Psychology of Prisons Stanford Prison Experiment Explanation of the experiment o College students screened to make sure no one had a mental health problem randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners o Get arrested o Strip searched and booked o Addressed by ID numbers o Guards quickly became abusive and punitive o Inmates rebelled planned escape o One inmate showed anxiety and had panic attacks o All knew they could leave the experiment anytime o Experiment ended on the 6th day even though it was planned for 2 weeks because inmates were distressed and guards were abusive Social Psychology Situation vs Disposition o Situation 40 o Disposition 10 o Interaction between situation and disposition 45 o Situation dictates how we act more than who we are 40 vs 10 o Example person drops all their books and whether or not someone helped depended on the situation situation being late was the most influential if someone was going to be late the were less likely to help than if they weren t going to be late Dehumanization o Eroding human characteristics o Example Calling everyone by their ID number o If I don t see you as a person I see you as a number etc it s easier for me to do bad things to you o Important in the military o Milgram Study participants were asked to inflict fake electric shocks etc their pain More likely to shock if you didn t know about them couldn t hear Mental Health Entry shock 1 cause of death in jail is suicide o Suicide is 8 in the U S o 1 in the U S is heart disease L A County House of Directions holds the largest number of people who meet the criteria of having severe mental health Severely Mentally Ill 25 o When a mentally ill person is causing problems the only option the police have is to arrest the person o Huge overlap between victimization and offending behavior Overlap between offending behavior and being mentally ill as well o Substance abuse Co morbidity between substance abuse and mental illness Overrepresentation in correctional facilities Right to treatment o Estelle v Gamble 1976 Severely mentally ill have the right to mental treatment in prison Severely mentally ill means that the patient has a diagnosis Typically severe mood disorder or psychotic disorder o Mental health goal in prison don t cause trouble mental health goal in mental hospital treatment Right to refuse resist treatment o McKine v Lile 2002 Gave up the right of SO s to refuse treatment Can resist refuse UNLESS it causes problems in prison Extended the forced treatment standard to make somebody participate in SO treatment Most refusals and resistances are medication based Some treatments require full disclosure to all crimes you ve committed whether you were caught or not potentially setting up you to do something that could be legally detrimental to you even though it s technically on your therapy record turns into self incrimination in civil cases SO s opt out of voluntary treatment Right to rehabilitation o Inmates do not have the right to dictate their rehabilitation o Have the right to get treatment BUT don t have the right to say what health treatment they get Privilege of Transfer o Nope Record keeping issues o Mental health setting has lots of restrictions on sharing the clinical record o Correctional staff can access clinical records on a need to know basis o Need to document appropriately but keep in mind that CO s can get it o Focuses on factors that are likely to impact recidivism and or behaviors in Assessment Risk assessment a facility Needs assessment o What does this person need for treatment Use shorter screening instruments Isolation and Overcrowding Isolation and the Supermax o Isolation not sensory deprivation o Laboratory research Tried to address this issue of what would be the impact of the supermax type setting to individuals with and without mental illness Can tolerate isolation if it s for a short period of time If you extend the isolation time stress and anxiety symptoms arise Especially if they do not know when the isolation period is going to end Long period of isolation leads to severe mental illness symptoms Most severe case results in mild hallucinations o Observational research mental health risk Supermax settings can result in trauma like symptoms increase If someone is already mentally ill supermax prisons make it much much worse o Madrid v Gomez 1995 supermax conditions and the mentally ill Putting a mentally ill person in a supermax facility was ruled cruel Overcrowding and unusual punishment o At least a 3 fold increase in the prison population since the 80s Probably higher now o Overcrowding leads to Physical illness Socially disruptive behavior Emotional distress Need to balance between too many people and no people Typically depression and stress anxiety reactions o Significant negative correlation between the amount of personal space you have and your disruptive behavior Space per person ratio is the key variable Mechanisms behind the negative correlation Diminished sense of control over your environment Interference with goal directed behavior o I e taking a shower Increased sensory stimulation excessive stimulation problem