Interview of a Prison Officer in Alabama Jail - Essay Example

?Interview of a Prison Officer in Alabama jail List of Prepared Questions Under which department you are working? For how long you are working here? 2. How is your experience in this profession? 3. What are the basic difficulties in a prison life and how it differs from one individual to other? 4. What are your views regarding these problems? 5. What are the steps that a Government should take to solve these problems? 6. What is the role of prison psychologists in controlling the sociological behaviors of prisoners? Sociological and psychological parameters become more complex when the boundaries of a society become confined within four walls of a prison. It would therefore be interesting to observe the interactions between prisoners and the change in their psychological set up during their stay in prison. While some factors commonly affect them there are certain sociological barriers which the prisoners would perhaps forcefully maintain among themselves in order to psychological prove them unique from others. The best way to gain an insight into the interaction pattern between prisoners and their sociological aspects associated with them would be to ask a prison employee who by profession would be closely observing a set of prisoners and their lifestyles. Hence the paper presents an interview of a prison officer of California. Details of Conversation One month ago I took an interview of a prison officer who is responsible for security and supervision of the prisoners in California State prison. He has been working there since twenty years. He is quite restrictive person in nature. He never interferes in the personal lives of the prisoners, but he has observed their emotions, feelings for their family and most of the important their repentance for their criminal activities. Having a long time experience he can understand what kind of mentality is working among the prisoners. Though the mentality differs from age to age all of the prisoners felt themselves deprived from the society. They always believe they are belonging to an extreme separate class from the society so that they make a separate class among themselves within a prison house. Being accused by offensive activity they already loss their confidence on their abilities and this makes them unemployed even after they stay outside the jails. He also informed that most of the prisoners get drug addicted in the course of their prison lives. They become habituated to drug on regular basis. Some of the drugs are very dangerous to the health. The supply of drugs has mainly been done by the fourth-class stuffs of the prison. They usually supply the drug in terms of money. They provide various kinds of drugs to the prisoners from outside. Around 60% of the prisoners are drug addicted in the U.S. According to him around 75% of prisoners belong to Anglo-American class of the society who are seriously engaged in antisocial activities. They are related with various kinds of international corrupted agencies. They basically target teenagers of poor section of the society. When the questions of difficulties were asked he basically focused on the reasons behind these difficulties. Different groups of people meet together in the prison house. Therefore there automatically exists a class division between the prisoners. The concept of class division is mainly developed between black people and white people. This leads to the concept of racism. Racism is a danger threat to a society. It destroys the unity of a society and the interdependence among the people. It can break the correlation concept of the societal groups. Prison life is just a part of a life. The time period of prison life is adjusted according to the significance of their criminal evidences. If people think about the class division even in the prison then prison-life will become a terrific for the prisoners. They should maintain unity within the prison house. All prisoners should treat others as a member of their families. A strong emotional bonding should be maintained in the jail. It was very interesting to be heard that there always exists gender division in the prison-house. Though there exists different cells for female and male this conflict has always been seen in the prison-life. For many times it was heard that the law-enforcement officer in charge has treated the prisoners on the basis of their gender deviation. Generally female prisoners face a lot of problems compared to male prisoners because they have more emotional attachment compared to the male prisoners. Most of the female prisoners have children with them. Then it is difficult for them to stay alone in the prison-house apart from their children and family-members. It is especially difficult for those women whose children are young in age. This causes a huge social cost in future. According to him prison life is the hardest phase of life for both women and children. Though there is made a separate custody for the children it is not helpful for them at all. Most of the children cannot access the facility of the education and others related facilities. However many children lost interest from the education and they try to avoid to access education in the custody. But the officer also stated the names of some programs that are mainly arranged to overcome these kinds of problems. The US government has already taken some development program regarding the education and training program of the child criminals. These kinds of programs will help to secure their future lives. The training program is basically related with job purpose so that they could get a job in future. But it is sorry to state that the money which is funded for these program it is never used in a proper way. Government has also organized program for drug addicted teenagers. Analysis The interview reflects the life of prisoners and the effects it has on their psychology. Prison life poses multiple challenges including stringent policies and conditions of imprisonment. The prisoners suffer from social deprivation as they are kept isolated from the society. From this arise the needs for emotional health. Sociologists have studied the pattern of prisoners and their differences with the general population. It has been observed that various elements develop a criminal tendency in human beings ranging from losing parental care at early age, being homeless, unemployment and reading difficulties. It is therefore imperative that along with meeting the emotional needs, the paucity of these factors be fulfilled in the lives of the prisoners during their days of imprisonment. Effectives policies regarding this can ensure improvement of “prisoners’ quality of life and sense of well-being” (Harvey & Smedley, 3). By analyzing the emotional needs of prisoners it is possible to make assessment of the sociological behavioral patterns of prisoners. Emotional deprivation arising from isolation from family, friends and society causes mental disorders among high percentage of prisoners. Studies