REVIEW The Stanford Prison Experiment was intended to show the pitfalls of the judicial system regarding the treatment of prisoners and the lasting effect going to prison has on a person. They believed that when a person is sent to prison, they should be rehabilitated and then sent back out. Instead it seems that being sent to prison is not enough; it just makes the prisoner angry with the system of authority that put them there. According to the following information it seems that they were correct. “An estimated two-thirds (68 percent) of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of release from prison, and three- quarters (77 percent) were arrested within five years, per the Bureau
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Furthermore it revealed the same was true for the guards. Even though this was just a mock prison and the prisoners and guards could have acted however they wanted, both sides still chose to act in a negative way towards each other. This study showed just how much inmates are affected by the social structure in a prison. Even though each participant knew that this was just an experiment and not real, still five of them had to be ‘paroled’ because of extreme emotional depression. Meaning these men voluntarily gave up the money they had earned during the experiment because they just wanted out. Most of the guards got power hungry as a result of the study. They got personal joy out of commanding authority and controlling the prisoners. When the experimenters decided to cut the study a day early some of the guards put up protest, they did not want to give up the power that was given to …show more content…
This gave the study certain realness; if all of the participants had not given themselves to their roles then the inmates could have in theory overtaken the guards. In doing this I believe it would have created inconclusive results because that type of situation would not happen so easily in a real prison. One thing I may have changed is how the guards were orientated at the beginning of the study. If being sent to prison for a crime is meant for more than just a punishment, then we cannot keep dehumanizing people while they are in prison. Starting with the way the guards treat them. I understand that some people are in prison because they have done some horrible things, but we should be aiming at rehabilitating them so when they do get back out they do not become repeat offenders. I would like to see a similar experiment where the guards actually treat the inmates like actual people. I wonder how the inmates would react, would they be more receptive and cooperative or would they still give out the same
Furthermore it revealed the same was true for the guards. Even though this was just a mock prison and the prisoners and guards could have acted however they wanted, both sides still chose to act in a negative way towards each other. This study showed just how much inmates are affected by the social structure in a prison. Even though each participant knew that this was just an experiment and not real, still five of them had to be ‘paroled’ because of extreme emotional depression. Meaning these men voluntarily gave up the money they had earned during the experiment because they just wanted out. Most of the guards got power hungry as a result of the study. They got personal joy out of commanding authority and controlling the prisoners. When the experimenters decided to cut the study a day early some of the guards put up protest, they did not want to give up the power that was given to …show more content…
This gave the study certain realness; if all of the participants had not given themselves to their roles then the inmates could have in theory overtaken the guards. In doing this I believe it would have created inconclusive results because that type of situation would not happen so easily in a real prison. One thing I may have changed is how the guards were orientated at the beginning of the study. If being sent to prison for a crime is meant for more than just a punishment, then we cannot keep dehumanizing people while they are in prison. Starting with the way the guards treat them. I understand that some people are in prison because they have done some horrible things, but we should be aiming at rehabilitating them so when they do get back out they do not become repeat offenders. I would like to see a similar experiment where the guards actually treat the inmates like actual people. I wonder how the inmates would react, would they be more receptive and cooperative or would they still give out the same