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Psychological Well-Being In Prison Essay

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Psychological well-being is heavily impacted by the damaging effects of being incarcerated within a prison. There are many individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for crimes that they did not commit and many face psychological hardships due to the harshness of life within the prison walls. Within the United States, there has been well over 2,795 documented wrongfully convicted individuals between the years of 1989 and 2021, with a shocking number of over 25,000 years served collectively by innocent defendants (National Registry of Exonerations, 2021, cited in Thomas & Hoyt, 2023). Thomas & Hoyt (2023) examine the psychological experiences of wrongful convictions as well as self-reported trajectories of distress throughout …show more content…

Ensuring that an individual is in fact guilty of a crime is so important to avoid causing psychological damage onto individuals and then releasing them back into the community. These individuals find it difficult to readjust back into the community and often must seek mental health services to help heal from severe psychological symptoms. Johnson & Engstrom (2020) reported psychological themes such as PTSD, hyperarousal, avoidance of stimuli, flashbacks, depression, sense of loss, institutionalized behaviors, and more in their study when asking participants about mental health symptoms. It is important to remember that these were reported themes and not actual diagnoses set by the authors. While these symptoms were reported by the participants themselves, it is not appropriate for the researchers to claim these are diagnoses for the wrongfully convicted …show more content…

These individuals may have traumatic experiences, experience anger or resentment, and more. There are many criminal psychologists that work with released individuals, but a individual who has been exonerated and released may be hesitant to work with a criminal psychologist and seek out their own private clinical counselor to help them with the healing process. This is the reason why it can be beneficial for clinical counselors to understand these issues and the psychological impact of both wrongful and rightful

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