Haney and Zimbardo

After a Guilty Verdict – How Psychology Can Inform the Penal System

Imprisonment

1.3 The Prison Situation & Roles

·         According to the Howard League for Penal Reform there was 92 unnatural deaths in prisons in 2007, with a further 100 resuscitated.

·         At any one time there are 1500 prisoners on suicide watch.

Key Study: Haney & Zimbardo, The Past & Future of Prison Policy in the USA

Part one – Summarising changes over the last 25 years

·         Ronald Reagan’s Republican ‘War on Drugs’ (1980s) led to political pressure to put more criminals behind bars.

·         The concept of rehabilitation was discredited – criminals deserved punishment.

·         Rigid sentencing, with no possibility of parole.

·         Many new prisons built, USA imprisons more…