Reactions of male and female inmates to prison confinement

¶ … Male and Femaile Inmates to Prison Confinement

Reactions of Male and Female Inmates to Prison Confinement -- Further Evidence for a Two-Component Model

Paulus and M.T. Dzindolet

Male and female inmates were tested for reactions to prison confinement from the initial stages of incarceration and then again after four months.

Over time, evaluations became more negative and social problems ensued

Blood pressure and concern with the outside world diminished, while other mood state indicators remained neutral

These findings are consistent with past literature and a two-component model of prison confinement that evaluates change over time between incarcerated individuals and triangulates gender differences

Design Criteria

106 inmates at a federal correctional institution in the SW U.S. were selected from a list of volunteers; 50% of each gender; 80 total participated to the end of the study, again, 50% each gender

Assessments were based on questionnaires that dealt with:

Background information (demographics)

Evaluation of the surroundings -- housing issues, issues of crowing, unpleasantness, comfortability

Mood -- use of a 21 item scale that assessed emotional state over their situation.

Social Support -- both inside and outside the prison

Coping Style -- how respondents coped with issues from both internal and external forces.

Symptoms -- frequency scale of which respondents experienced 56 physical symptoms

Problems -- types and robustness of problems occurring

Tolerance to conditions -- how inmates tolerated certain functions, issues, or trends within the prison system

Key Concepts

Length of confinement, number of time confined, age at time of confinement, and ties to the outside world were key criteria from which to base attitudes

In general, older females rated their reaction and views towards incarceration more negatively than males; females tended to be bothered more by prison housing and manifested greater symptoms

Overall, the findings from this research support earlier data

Some findings appear to be disparate, but psychologically may be attributed to an acceptance of the routine of confinement

Prisoners are generally dissatisfied with both the system, the prison, the staff, and the overall situation they are in. This seems logical; would society want prison to be a place to which individuals aspired to go?

Research Method

Summary scales were developed by using predefined theories to group similar items into scalable sets

The scales and associated coefficient data were evaluated according to standard test reliability statistics

Questionnaires were designed to uncover more of a holistic picture of events and attitudes of those confined

ANOVAs used to determine whether inmates in different units reacted differently to the 4-month confinement period; finding that certain items (prison evaluation, problems with other inmates, dissatisfaction with the prison) increased; while ratings of anger, depression, anxiety and degree of control did not statistically differ

Limitations

Relatively small sample to extrapolate large amounts of assumptions

Non-longitudinal in nature

Some assumptions in research based on past literature reviews

While statistical tests were run on correlation of data sets internally, there may have been a number of truth issues based on respondents

Details need to be replicated with other populations

Commentary

At the time of this study, the institution was one of the only federal institutions with both male and female inmates

Several details are alluded to, but not flushed out: ethnicity, type of crime, personal situation, number of times incarcerated, etc.