encourages certain pro-criminal attitudes and behaviors. A social hierarchy develops where individuals are ranked based on their status within the community, with the main goal being to conform to the unwritten rules of prison (South & Wood, …show more content…

In a research study on Danish prisoners, Minke (2014) found that socialization into the prison system can lead not only to physical abuse and trauma, but emotional numbing as well. This is related to the perpetuation of physical and psychological attacks due to the oppositional system that is created between guards and prisoners, in which guards are viewed as the enemy (Minke, 2014). In this sense, although the guards should be relied on to keep order and safety within the prison, in reality inmates may be unlikely to seek help from the people they view as oppressors. Minke (2014) described how this cycle develops with terms such as “don’t grass,” meaning not to tell on fellow inmates, which is undesirable and can actually result in an inmate becoming a target (p. 41). Eventually, prisoners come to accept harsh experiences as the prison norm and attempt to display emotional toughness so as not to become a victim (Minke, 2014). These attitudes and an opposition to authority can lead to even more problems when inmates get out of prison (Minke,

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