Mental Stress In Prisons

Prisoners both mentally and socially suffer from being disconnected from society. They tend to lose the ability to communicate with others after being separated from others for decades. Once they have been released back into the community, it is a different atmosphere. They would have to re-learn how to interact with others from the beginning. Being a prisoner is stressful, both on the mind and on the body. Most problems start from the mind. Common issues are mental stress, the traumatized memories that were created in prison, and communication complications. When the person is convicted and is taken to prison, their whole perspective changes from a normal life style to the confinement of their jail room. This can cause mental stress on the prisoner since they are restricted and have less freedom. Only allowed to do certain duties in their jail room and parts of the building. “Philosopher Kenneth Burke coined the term scapegoat mechanism, which Rene Girard developed more broadly as a cultural phenomenon that occurs when a person is singled out to be expelled from society, or sacrificed, in order to psychologically reduce tension created by the human desire to have what someone else has” (Looman, Mary, 96-7). Broke and Girard explains that when that person is kept away from the community it is to satisfy another person’s needs. Having this much restriction for long periods of time will cause them to want to go out or find ways to get out. Prisoners would resort to self-infliction because they wouldn’t want to live in the prison for the rest of time till they are released. “One man I knew stopped eating. Another, while serving a maximum 360-day term in solitary, attempted suicide,” said Kate Edwards (Lueders, Bill, 33). Prisons that are “crowded can cause mental stress, misguide them from what is right and wrong, lower their perception, and lower their performance in activities” (Carceral, K. …show more content…
C., 225). This can build up anger because they are not able to handle what they can’t do. “Anger “just boils up,” and an episode of loss of control can gain an inmate like this additional months or years in solitary” (Rhodes, Lorna, 54). If they act out within the prison and broke the rules, this will cause their release to be delayed which causes more problems for the inmate in the near future. These problems can be with them for long amounts of time in their life causing them to go to a psychologist.
Long term mental effects would be being traumatized from being in prison, their frustration on themselves for not being able to socialize, and having to face the quick growing world. They would feel wary with those around them. Questioning wither they should be trusted or not. “Solitary confinement breaks people. It breaks their spirit and breaks their mind” (Lueders, Bill, 33). With that problem they would have a hard time communicating, which then causes their frustration towards them self. “” What also goes along with those two factors is that they would have to face the world that is rapidly growing. “” When the prisoner gets released they do not know what is happening around them because so much time has passed. This would mean that they need to get back on track with the world from where they