have shown that many of the prisoners suffering from mental illness are in severe need of hospital care but due to shortage of hospital beds most of them remain in prison which exacerbates their mental condition (Harvey & Smedley, 4). As part of solution, many municipalities are increasing their jail benefits by providing beds on rental basis to Federal and state prisons (Ahrens & Gilmore, 12). The interviewee has also mentioned that suicides are common occurrences among prisoners suffering from mental illness like depression, anxiety, personality disorders, schizophrenia etc, and self-inflicted injuries are more seen among young women prisoners. Since social exclusion plays a vital role in determining the mental condition of prisoners, therefore the need is social inclusion in mental health services of prisoners. Those prisoners who have suffered from social isolation prior to prison life for various factors like low socioeconomic background, ethnicity, culture and gender are most vulnerable to mental illness and show high possibility of suicidal tendencies. It has been suggested that “psychological stress is strongly influenced by the quality of social and interpersonal relations” (Caie, 24). Government should focus on making mental health programs that will provide the prisoners free and self-informative services in various formats according to the prison’s cultural environment. To reduce the suicide rates among prisoners, in UK prison services are designed in the manner to detect early signs of suicide, and provide “emotional support for depressed, anxious, or suicidal prisoners” (Cooper & Berwick, 181). The interviewee is of the opinion that an increased number of prison psychologists can help to control the sociological behavioral pattern among the prisoners especially those who are self injurious or display suicidal tendencies due to mental illness. Over the past decade there has been a growing number of psychologists engaged in prisons to study the behavioral patterns of the prisoners (Crighton & Towl, ix). However, I have concluded from this interview that any intervention methods designed by psychologists are either not effective or not fully implicated due to cost constraints. Therefore the need is that commissioners of psychological services in prisons remain aware of the advantages, disadvantages and associated costs of any psychological interventions and treatments. The intervention methods should be focusing on (other than mental illness) drug use and trauma which are frequently found among prisoners. The level of trauma depends upon the social and economical backgrounds of individual prisoners. Sociological behavioral patterns among the trauma prisoners may differ but psychologists need to understand the possible effects in order to implement effective methods to deal with the concerned prisoners (Crighton & Towl, x-xi). The interviewee police officer has talked about the daily challenges that the prisoners face. From sociological perspective I have understood from what the officer said about violence among prisoners that prison life can be so strenuous and obnoxious that it can bring out the worst even from those prisoners who were previously less aggressive in nature. The interviewee has expressed concern over another very common issue which is exceptionally high rate of tobacco consumption among prisoners. This is a major problem because prisoners remain confined in cells which means even the non-smokers (although the number is very low) become victims of passive smoking. He has given various instances that reflect the behavioral and pathological outcomes of severe smoking like prisoners getting head injuries due to dazed feeling arising because of smoking, and smoking related cancer is also common. Prisoners who are heavy smokers should be considered as high risk groups needing extra attention. There are many advantages associated with anti smoking programs for prisoners. This is because most of them are reluctant to attend “community based smoking cessation programs” (Richmond et al., 626) after getting released from prison. Therefore, it is advisable to utilize the time they spend in prison for any cessation efforts. Prisoners often display acute interest in changing their behavioral patterns that risk their lifestyle while incarcerated (Richmond et al., 626). One very interesting information received from this interview is that many times same people return as prisoners after getting released from a previous term of imprisonment. Sociological study of prisoners has observed that prisons cannot pull down the crime rate; on the contrary prison life can cause recidivism after release. Also, it is seen that prisoners after getting released face circumstances like social rejection, lack of job opportunities and extreme poverty which are all conducive to recidivism. Many sociologists attribute this to “corporal punishment, disaffiliation, unequal prison conditions, physical and symbolic violence” (Chantraine). This is because to tackle the aggressive and violent behaviors of prisoners, often inhuman and degrading punishments are considered necessary. From sociological view prisoners should be given the power to control their own fortune. This can be done by establishing appropriate schemes that will enable the prisoners to shoulder responsibilities (Chantraine). Conclusion As concluding remarks it can be said that keeping so many people away from their communities is not any solution to bring down the crime rate of a country. On the contrary, “given the huge concentration of people being locked up, the opposite appears to be true” (Ahrens & Gilmore, 23). Due to hardships faced during prison life, there is more often than not possibility of people ending up back in prison after getting released. From sociological perspective, training prisoners to be responsible and educating them to make them eligible for jobs after release can be treated as a solution. Maintaining emotional and psychological balance is the key to a safe and secure future for a society. In a prison these need to be ensured such that prisoners might retain a healthy mindset and deal with the complicacies of life after prison. References Ahrens, Lois. & Craig Gilmore, The Real Cost of Prisons Comix, Oakland: PM Press, 2008 Caie, Judie, Social inclusion and the prison population. Mental Health Practice, (2011) 14.6, 24-27 Chantraine, Gilles, Prison and sociological perspective. Penal field, Vol.I 2004, August 5, 2013 from: http://champpenal.revues.org/238 Cooper, Colin & Sini-Aid Berwick, Factors Affecting Psychological Well-Being of Three Groups of Suicide-Prone Prisoners. Current Psychology, (2001) 20.2, 169-182 Crighton, David A. & Graham J. Towl, Psychology in Prisions, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2003 Harvey, Joel & Kirsty Smedley, Psychological Therapy in Prisons and Other Secure Settings, N.Y.: Willan Publishing, 2010 Richmond, Robyn L. The challenges of reducing tobacco use among prisoners. Drug & Alcohol Review, (2012) 31.5, 625-630 Read More